Customer Reviews

Weddings from the Heart: Contemporary and Traditional Ceremonies for an Unforgettable Wedding

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My fiance and I decided early on in the stages of planning our wedding that we wanted to write our own ceremony. We were getting married in a garden setting and wanted a ceremony that reflected our personalities, feelings and the joy we felt at being together and committed for the rest of our lives.

This book gave us so many great ideas on how first, to structure the ceremony, and then some of the wording we could use. We didn't copy any ceremony exactly, but the ideas that this book provides are great! I can't tell you how many people came up to us afterward and said it was the best wedding ceremony they had ever attended!

An excellent book for those planning a nondenominational wedding. With a keen interest in spirituality and creativity, hours of searching at libraries and bookstores lead us to this book. Kingma recognizes that every wedding ceremony is unique and offers the food for thought that many need to formulate a meaningful event. She defines "types" of marriages the first section. As one might expect of any relationship, we found that while none applied exclusively, there was some meaning in each. This exercise helped us engage our officiant in a thought and discovery process about our vision for a ceremony. The descriptions of traditions from various cultures stimulated our creativity; the outline of traditional western wedding components offered structure; and a list of readings included one of our final choice readings (adapted from the Christian Bible in an amazingly polically correct manner).

This book is not a workbook on what kind of linen to use at your reception or how to get bridesmaids to wear ugly dresses...
For someone (me!) who's trying to put together a spiritual, unique, open-minded wedding this book helps. It's been really hard finding books that are for people like me that don't want to have a Church wedding with a lot of pomp and circumstance that doesn't keep in mind those of other sexualities and partner relationships.
Though this book doesn't scream alternative..it's a good reading and offers a lot for you to think about!

Most of this book was irrelevant for what I wanted. I was looking for a source for religiously-oriented vows, prayers, and blessings which I could use to create an ecumenical wedding service. This book DOES have a section of such things --and I did find it useful for comparison purposes-- but the main emphasis is on contemporary vows, addresses, etc., most of which seemed just too fluffy for me. If you do want very emotionally-laden, "unique to you" and non-traditional wedding, go for this. If you seriously want to compare weddings from different Judeo-Christian traditions, I highly recommend _Weddings: A Complete Guide to All Religious and Interfaith Marriage Services_ instead.

This book was a great place for my fiance and I to start some dialoge about what we want. Both of us have been married previously and it was an excellent way for us to compare what we had before, and design a ceremony that is unique to us as a couple. We took a pen and circled parts we liked from several ceremonies and hope to compile them into one. This book came recomended to me and now I see why.

I have found this book a great resource in preparing for Wedding Ceremonies. I have conducted over three hundred weddings in South Australia and this book is one that I recommend to couples who are searching for inspirational material. The book is practical, down to earth and encourages couples to explore, discuss and develop their own thoughts from a wide range of example material. Worth a read!

I was recently married in a Baha'i ceremony. In the Baha'i Faith, the only required/prescribed element is the one-line vow, "We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God." Other than that, we were on our own. The thing that made this book so incredibly helpful is that the author describes the various elements or building blocks of a wedding ceremony, e.g. processional, convocation, readings, vows, benediction, etc. We were able to easily adapt her "building blocks" by inserting writings and prayers from the Baha'i Faith, the New Testament, and other sources -- even a "family medallion" ceremony to honor my son! It was warm and wonderful and everyone tells us it was the most beautiful ceremony they'd ever seen. Yes, some of Kingma's suggested readings and speeches are corny -- we didn't use a single one of her suggested vows or writings. And her prose isn't as graceful as some I've seen. But if you want a book that is really helpful with the nitty-gritty, this is the one to have. We definitely couldn't have made our ceremony as meaningful and beautiful without this book. Buy it!

My partner and I combed through this book learning the history and meaning of different kinds of ceremonies which really helped us as we wrote our own. I am not a specifically religious person so it was helpful learning the background behind the different parts of traditional ceremonies (invocation, vows, etc) as well as seeing how different folks (pagan, recovery) have created their own ceremonies. I actually found these sections a bit cheesy, but it was still a useful book in all.

This was the most complete source for our ceremonial planning. The suggestions were great for anyone wanting a very non-traditional, spiritually based (not necessarily religious)unforgettable wedding. the author presents different types of ceremonies (ie: 2nd marriages, alternative lifestyles. We picked and chose many different sections of the book to create our entire ceremony. This is a great book to help in planning if you don't want the common, boring, religious-based ceremony.

Ms. Kingma gives engaged couples excellent advice and options over the traditional ceremonies. She includes examples for divorced couples, couples with children, couples who want to honor other family members and friends, even couples who have been through abuse and addictions to find love. Also given are wedding traditions and readings from around the world that brides and grooms can incorporate into their personally tailored ceremony.

If you truly want a wedding from your heart, with vows that truly bind, then this book is for you. The suggested ceremonies can be tinkered with and tailored to your taste and honor your personal beliefs. Thanks, Ms. Kingma, for reading the hearts of engaged couples everywhere! We're using this book for our own wedding this year, and I just can't praise it enough.