Unique Ceremony Ideas For Your Portland Wedding

Creative, Custom Ceremonies

Serving Portland and surrounding suburbs.
Central Oregon and other areas by arrangement.

Custom-crafted ceremonies to express your unique personality and perspective

Here you will find a selection of unique ceremony ideas for your Portland wedding

I created the following basic ceremony ideas to be be used in a number of ways. Some couples use them exactly as written, while others usethem as inspiration for their original ideas. You can also write your own ceremonyfrom scratch, and I'll help you fine-tune it. Either way, feel free to mix-and-match to create you own unique, customized ceremony.

Although I am not a religious minister in the traditional sense, I'm happy to include religious symbols if they have personal significance for you. For example, you might wish to include a wine glass breaking from the Jewish tradition, or jump the broom from the African tradition. My only request is that you learn about the history behind these traditions to make sure they are a good fit for you.

How to Use These Sample Ceremonies

If you use these samples exactly as they are written, they are about seven minutes long.
And seven minutes is a perfectly acceptable length for a ceremony.
You may want to add a few extra elements, which is fine.
Use these as a template for your Portland wedding ceremony, and add extra elements as you see fit.

We'll go over everything together to get it all fine-tuned!

Unique ceremony ideas for your Portland wedding

I have dozens of unique ceremonies ideas,
and I'm posting just a few of them here.
If you'd like to see more
(or updates on these), contact me)

Sample Ceremony in Parts

Sample Ceremony alternatives

UNIQUE CEREMONY IDEAS FOR YOUR PORTLAND WEDDING

Have you Heard of Handfasting?

One of my favorite wedding rituals is Handfasting. It is a Celtic ritual in which the couples' hands are tied together with a ribbon or cloth. If you saw the movie BRAVEHEART you might remember the scene where they were married in the forest. The priest wrapped their hands in a strip of cloth (the bridge's family's tartan). One couple I married had a special cloth woven that incorporated the plaids from both of their clans. It's tied in a bow with an opening loose enough so that the hands can come out freely, or simply draped across the hands. The couple saves the ribbon or cloth as a keepsake.

Handfasting Variations (1)

UNIQUE CEREMONY IDEAS FOR YOUR PORTLAND WEDDING

The Apache Wedding Chant*

While not actually Apache in origin, this is a beautiful option for closing a ceremony.
It can can be combined with a handfasting, and modified in any way you wish.
.

APACHE WEDDING CHANT

This is not an actual Apache ceremony. It was invented by a white novelist in 1947.
Read this interesting account by my fellow wedding officiant, Elizabeth Oakes.

      EXCELLENT  
   Based on 7 reviews 
    
 
 
 
   
 
 
       Posted on Google  
   
   Scott Buffington 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Amazing experience. Thank you, Terri! Professional. Had a beautiful experience marrying my love. I really can't say enough; except thank you! You have brought a wonderful start into our marriage and we are so thankful. Highly recommend to whom wants reliability and communication with a beautiful service.
  
 
      Posted on Google  
   
   Brian D Smith 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Terri has a gift for creating unique ceremonies and rituals. Her ability to use symbols and  inspirational words  to mark for personal milestones such as weddings, births and funerals is a powerful tool for inspiring joy, hope, or healing.  I absolutely recommend her to anyone getting married in the Portland area.
  
 
      Posted on Google  
   
   Edward Torres 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Terri was a great officiant at my wedding. She met up with my wife and I prior to our wedding and asked us how we would like the ceremony to go. She gave examples of what other people do but she was willing to  listen and follow what my wife and I wanted. It was a beautiful ceremony and I think about it from time to time. Terri made it a special day and her energy really brightened up how I perceive ceremonies should be.
  
 
      Posted on Google  
   
   Robin Clark 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Terri has married three of my children over the last 10 years. There probably aren't a lot of reviews from mothers of the brides and grooms, and I'm happy to post one here.  She did such a beautiful job on the first wedding, that when my next two kids got married, they both wanted her to officiate. My whole family is non-religious, and we appreciate her ability to create a meaningful ceremony without bringing god or religion into it. She definitely deserves five stars!
  
 
      Posted on Google  
   
   Cristy Murray 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Terri was sensitive, generous and compassionate.  The ceremony was just lovely - exactly how we wanted it.  She was the perfect person for our perfect wedding.
  
 
      Posted on Google  
   
   Christopher Carpenter 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. My husband and I got married last year, and we were so lucky to find Terri. Although she’s straight, she is super LGBTQ friendly, and has married some of our friends, which is how we discovered her. She worked with us to come up with just the right words for the ceremony and has the creative mind we were looking for that fit right in with the style and vibe of our wedding.
  
 
      Posted on Google  
   
   J. Clark 
 
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. My husband and I come from two different cultures and Terri was great at finding ways to include pieces of both, which meant a lot to us. She came up with a perfect ceremony that expressed exactly what we wanted to say, and she has a really fun personality. We enjoyed working with her.
  
 
  
  
 
     Verified by Trustindex  Trustindex verified badge is the Universal Symbol of Trust. Only the greatest companies can get the verified badge who has a review score above 4.5, based on customer reviews over the past 12 months. Read more