Weddings from the Heart: Contemporary and Traditional Ceremonies for an Unforgettable Wedding

My fiance and I decided early on in the stages of planning our wedding that we wanted to write our own ceremony. We were getting married in a garden setting and wanted a ceremony that reflected our personalities, feelings and the joy we felt at being together and committed for the rest of our lives.This book gave us so many great ideas on how first, to structure the ceremony, and then some of the wording we could use. We didn't copy any ceremony exactly, but the ideas that this book provides are great! I can't tell you how many people came up to us afterward and said it was the best wedding ceremony they had ever attended!

I have found this book a great resource in preparing for Wedding Ceremonies. I have conducted over three hundred weddings in South Australia and this book is one that I recommend to couples who are searching for inspirational material. The book is practical, down to earth and encourages couples to explore, discuss and develop their own thoughts from a wide range of example material. Worth a read!

An excellent book for those planning a nondenominational wedding. With a keen interest in spirituality and creativity, hours of searching at libraries and bookstores lead us to this book. Kingma recognizes that every wedding ceremony is unique and offers the food for thought that many need to formulate a meaningful event. She defines "types" of marriages the first section. As one might expect of any relationship, we found that while none applied exclusively, there was some meaning in each. This exercise helped us engage our officiant in a thought and discovery process about our vision for a ceremony. The descriptions of traditions from various cultures stimulated our creativity; the outline of traditional western wedding components offered structure; and a list of readings included one of our final choice readings (adapted from the Christian Bible in an amazingly polically correct manner).

I was recently married in a Baha'i ceremony. In the Baha'i Faith, the only required/prescribed element is the one-line vow, "We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God." Other than that, we were on our own. The thing that made this book so incredibly helpful is that the author describes the various elements or building blocks of a wedding ceremony, e.g. processional, convocation, readings, vows, benediction, etc. We were able to easily adapt her "building blocks" by inserting writings and prayers from the Baha'i Faith, the New Testament, and other sources -- even a "family medallion" ceremony to honor my son! It was warm and wonderful and everyone tells us it was the most beautiful ceremony they'd ever seen. Yes, some of Kingma's suggested readings and speeches are corny -- we didn't use a single one of her suggested vows or writings. And her prose isn't as graceful as some I've seen. But if you want a book that is really helpful with the nitty-gritty, this is the one to have. We definitely couldn't have made our ceremony as meaningful and beautiful without this book. Buy it!

This was the most complete source for our ceremonial planning. The suggestions were great for anyone wanting a very non-traditional, spiritually based (not necessarily religious)unforgettable wedding. the author presents different types of ceremonies (ie: 2nd marriages, alternative lifestyles. We picked and chose many different sections of the book to create our entire ceremony. This is a great book to help in planning if you don't want the common, boring, religious-based ceremony.