THE HAND FASTING CEREMONY
_(Bride)_ , please pass your bouquet to you matron of honor?
As an expression of your willingness to engage in these obligations and as a seal of the vows you are about to make, will you face one another and join your right hands.
Explanation of Handfasting
Handfasting is a type of Celtic wedding ceremony from the middle ages, possibly before. Many small villages did not a have local minister or priest to perform a marriage ceremony, so couples would perform a handfasting which legally bound them until someone of the clergy could perform a ceremony. It was a “temporary” marriage that lasted for a year and a day. Now, a handfasting is incorporated into many wedding ceremonies as a way to honor the couples Celtic heritage.
In the handfasting ceremony, a couple’s hands are bound together in a cord or a tartan cloth during their vows to show that from that point forward they are no longer two, but are now one. As a follow through, after the handfasting ceremony, many couples will perform the presentation or pinning of the sash. To signify that the bride is now part of the groom’s family, the groom pins his tartan cloth to his Bride`s shoulder.
Would you both please repeat after me your vows to each other ?