So much fun at the marriage of Luciana and Phil Spagnuolo in Billerica - beautiful setting, lovely friends and family and delicious smells emanating from the kitchen! Congrats Luciana and Phil - wishing a lifetime of joy for your both!

So excited to partner with Kimberlee Bowen of To Make Beautiful, a make up artist and Esthetician. Kim is offering a $10 wedding day make up discount if yuou mention that you saw her link here!  Call Kim at 617-413-1915 or email her at tomakebeautiful@gmail.com.

So excited to host my most recent wedding ceremony in my living room! I wasn't sure it would work and yet it felt warm and cozy...at least to me!  Congratulations John and Faith Agwanda on your marriage - it was fun meeting your "wedding party."  Bests wishes on  your new life together!

Congratulations Julie and Tim Golnik on your marriage - thank you for inviting me to officiate at your wedding. Best wishes as you move into the newest stage of your life together!

Thanks to Andrea and John for inviting me to celebrate their marriage with them on Sunday. What a beautiful location and an amazing couple!

Recently I was sharing with some friends how much I enjoyed my avocation as a Justice of the Peace. Someone asked me if there were particular words or a formula that I needed to learn that assured the couple was officially  married.

The answer is that there is no ritual, no special words that ensure that two individuals are officially united in marriage. My role is very simple - to ensure that both parties are participating freely, without any reservation and that they express a commitment to join their lives to each other.  I am not marrying the couple,  I am serving as the offical witness of their marriage to each other and whatever words or readings they chose to formalize that union are entirely up to them. And then, by the authority vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I have the privilege of proclaiming them married.

I often think about the couples and wonder how their lives have changed since our paths crossed...if they are still as in love with each other as they were the day they wed...if anything I said or did helped to ensure their happiness. It is an incredible feeling to know that in some small way I've  played a role in the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of two people and I treasure each opportunity!

Dear Sharon,
Thanks so much for officiating at our wedding! It meant so much to us. You did a wonderful job and it was an honor to have you be the best part of our special day.
Rich & Linda I.

Congratulations to Richard and Linda  Izzicupo on their marriage. It was a tremendous honor to be asked to officiate at this wedding and Linda and Rich created a beautiful ceremony to celebrate their union!

Sharon was our Justice of the Peace for our wedding in August. She made our day so special and we can't thank her enough for it! She worked with us before to incorporate our ideas into the ceremony and she even thought to use our cultural backrounds as blessings to tie it all together! We absolutely loved everything she included and appreciated how hard she worked to make us so happy. Everyone complimented her great work afterwards and said how great the blessings were.  Our ceremony made our wedding day the most beautiful and memorable day we could have ever dreamed of and we couldn't have done it without her!

Caitlin & John F.

Thank you Caitlin and John for allowing me to participate in your wedding ceremony on Saturday night. You created a beautiful ceremony and it was an honor to officiate as you exchanged your vows and committed your lives to each other! Wishing you a lifetime of love and joy

Thank you so much for being such an important part of Zane's welcoming ceremony!  The best part was how you made every member of my family feel important, right down to my 3 year old son.  We also greatly appreciate how much you wanted it to be about our family and our beliefs and how you made sure every step of the way that everything was exactly as we wanted!  Also, thank you for the extra effort you put in by making the programs for the ceremony.  They were a perfect finishing touch to a perfect day.  I will be sure to pass your name along to anyone who I think will enjoy your services.
Thanks again,

Loriann

Special thanks to Loriann, Brandon, Maddox and the guest of honor - baby  Zane - for inviting me to officiate for Zane's welcoming ceremony. What a great job everyone did! Zane wasn't quite as happy as everyone else but he did a fabulous job of putting up with us all! Maddox made a wonderful greeter and parents and godparents "well versed!"

Welcoming your new baby...

You may choose to celebrate your new baby's arrival with a non-religious naming ceremony. A quick search online will list hundreds of ways to make your ceremony unique. You could write a poem or reading or find one written by another. Choose a song to play or share the story of how you came to choose the baby's name.

You may want to involve siblings, grandparents, "god" parents, friends or others who will be involved in the life of your child. Siblings should have a place of honor in the ceremony - if time allows, have each child create a picture of him/her with the new baby. During the ceremony, ask the child(ren) to share what they drew and explain what it is. Or, frames the pictures and have the child(ren) present the picture to the baby during the ceremony.

Consider asking each guest to bring their favorite "growing up"  or child-related quote to the event which you can then paste into a special "baby" book along with a picture of the author and little bit about who he/she is.

Or, steal an idea from the bride and provide a picture matte and pen for guests to sign as they arrive. Create a collage of the ceremony pictures, frame with the picture matte and hang in your baby's room.

Whatever you decide - have the ceremony you want and the celebration your family deserves!

Blending Lives

If you or your spouse have children, you will most likely want them to be included in your marriage ceremony in a way that celebrates the new family you are becoming. Be sensitive to the children's feelings, though, especially if their other parent is still involved in their lives and someone they love. Ask each child what role her or she would like to play - ring bearer, flower carrier, escort, reader - and respect their wishes if they prefer simply to watch. 

One activity that is simple and beautiful is a sand ceremony. You could go together to a local beach and collect sand for each member of the family then color it at home (here's a link on how to color sand) choosing individual colors for each member (you can also buy sand at the hardware store and color it or purchase different colored sands for each  person at a craft store).  Together, choose a vase or bowl big enough to hold about 1-2 cups of sand for each of you.

At whatever point is appropriate in your ceremony, invite the child(ren) to join you and after a brief explanation of what is to happen, ask each member of the new family to pour his or her sand into the vessel -this can be done individually or all at once. As the sand blends together and fills the vessel, the officiant or someone of your choosing, can  offer a reading, blessing or other words announcing the creation of the new family.

What is your idea of a perfect marriage renewal ceremony? Would it be in a special place, on a specific day important to the two of you? Or would you sneak away without a plan? What role would you see for an officiant, for your children and/or grandchildren?  What would you say to each other during the ceremony?  Renewal vows may be entirely different from those you shared on your wedding day...or they may be exactly as they were that day. Whatever you both decide, be sure to celebrate the moment in a way that is meaningful to you both - celebrate the joys in your life and renew your commitment to one another.

The most precious moment of your wedding day

You devote months and months to your wedding - choosing the right clothing, the perfect venue, the ideal music for the first dance and how many courses for the meal. All this, you hope, will ensure that your wedding day is the most memorable moment of your life and of the lives of those who share in it with you.

The single most important part of the day, though, will be the minutes you, as a couple, speak to each other's hearts and share the words of commitment that will bind you together in a life journey of love. At that moment, you will only see each other and hear only your words of love.

Start now to think of the words you'd like your beloved to hear from you as he or she looks into your eyes. Create a place among your wedding papers to make notes with phrases, words, feelings - every thing that you want to be sure to express in those few precious moments of your wedding day.

If you know of a resource that others might find helpful as they plan their wedding ceremony, please share it here.

Did you know that there are marriage vows that are written esepcially for the children of a couple being married? What a wonderful way to include everyone you love in the ceremony that will make you a new family!