Love Letter aka Wine Box Ceremony

@Terri Ask your officiant about this! You are so close to your wedding date and should be finalizing these details with him/her.

He's never done a love letter ceremony before.....

Interesting...vendors allowed on this one, eh?

Ask your officiant.

Yes it does. And if your officiant is a pro, he/she can either write this or figure it out.

Professionalism matters.... but your officiant has never performed a ceremony before.....

@Soozie - Thank you so much!

Thank you @Brandi!

I think you mentioned yesterday that your FH is a wedding DJ?

Has he ever DJed for a wedding ceremony where this is done? I think it's a fairly new "trend" so it wouldn't surprise me, if he hasn't, just thinking of other people who might have first hand experience with it.

ETA Or, if your officiant is a professional, do they have any other professional contacts they can reach out to for some logistical brainstorming? Or maybe your own wedding DJ might have experience with it.

It's not new; we've been doing this for over 10 years.

Google is your friend.

@EM - Yes I did. He has seen it done before and they didn't have music. The officiant is a professional but can I not also ask for experiences on WW as well?

@Mrs70 - No I have the verbiage for him. I just wasn't sure if it would be awkward with the music and whether to do it before or after the vows. I've seen the sand and unity candle ceremony both before and after the vows but I always thought I would prefer to do it before the vows. Since this is taking the place of those, I just wanted to gauge how other brides/grooms may have done it. Thanks for sharing how you plan to do yours!

Um, where did I say you couldn't?

From your OP: "Any insight is helpful and appreciated"

That's what I offered you. Insight into other options that will allow you to have a beautifully well-written ceremony.

Why so defensive?

@EM - I am so sorry! You are right - I shouldn't have come off like that. Just call it hangover drama from yesterday that I'm sorry I let spill over in my response to you.

@Mrs70 - That silent awkwardness is what I definitely want to avoid --- Thank you for confirming it was in fact "awkward"!

We did one at the very end. After vows. Our officiant read a little blurb that I found online and tailored to fit what i wanted, then H and I walked 2 feet over to the table and put the bottle of wine and our letters in the box and closed it. We had no music. It wasn't awkward. The reading by the officiant to explain what we would do took maybe a minute, and it took probably less than a minute for us to do our part. We did not nail the box shut or lock it or anything, we just slid the lid on.

The last thing after the wine box in our ceremony was our kiss and being introduced as Mr. & Mrs. by our officiant. The variation of wine box ceremony we did involved writing letters which we will open if our marriage is every going through a tough time, to be reminded of why we are getting married in the first place and what we love about each other. But also we wrote in that if we don't hit such times, we'll open the box on our 5 year anniversary, drink the wine and read the letters, then write new letters and replace the wine & letters in the box to open at 10 years, etc. etc. I found a bunch of variations (and scripts) when I googled, so you can choose whatever "version" you like. My BFF did 3 bottles of wine, and one set of letters she and her H wrote to each other, one set from their parents, and one from their MOH and Best Man, and they were to open them at 1, 5, and 10 years.

@Stephanie -- Your version is the one we are going with. I like the idea of doing a new one for 10 year anniversary to keep the love reminder going!

@Richard – The second part of your post is much appreciated. The first part - meh.

Let me clarify a few things – I missed the exact moment I EVER asked to be treated like a customer.

These forums are here to ask for advice, share experiences, etc. and not necessarily in that order. They are open to both vendors, the newly engaged, newlyweds, and I would assume anyone who may not fit in either of those categories. Celia is posting as a vendor – not in any other capacity - right? You confirm this also by referring to all of the help she provides couples on WW by sharing her professional experience. So all that being said I don’t know why I shouldn’t expect anything but professionalism. Clearly her expertise is highly valued and I’m sure that the devotion she has garnered among a lot of the WW community is well-deserved. My experience has been much different. I can assure you I am not expecting anything that remotely resembles “kissing ass” but it does appear that there is an expectation for me to “kiss ass” – which I don’t tend to do until an occasion arises that warrants me doing so – and that just hasn’t happened during my interactions.

Op Celia is allowed to comment as she pleases. That's part of the CGs, you can't tell who to post or how to post.

Also, Celia being detail oriented and presenting inconsistencies in your messaging shows she is a high quality vendor. Because on your wedding day it's all about the details. She what professionals refer to as an SME, so yes her expertise is highly valued.

@033118 - Inconsistencies?

I had to look up what this was, I have never heard of it but love the idea. We aren't wine drinkers so our box would def have Tequila! Haha. I'm going to bring it up with FH.

And lol to the passive aggressive posts.