Your Way ­ Ceremony North West

Ceremony Northwest exists to create, with you, the ceremony of your choosing. We are looking forward to making a beautifully memorable ceremony to mark your important life events.

The little details that make you and your day unique and special are cherished by our friendly little Yorkshire Company with the heart and passion to give you the day you choose to have, at the venue of your choice, with the words, commitments, music and ceremony you really want. At Ceremony NorthWest we create with you the personally tailored ceremony you’ll really love.

Whether you are looking to celebrate your loving union – in a wedding, civil partnership, renewal of vows, commitment or blessing ceremony.

Or you may be looking for a delightful baby or older child naming ceremony.

Or a really beautiful, moving and personal funeral service.

Whatever your choice, your personally tailored ceremony is only a call away.

Think about when you are having your ceremony. Why are you choosing this date? Perhaps, in the case of a funeral the date is out of your hands…

What special meaning does the season of your ceremony have for you or for your invited guests? i.e. Is it spring, summer, autumn, winter, in which you are planning to hold your ceremony.

What you want people to know about you from your ceremony. Answering these questions can help you plan and coordinate themes, colour schemes, flowers, fragrances, rituals and even weave deeper meaning into your ceremony.

Colours themselves have traditional significance and meanings attached, as do individual flowers…

Our life events each have their own season, much as a meadow will change through the seasons: from new growth in spring, through the colourful exuberance of summer into the rich, warm, fruitful depths of autumn and into the sophisticated cool of winter…

For weddings & civil partnerships, renewal of vows, blessings…you may want to plan a winter ceremony that takes place out in the snow!
Or a spring ceremony at the top of a hill at sunrise or in a bluebell wood!
Or a stunning summer ceremony in the back garden… don’t forget the marquee for your guests! Or perhaps a glorious autumn ceremony?

Out on a hillside, in a forrest, by the sea, a loch, the riverside… in the mountains, in your own garden, in a field, up in a hot air balloon, on a boat o the river or a local canal… just think if it were only possible for your ceremony to take place there instead of in a registry office … well it is possible when you have your ceremony conducted by an independent celebrant.
Remember… your venue need not be licensed …as you do the legal registry bit at your local office, a day or so, or the morning before…takes 20mins…

At Ceremony NorthWest we relish your dreams and imagination..we cherish your wish for something different…something romantic and unusual… or even something small, intimate and wonderful…

Consider your ceremony in a small romantic yurt on a hillside…
Wedding Yurts

Or in a tipi… Papakata

World Inspired Tents

Or an arabian tent… Arabian Tent Co

well it’s all possible…

Premier Marquees
Geo Marquees
Marquees in Yorkshire

Even if you want a simple lovely ceremony in the fresh air… umbrellas only (just incase!), or at home… it’s all possible.

Your family are the people you choose to have in your life each day…they may include blood relatives, extended family members, adopted and step children, chosen friends and special people with whom you have made particular commitments; personal or legal.

Ceremony is a simple, beautiful, meaningful and personal way to express relationships and bonds between people, to voice commitment and promise to others, to bring people together, to include people in your significant life events.

You may want to bring two families together within your wedding or civil partnership, for instance, by interweaving the unity candle ceremony or the unity sand ceremony.

You may want to include grandparents, other relatives from extended family, or close friends in your name giving ceremony.

A funeral service where family members or friends are involved in sharing memories for the personal eulogy or are involved in the service by reading, singing or playing a musical instrument for instance, can be deeply moving.

You may not have any particular beliefs or spirituality, and your ceremony will reflect your wishes with respect to your lifestyle and values.

At Ceremony NorthWest we respect all respecful faith, spitituality and secular values. In each of our lives; as well as love and adventure, fun and imagination there are times of immense challenge and even despair … and that’s why we have friends, family, community, locality, values, ethics, beliefs and culturally sustaining ceremony and rites… sustaining, enriching, protecting our lives and there when we need more

You may want some element of your beliefs to be woven into your ceremony. Just say what this means to you…..

You may want your ceremony to be held on a specific date, season or time that is significant to your spiritual beliefs and calendar and to you.

You may want your ceremony to take place at a specific venue that you hold as sacred or spiritual.

These are some aspects of how you may represent your values, beliefs and spirituality within your ceremony.You may want certain wording, ethos or a ritual to be included.

You may want aspects of a pagan ceremony or simply want to ensure that all products you use; such as hand fastings, are bio desgadeable and from sustainable sources.

• Handfasting / Tying the Knot. A Spiritual Comittment Ceremony

Handfastings – tying of the hands with ribbons; also known as Tying The Knot – symbolise love and commitment today as much as ever.

The colours of the ribbons can also be meaningful to each couple.

Some colours and their meanings for Handfasting:

• The Significance of Colours

* Red – will, passion, strength, fertility, courage, health, vigour, lust, danger Yule/ Mars/Tuesday /Scorpio

• Orange – encouragement, adaptability, stimulation, attraction, plenty, kindness
  Candlemas/Brigit/Sun, Mars, Mercury /Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday

• Yellow – attraction, charm, confidence, balance, harmony, knowledge, learning, concentration, persuasion, jealousy, joy, comfort
  Mercury/ Wednesday / Gemini, Leo

• Green – finances, fertility, luck, success energy, charity, growth, rejuvenation, prosperity, nurturing, beauty, health, ambition, counteract greed and jealousy, plants / herbal healing
  Venus, Mercury/ Friday, Wednesday / Spring Equinox, Beltane / Taurus Persephone, Hestia

• Blue – tranquillity, understanding, patience, health, truth, devotion, sincerity, honour, loyalty, peace, wisdom, protection during sleep, astral projection
• Light Blue – tranquillity, understanding, patience, health
• Dark Blue – safe journey, longevity, strength
  Moon, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter / Monday, Friday, Saturday, Thursday A
  Libra, Sagittarius

• Purple – power, piety, sanctity, sentimentality, tension, sadness amplification of other energies. wisdom, high ideals, spiritual protection and healing, psychic ability, protective energy, strength, progress Jupiter / Thursday / Sagittarius

• Pink – unity, honour, truth, romance, happiness, healing, familial love, friendship, affections, unselfish emotions, spiritual healing, protection
  rose quartz / Venus / Friday

You may want to include a particular song or prayer…this is all possible.

You may want the Handfasting Ceremony as a spiritual or commitment Ceremony. If so, choose a date near a full moon. May can be a good month for handfasting. This is a lovely spiritual Ceremony.

The Celebrant may, if the couple like, ring a bell three times to open the Ceremony. The Celebrant explains the significance of the ceremony to everyone. The couple declare their desire to be joined. The Celebrant asks if anyone knows of a reason why they shouldn’t be handfasted.

Other aspects of ceremony may be included such as lighting candles, drinking from the Loving Cup , Jumping the Broom, exchanging a flower or meaningful gift.

• Ribbon Circus
• L C Ribbons Ltd
• Pagan Supplies UK

We all know how flowers may express kind wishes and represent love…

For your wedding or civil partnership, renewal of vows, blessing ceremony –

The Rose/or other flower ceremony is simple yet profoundly moving. The couple exchange two red/pink rose buds (1 each), symbolising the giving and receiving of their love for each other throughout their entire married Life.

Ceremony also conveys how to use the rose and its symbolism in difficult times in order to forgive each other. Your celebrant can create a ceremony around the exchange of the rose on its own or as part of a hand-fasting ceremony.

For your child’s name giving –

You can represent season through flowers, or refer to the ‘language’ of flowers for specific messages and meaning, or use flowers to represent your child’s name, or for fragrance or colour within a name giving ceremony. A flower may be given as a promise or to mark a commitment to your child. Something may be planted, such as a tree, for instance, or flowers may be worn as a headdress or woven into a shape.

For a funeral – Over and above your funeral bouquets you may want to plant a tree or bush or even a memorial garden. You may want to have petals scattered. You may want a burial to take place in a natural burial ground, or ashes to be scattered in a memorial garden.

The Willow Garden ~ Hebden Bridge

For your wedding or civil partnership, renewal of vows, blessing ceremony –

• Personalised Candles
• Candles Online

The Unity Candle Ceremony is a really moving wedding/ partnership ceremony. Couples use two lit taper candles (symbolising their individuality) to light one big central candle as a symbol of their two lives becoming one in commitment. Usually during the processional, the mothers of the partners light a taper candle in honour of their son/s or daughter/s at a small table at the front of the room. They return to their seats, and the tapers remain lit throughout the ceremony.

After the vows and rings have been exchanged, the Celebrant will explain to the guests the symbolism of the Unity Candle.

She asks the couple to take their “individual” lives (the individual taper candles) and bring them both to the large centre candle, lighting one flame with their two individual flames. During the lighting of the Unity Candle, many times couple will have a song sung or played, or an honoured guest or the Celebrant will recite an appropriate poem to accompany the symbolism of the ceremony.

For your child’s name giving :-
Candles are not usually used; but water, flowers, colour, wishes written on something, are some of the artefacts that can be brought into a name giving ceremony.

A candle may be lit as a reminder of a missing significant friend or family member at a ceremony.

For a funeral :-
A candle can be lit by the celebrant or family member, friends or family may want to blow a candle out at the end of a service. A second candle may be lit to recall a partner who has previously passed away.

At Ceremony NorthWest we want you and your guests to have fun!

Some have asked…why the dandelion logo, Lita? Here’s why …to me the dandelion means…simple, good old fashioned self created, imaginative, healing, uncostly fun, whose meaning derives from each persons interaction with it…

We can write a ceremony with your personal information that represents your unique sense of fun.

Perhaps the music you choose or a reading will highlight the fun of your event, or perhaps you want your celebrant to share an amusing story with your guests.

You may want the fun or light heartedness of your event to weave through your entire ceremony.

Even a funeral service, which has its own natural solemnity, and dignity may bring out the personality of someone who was fun loving in life, in a respectful and tasteful way.