In this ceremony we joined Greek traditions into an English wedding for the ultimate Multicultural Mash-Up, I loved it! Read on to find out how only a Celebrant Led ceremony can create ceremonies like this to meet the needs of its clients and their cultural traditions.
Where: Hatfield Place, Hatfield Peveral, Essex https://www.hatfieldplace.co.uk/
When: June 2024
Who: Bradley and Angelica
First Contact: I first met Bradley and Angelica at an Open Day at Hatfield Place in 2022. The two of them were feeling somewhat jaded after just getting off a flight from a skiing holiday, but the venue was on their list of potentials so they wanted to come and see it all dressed and ceremony ready – It did not disappoint.
I got chatting to Bradley at first about how it was possible to incorporate rituals and elements that were special to certain cultures and traditions or that they could just mix cocktails if that was more their style? I could tell something had struck a chord with him and moments later Angelica was asking me whether it was possible to conduct a quintessentially Greek ceremony as this was her background – of course I could!
Wedding Day: I arrived to a sunshine filled Roman garden at Hatfield Place, just as the Registry service had concluded their legal ceremony. Slightly impaired by a trapped sciatic nerve, I knew I had to keep moving, so I took time to catch up with the wonderful Michelle who manages the venue, organised the music, moved a couple of pieces of furniture and organised their ceremonial pieces, such as the candle they would light at the start of the ceremony.
All of this wandering about gave me time to chat with the photographers and videographer to make sure they were prepared for key moments, had our locations and spacings all worked out and were suitable mic’d up for the recordings. I especially enjoyed the small details like the mini Olive trees in the ceremony room and the Olive green colouring in the table settings, oh and the super cute floral wedding cupcakes.
I met with Bradley who was pretty chilled out and was beaming at friends and family as they arrived. We had a practice of where he would stand and with whom and when I would give him the cue to look at his beautiful bride as she reached the top of the aisle.
The bride was radiant as she was escorted to her husband to be by her father Demetri. They first lit a candle, decorated by myself to represent the light of God in their life and His blessing in their marriage. We then continued with a ceremony full of love and humour and some anecdotes that had the audience chuckling. The best man and chief bridesmaid assisted in the exchanging of rings between the couple three times, for luck, to represent the Holy trinity and that where there is a weakness in the marriage the other spouse will pick up the slack and keep them going together.
Finally, the bride’s brother, Jasper, and the other bridesmaid adorned the heads of Bradley and Angelica with the Stefana, or crowns, which are bound together with a ribbon, to represent the joining together that can never be separated and that they will forever be the King and Queen of their kingdom, the marital home.
Celebrant Led: This wedding ceremony could only be conducted by an Independent Celebrant.
I explained in our early meetings, that Registrars are not allowed to reflect any religion in their ceremonies and neither could a Humanist Celebrant, however, as an Independent I could research the content of the ceremonial traditions involved in Orthodox weddings and replicate some of them in an English ceremony, whilst explaining what was happening and why to the guests. Having given up on the idea of being able to have a ceremony that reflects her Greek heritage, Angelica was surprised and thrilled.
A short while later we had a chat on a Zoom call when they were decidedly more perky and discussed some of the elements that Angelica envisaged as being part of their ceremony. I had already looked into some of the traditions and so could recognise what she was looking for and help her to explain to her husband to be why it was important, which I think really surprised her but she was excited to work with me and so we booked a planning meeting there and then.
At our planning meeting we got to spend sometime together sharing lots of laughs and understanding each others personality so we could create a ceremony that not just reflected culture and tradition but also who they were and what made their relationship special. We also did a ceremony visit a few weeks before the wedding so we could go through logistics and Demetri could understand where he was escorting his daughter to and from. It was also important to me to meet with Demetri and Stella for them to give the Greek approval on what we had incorporated and they were really pleased that I had done my research and gone into a level of detail where even they learned something new!
This collaborative process meant that Bradley and Angelica felt heard, supported and appreciated. We had a great time in the process and I couldn’t be happier than when I walked into the reception room whilst the guests were getting ready for the confetti throwing to hear Angelica say “That was even better than I ever could have thought, I’m actually surprised!!”
I’ll take that 🙂
