Weddings without all the rules

Your wed­ding day is one of the most impor­tant days in your life and the wed­ding cer­e­mony is your oppor­tu­nity to make com­mit­ments to one another and express your undy­ing love in front of you fam­ily and friends — so why shouldn’t it be exactly as you want it?

Sadly in the UK there are so many rules and reg­u­la­tions that most cou­ples don’t realise exist until they start plan­ning their wed­ding- you can’t get mar­ried out­side, you can’t include reli­gion (in a civil wed­ding), you can’t take pho­tographs dur­ing the cer­e­mony, you can’t get mar­ried after dusk, you must use a licensed venue.
Sud­denly dreams of a stun­ning out­door wed­ding, with fairy lights and incred­i­ble pho­tos of you exchang­ing vows and rings fall by the way­side as you find out none of this is really possible.

But now there’s an alternative.

One Life Cer­e­monies are Lau­rra and Maria Nalty, a mother and daugh­ter team based in York­shire who like to do things a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ently… their aim is to cre­ate exactly the wed­ding cer­e­mony that you want and they place no restric­tions on or where you can hold your wed­ding or what it includes — mak­ing it not only per­sonal but one of the most mem­o­rable parts of your wed­ding day.

Expe­ri­ence and Flexibility

Since their launch in 2008 Maria and Lau­rra have writ­ten and con­ducted over 30 wed­dings for cou­ples who want to do things their way, they offer more choice and flex­i­bil­ity so you really can have exactly the wed­ding that you want – that includes hold­ing it outdoors!

Unlike a Civil Wed­ding led by a Reg­is­trar or a Church wed­ding where you have to fol­low a stan­dard script, Maria and Lau­rra work with you to cre­ate a wed­ding cer­e­mony that is com­pletely indi­vid­ual to you as a cou­ple by lis­ten­ing to your ideas and find­ing out what you want before writ­ing a cer­e­mony that is per­sonal and rel­e­vant to you.

What does this mean for your wedding?

You get the wed­ding you actu­ally want.

A per­son­ally writ­ten cer­e­mony is exactly that – it’s per­sonal and it’s writ­ten just for you, that means you can include the words that you want, sto­ries from your rela­tion­ship– how you met and what you absolutely love about one another as well as your own per­sonal wed­ding vows (which they can help you to write). This cou­pled with your choice of read­ings, poems and music makes your cer­e­mony so mem­o­rable your guests will be talk­ing about it for months!

The oppor­tu­nity to have your wed­ding wher­ever you want

This means you are free to have an out­door wed­ding, a wed­ding at home or in a gar­den, a wed­ding in a mar­quee or in an unli­censed venue – basi­cally wher­ever you want! One Life Cer­e­monies aren’t reg­is­trars so that part remains sep­a­rate (usu­ally done a day or two before or ear­lier on the day of the wed­ding). Because the legal­i­ties are already taken care of that means you won’t be restricted to a licensed venue, so you really can hold your wed­ding anywhere!

No time restric­tions on your wed­ding day

Maria con­ducts one wed­ding a day mean­ing she can give your cer­e­mony her full and undi­vided atten­tion. If the bride is late (and when isn’t she!) there’ll be no clock watch­ing or hints of leav­ing — it’s your day, take as long as you need.

Your wed­ding at the time of day you want

Unlike the set times allot­ted to a civil wed­ding 10am, 2pm and 4pm, with One Life Cer­e­monies you can have your wed­ding at any­time of the day; morn­ing, after­noon, evening – it’s your choice!

Pho­tographs through­out the wed­ding ceremony

The sad news is that some Reg­is­trars and clergy won’t allow pho­tographs dur­ing the cer­e­mony, or limit the amount your pho­tog­ra­pher can take. This doesn’t hap­pen with One Life Cer­e­monies, your pho­tog­ra­pher can take as many pho­tos as they like — these are your mem­o­ries, you should not be restricted on hav­ing them.

How it works

Maria and Lau­rra will arrange a meet­ing with you to talk about your cer­e­mony; this is a chance to dis­cuss your ideas and what you want your wed­ding to include, it also gives them a chance to find out more about you as a couple.

From this meet­ing they will then write a first draft which will be sent to you for you to check and you can make any changes or sug­ges­tions until it is exactly as you want it. They can also help you to choose read­ings and write your own wed­ding vows. The wed­ding cer­e­mony will then be con­ducted by Maria at the venue or loca­tion of your choice on the day.

For more infor­ma­tion or to ask Maria or Lau­rra a ques­tion about plan­ning your wed­ding cer­e­mony you can con­tact them here:

www.onelifeceremonies.co.uk/wedding-ceremony

info@onelifeceremonies.co.uk

(0113) 868 0072

Twit­ter: www.twitter.com/onelifeceremony

Pho­tog­ra­phy by Olivia Brabbs www.oliviabrabbs.co.uk