Create Your Ceremony
For when your friend is officiating your weddingJoin me for a few short live sessions and you’ll have the outline for your awe-inspiring wedding ceremony.
Your friend is officiating your wedding ceremony. But who is crafting the ceremony?
Who is deciding the ritual, flow, vow format, processional, readings, blocking, opening, closing, and the Question of Intent? Who is outlining your Love Story?
You and your partner are, and it will be the most rewarding part of your whole wedding journey.
Why you? Only you two, as a couple, can truly articulate the meaning of your Love Story and your forthcoming marriage—and that is Step 1 of creating an awe-inspiring ceremony.
After this course you’ll have a comprehensive outline for your unique wedding ceremony. Just picturing it it will make your heart sing! The ceremony itself will be a powerful experience weaving joy + love through your whole community—a feeling that will last years beyond the wedding day.
Give that outline to your officiant to save them HOURS of work and set them on track for creating a ceremony with beauty and significance. ✨
I’m Rev. Maureen Cotton, an Interspiritual minister. My training has made me a spiritual-but-not-religious guide for the inner life, and my 15 years as a wedding photographer grants me intimate knowledge of how people experience the threshold of weddings. Today, I bring that all together in my work as a spiritual wedding + ceremony coach. More about me >>
“Maureen is the Priya Parker of weddings.”
—Annie Schuessler, Rebel Therapist business coach
Your friend is honored to officiate your wedding, and they want to get this right for you.
But they may not realize the extent of the obligation they’ve made. Most people don’t realize when they say yes to officiating that they are also saying yes to learning the mechanics and art of ceremony crafting; researching ritual and readings; researching wedding etiquette, traditions, and blocking; writing a Love Story; and much more.
Your friend will probably turn to Google for all this… Those of us who work in weddings have seen how similar the friend-officiant weddings look because people are using the same pool of resources on the internet.
Why should all these weddings look and feel the same when the couples getting married are drastically different?
Instead, design your wedding ceremony based on your values, your unique Love Story, and your dream for married life. Then, your ceremony will captivate and uplift your entire community.
Course sessions
01 / THE WHY
(This is the soul of the wedding; Without it, you’re just going through pretty motions.)
Why are you truly getting married, and why now? You’ll dream of whats ahead and reflect on the beauty of your own Love Story.
02 / THE WHAT
What are the elements of a wedding ceremony? Why do they matter? What do you “need” to do, and what do you want to skip or adapt to be authentic to you?
There will be a special focus on rituals, readings, and remembrances.
03 / THE HOW
Now you’ll fill in your step-by-step outline. You’ll get to closely consider the flow, set up, ritual objects, participation, music, and more.
04 / THE VOWS
You’ll get to take my popular Vow Writing Retreat on your own time.
This retreat is for everyone no matter what vow format you’re currently considering.
THE DETAILS
I’m currently running a pilot for this course and the on demand version will be available soon. Sign up to be notified when it’s available.
Course sessions
01 / THE WHY
(This is the soul of the wedding; without it, you’re just going through pretty motions.)
What does marriage mean for you two. You’ll dream of whats ahead and soak in the beauty of your own Love Story.
02 / THE WHAT
What are the elements of a wedding ceremony? Why do they matter? What do you “need” to do, and what do you want to skip or adapt to be authentic to you?
There will be a special focus on rituals, readings, and remembrances.
03 / THE HOW
Now you’ll fill in your step-by-step outline. You’ll get to closely consider the flow, set up, ritual objects, participation, music, and more.
04 / THE VOWS
You’ll get to take my popular Vow Writing Retreat on your own time.
This retreat is for everyone no matter what vow format you’re currently considering.
DETAILS
I’m currently running a pilot for this course and the on demand version will be available soon. Sign up to be notified when it’s available.
Pilot course bonuses
Winter 2023 will be the live pilot for this new iteration of the course! Each participating couple will receive…
- $200 off the program price
- A 45-minute 1:1 with Maureen to review your plan, adapt ritual and language to be just right for you, and answer any tricky questions.
Included resources
- Three word-for-word ceremony scripts—adapt and “steal” any wording you like!
- Three full length ceremony videos of those scripts—see how it all comes together!
- Checklists for your wedding officiant—make sure no important ceremony elements are missed and that they are prepared for every little day-of detail.
- Access to my library of favorite readings
- A detailed video lesson explaining the most popular rituals for intentional modern couples with options for adapting them to be authentic to you.
- Complimentary access to my popular Vow Writing Retreat. This retreat is for everyone no matter what vow format you’re currently considering. You’ll be guided in understanding what vows are (and aren’t), why there’s so much (undue) pressure around them, then step-by-step how to articulate what’s in your heart. You’ll also receive many examples of real + beautiful vows.
Add ons available
- Coaching for your officiant. This course is about creating an authentic ceremony grown out of your story and values. It’s about YOU and how to bring your intention to life. Delivering the ceremony is another matter. You can add on a 1:1 coaching session for me to prepare your officiant to hold sacred space and powerfully deliver this message.
- Script review. Send me your ceremony script draft. I’ll read it and provide thorough feedback.
- More 1:1 time with me. If you’ve got tricky family dynamics, a faith reckoning, or any other spiritual/emotional complexity going on at this time, you might find creating the ceremony stirs big questions. I’m available to provide spiritual coaching to find clarity + joy in this process.
FAQs
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Will there be recordings?
Yes. Recordings will be available the next day and accessible for one month. When the on-demand version of the course is released you’ll get complimentary access if you’d like to review anything!
Will I have to talk to/in front of strangers?
Only if you want. Although we’ll gather on Zoom, you’ll keep your camera off during most of the sessions. That’s because this is your reflective time as a couple. You won’t be asked to share anything with the group. You might like to turn your camera on for Q+A, which will help me address your question more personally; however, you can also ask your questions via the chat.
When is the right time to take this course?
If you’ve decided on a range for your guest-count, then you’re ready to design your ceremony!
What if we don’t know who our officiant will be yet?
No problem! The vision and outline you’ll create through this course will bring clarity about the right person to be your officiant.
Will our friend be offended that we are planning the ceremony that we asked them to officiate?
Survey says: nope. The feedback is always gratitude with the hours saved and excitement that they can spend their time building on the foundation you created and nailing the delivery.
We’ll get a ceremony outline done in this class; who will then write the ceremony?
Two options: If you two love to write and reflect, then you as a couple may really enjoy writing it together. Or, you can ask your officiant to take the outline and write the ceremony.
(Actually, there’s a third option, which is you can hire me to write your ceremony and craft your Love Story with the depth of the best Modern Love essay you’ve ever heard.)
Join me. We’ll have fun, get so much done, and you’ll have new clarity for all your future wedding planning decisions.
Learn more about Maureen’s ceremonies
Got more questions? Contact Maureen directly by scheduling a call or emailing maureen@thesoulfulwedding.com