I often have the honour of officiating a truly unique multicultural wedding ceremony where we are awed by the details! S&N’s celebrations were one of those. Set in the stunning Kent countryside this ceremony was filled with love, Asian rituals and an explosion of colour.
When a couple contacts me to find out about my multicultural wedding ceremony services, I am always happy to go through what I can offer and include, considering both of their backgrounds, identity and faiths. This can also include the readings, live music and rituals they can consider.
I always love to ask about the venue they have chosen as it is important for me to be able to visualise the location for the ceremony. So on one occasion, I had a little shock as my couple told me they were having their ceremony on a Wild Meadow glamping site in Kent. So in my mind, I had the visual of tents and maybe some haystacks or even sheep, goats, cows and more. You have probably realised by now that I have not been to a glamping site before.
I knew I had to prepare. Google really is your best friend at times like this so I researched the venue and even made a call to understand more. I could relax my shoulders and breathe. I would be ok.
Yes, there was a lot of land, there would be tents and some haystacks but no animals running around through the ceremony, although I can imagine it would be quite humorous if they were there. We would also have generators for the toilets and our live music. Should I be worried?!
The excitement grew as the couple booked me and we started the ceremony planning for their beautiful day. We created a ceremony that involved the parents and family as well as an absolutely wonderful stream of colour as all the bridesmaids had dressed in Indian wear and the groomsmen as well. It really was an explosion of colour.
The Day of the Multicultural Wedding Ceremony
The night before their wedding ceremony day the weather gods decided that they wanted it to rain. Now I want you to imagine an outdoor wedding, on a glamping site with a small marquee for the catering and another marquee for the reception with our wedding ceremony further down the field with a stage outdoors. Would you get your wellies out?
We drove down to the venue, luckily hubby has a 4×4 so we were able to drive through the field, down a little hill and onto the glamping site – phew. I didn’t take my wellies and just thought “It’s ok, I will just wash my shoes after”. It was actually my shoes and my outfit by the end of the ceremony – lol 🙂
Now, back to the generators. The one for the toilets arrived, but not the one for the live music. So what do you do? Well, I know the musicians are very professional and flexible, so they find the one plug extension used by a few people, get set up, crank up the music and are ready to go. Not where we had planned but that’s ok.
The Jaan (bridegroom’s) entrance with the dhol player and all his groomsmen was full of energy and fun. They really did dance away. The bride’s entrance was beautiful. A gorgeous orange colour Indian outfit and all the bridesmaids dressed in the same colour made the entrance truly memorable.
The couple’s mothers conducted the Ganesh Puja, The couple exchanged garlands, there were readings, the mangalsutra was placed on the bride’s neck and the couple shared personal vows. It really was a ceremony filled with romance, laughter, Hindu ritual, memories and love.
Thank you S&N for having faith in me to create your multicultural wedding ceremony. One that you and I will remember for many years and also giving me the opportunity to do my first Celebrant glamping site multicultural wedding ceremony.
This content was originally published here.