Life is rich and we should call upon its richness and celebrate it in as many ways as we can! This article celebrates just a very few ways we can celebrate the sense of taste in our wedding ceremonies AND create rituals that we will carry long into marriage. The more connections to the wedding day, the happier the marriage will be.
You may not know why there were frequently sugar-coated almonds associated with wedding feasts. Almonds were considered to be bitter. Life was understood to contain the difficult and so the almond represented life's challenges. They were coated with sugar in recognition that love and marriage sweeten the challenges of life.
That's why they show up on so many bridal tables as wedding favors. (that and of course the sugar takes the dyes so well, so they're easy favors to have color coordinated.) Well that, and they're cheap! But they have actual meaning. It used to be that folks got so little sugar and nuts were a staple of life. They seemed really sweet to folk. But now, we eat so much sweet food that a few sugared almonds barely seem interesting to us.
It's not unreasonable (and very easy) to create a small ritual around those almonds (the bitter and the sweet, the sustenance and the delight) and use them in the wedding ceremony. Then think how much more interesting they'll be at the reception. And if no one else likes them, you can always give them to your wedding celebrant. She'll eat them and enjoy!
What is the role of Bread and Wine in a religious ceremony? Obviously that depends upon the religion, but most religions have a tradition of blessing a ceremony with grain and many add the wine. Or some have the wine and add the grain.
Like the almonds, the grain represents that which will sustain us. And the wine is from sweet fruit. (you mean that's why they use sweet wine in Christian churches where they serve wine at communion? I'd have liked history so much better if they'd done it on food rather than wars!) Offer one another the stuff from which life grows. And then share the cup of sweetness.
Here's a big caveat: Don't use a ceremony that excludes people. If you want Christian Communion and some large number of your guests are not Christian, take Communion yourselves and then after the ceremony, invite the guests who are interested up to partake.
Not long ago, I had my first strawberry of the season. My first local strawberry. Oh, boy! I had to wait around, they had sold out and had to dash back to the field where the pickers were in full swing.
I've done several weddings around the summer solstice -- which seems to be high tide in strawberry season just about anywhere in the northern hemisphere -- where the bride and groom fed one another strawberries. (Peaches also work for this!) You need to be incredibly strategic with the napkin... no bride wants berry juice on her dress... But the symbol of life and sweetness overflowing are about as fabulous a symbol for a marriage overflowing with love as you could find.
Bottom Line?: Give your relationship the chance it deserves to succeed wildly! Have a good time at your wedding and in your marriage - and use tastes and images that will enhance your experience at the wedding and create reminders for life ever after! After all you and your relationship deserve it. Sign up to receive 2 free templates for creating the wedding vows to sustain a marriage that lasts forever: http://annkeelerevans.org/weddings/optin
The Rev. Ann Keeler Evans - helping you move from "I do" to happily and healthily ever after.
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