Officiant

Special and Traditional Ceremony elements and rituals

We also love to add a special or traditional ceremony elements and rituals like e.g. Sand ceremony, Candle Lightning, Love Letter Box, Handfasting, or Sage Smudging and are open to couples own suggestions.

Get inspired by our ceremony elements

What does the officiant service include?

Our officiant service includes a customized wedding ceremony with unlimited elements and filling, signing and returning of the marriage license after the wedding.
The bridal couple can also take advantage of our additional services like assistance with formalities for marriages to be recognized in a foreign country and by receiving the marriage license in advance.

Officiant Package

Our Officiant Package includes:

• Wedding Ceremony with one of our officiants/celebrants

You’ll have your customized wedding ceremony with one of our wedding celebrants.

The basic package price differs depending on the location and the desired additional options.

We are happy to prepare your personal offer for your dream wedding in the Wild West.

Ceremony Elements

All over the world there are so many wedding traditions from different cultures and religions.
We would like to share some of them with you to inspire you for your customized wedding ceremony.
We focused on wedding traditions that are consistent with the ancient traditions of the desert and the Southwest, but also introduced some other contemporary and traditional popular wedding rituals. All of these suggestions can be incorporated into your ceremony at our outdoor locations in Southwestern nature.
There are certainly so many other traditions and rituals for weddings that we have not listed so far.
You are definitely invited to request other traditions from your culture or religion that you would like to include in your ceremony. We are happy to realize your personal dream wedding with your wishes.

Cleansing rituals:

Hand washing

This tradition comes from southwestern Native American / Navajo Wedding ceremonies. A special handcrafted wedding vase is used for this. The couple washes each-others hands by pouring the water from the vase onto the others hand. One side of the vase is for the groom and the other side for the bride. This cleansing ritual shall wash away all past evils and memories of past loves.

Sage Smudging

The officiant lights the sage and speaks some words to clear the area of negative energies through the smoke created by the Sage. The cleansing of a place or during the wedding ceremony by "Saging" is becoming more and more popular in contemporary ceremonies and with couples of today.

Bonding rituals:

Sand ceremony

Bride and groom both get a vessel of different colored sand. The sand stands for their souls, memories and lifes before marriage. When they pour their sands together into a bigger vessel, it symbolizes that their souls now, like the grains of sand, could never again be separated.

Candle Lightning

Each of the couple and sometimes also other family members have a personal candle. Together they light a bigger unity candle. It symbolizes their spirits or souls that join together in one flame. While their smaller candles are still lit and represent that the two still maintain individuality.

Handfasting

The couple's hands are wrapped in a cord and tied into a "knot" while the officiant shares a reading. It represents the bonding of the two individuals in their marriage. If desired also other family members or guests can be included in the ritual while they share wishes, blessings or words of wisdom for the bridal couple. This is an ancient celtic tradition.

Love Letter & Wine Box

Before the wedding bride and groom writes each other a love letter with all their thoughts and their feelings when they think about getting married to each other soon. During the ceremony this loveletters will be placed in a winebox together with a bottle of wine. This love letter box is a time capsule. It is meant that the couple opens the winebox at their 10th wedding anniversary and reads the long sealed letters to each other while enjoying the wine.

Exchange of Rings

This a common known ritual for weddings all over the world and in different cultures. The couple places a ring on the finger of each other while they make a commitment to eachother. The wedding rings stand for the vows and promises they made on their wedding. The rings show others that each of them found his soulmate and that they belong together. The circle of the ring also stands for eternity and that it completes itself just like the couple does.

Sharing rituals:

Cornmeal sharing

This ritual comes from Native American Tradition. The couple and their family/guests share a cornmeal paste served in a newly woven wedding basket that was prepared from a female relative of the bride before the wedding (e.g. mother, aunt or grandmother of the bride). First the bridal couple eats from the cornmeal and passes it to the family members or guests around in a circle starting with east, moving to south, west and north. The sharing of the cornmeal unifies the couple and their families. It is important to share all of the cornmeal until the basket is empty. If there are any remains the cornmeal should be given back to mother earth.

The "Yes, I do!":

alias Declaration of Intent

While all the other suggested elements above are optional, the Declaration of Intent is the indispensable part of a wedding to be official. The officiant will ask each of the couple if they want to take each other as spouse to share their life, in good and bad times, in sickness and in health for all of their days…, and bride and groom each confirms with "Yes, I do."