Weddings have certainly changed in the last few decades, and have been evolving since the earliest days of tying the knot.

In recent memory, it used to be that you had only two options: Get married in your family or community church, or get married by the Justice of the Peace.

The family priest or minister didn't offer too many options, and the J of P ceremony was pretty much no frills.

The reasons a couple have so many ceremony options today, is an article unto itself, but the result is the freedom to have a ceremony that really speaks to who you are and one that all your guests will remember.

Do you want secular but spiritual, religious but non-denominational ceremony? These are all within your reach by hiring a contemporary officiant who makes a living creating one of a kind wedding ceremonies.

One thing to consider when deciding on your ceremony or civil union is the location. Do you envision an indoor or outdoor setting? Beach settings are very popular. (Why not step it up a notch and have a compliant scuba diver emerge from the waters just in time to deliver the rings?) Does an indoor ceremony appeal to you? Why not choose a winery setting with a love letter component? What's more romantic than that? Although I have to admit that a romantic wedding under the midnight sky, with a wine or love letter exchange or both, is a pretty close alternative and a midnight gathering is totally off the normal radar zone.

Even the standard yet beautiful Unity Sand and Candle Ceremonies have been improved upon and include seashells or smooth pebbles to represent each guest present at your nuptials. This is a nice sentimental detail and the shells can become a guest book of sorts if guests sign their initials on them.

An added benefit of a contemporary wedding officiant is not being tied to the weekend and this opens a whole world of weekdays so that you may choose any special or sentimental date as your wedding date and not have your anniversary determined by the whims of available weekend dates.

In the category of everything old becomes new again, more and more couples are literally tying the knot, as a nod to days of old when life was naturally more spiritual, and words were exchanged from the heart and not dogma.

And that brings me to the next point, that the sky is the limit for ways to express your forever love. There are only three sentences required to make a wedding legal, and all the rest, are up to you!

Marilyn Lockwood, Contemporary Wedding Officiant and Ceremony Writer
Serving Southern NJ and Beach Locations.
http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com