Posts about Inclusive Weddings

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I'm totally committed to fairness, to inclusion, to diversity. So, of course, I look at weddings and the ideas, customs, and traditions embedded in them, and think, how could this be done better?
Which can be something as simple as broadening our view of who we involve in the wedding party or the ceremony, or as complex as making sure that everyone feels welcome and valued.
And definitely committing to respecting diversity.

Categorisation to facilitate navigation is a clumsy tool at best, sorry about that.

• Pinned posts
  
• Equality in your ceremony
  
• Including family and friends
  
• Ageism
  
• Culture
• Disability and Neurodiversity
  
• Gender and Sexual Orientation
  

Pinned posts

Jennifer Cram, The Inclusive Celebrant: My Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Categories: |  Celebrant | Inclusive Weddings |
(09/01/2020)
As a secular humanist whose calling, commitment, and passion is creating and performing fun, relaxed, inclusive ceremonies, I believe with my whole heart that all people are worthy and should be equally valued and treated with equal respect. Neither diversity nor inclusion is optional ...  More ...

Finding the Balance: The Role of Humour in Your Wedding Ceremony

(07/09/2024)
Categories: | Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremonies
 One of the most common assertions about wedding ceremonies today is that the celebrant must be funny, but what does funny mean in the context of wedding ceremony, and what are the pros and cons of choosing a funny celebrant? More ...

Saying 'I Do' Without Overdoing It: Introvert's Guide to Planning a Joyful Big Wedding
Categories:  | Inclusive Weddings  |  Wedding Ceremony  |  Wedding Planning|
21/07/2023
You can have a big joyful wedding when you're an introvert, but you need to know what sort of introvert you are, lean into your strengths, know your limits and plan around them.  More ... 

White Weddings are uh, White

Categories: | Inclusive Weddings  | Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Planning |
(26/10/2020)
The traditional white wedding, still seen as the norm in Australia, is culturally white, through and through  More ...

How to have a Gracious Wedding

Categories: Wedding Planning | Inclusive Wedding |
(22/11/2018)
Most couples today host their own weddings. Here are 35 ways to make sure that everyone feels welcome, appreciated, and both physically and emotionally comfortable.  ...    More ...

Slips of the Lip, Inclusion, and Extremist Codespeak

Categories:   | Published Article |  Inclusive Weddings |
(28/11/2022) 
Lessons from the extremist communication playbook. Repost of my article published in The Celebrant,   Issue 5, September 2020, pp 26-27. ... More...

Equality in your ceremony

The Groom is Getting Married Too!

Categories: | Wedding Ceremony |
(23/05/2020)
On your wedding day, two people are getting married. It is time to give the groom equal billing, and here's how you can do that easily, without added expense, and without mystifying your guests ...  More ...

Including family and friends

Celebrate and Include Your Grandfathers in Your Wedding Ceremony

Categories: | Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremony |
(03/09/2023)
There are so many ways to include your grandfathers in your ceremony.  More ...

Your Wedding Party - Busting the Myths 

Categories: |Inclusive Weddings |  Wedding Ceremony |
(13/01/2020)
Four myths about wedding parties persist, despite it being the 21st century, despite society more inclusive, and despite three quarters of wedding ceremonies in Australia being civil ceremonies where ceremony content is all about personal choice and ensuring that your wedding reflects who you are as a couple. ... More ...

Including Your Brothers and Best Mates in Your Wedding Ceremony

Categories: | Inclusive Wedding   |    Wedding Ceremony  |
(04/04/2021) 
There are so many ways to include all of your best mates and brothers in your ceremony, even if you want to keep your wedding party small ... More ...

Including Your Sisters and Besties in Your Wedding Ceremony

Categories: |  Inclusive Weddings  |  Wedding Ceremony
(22/05/2022) 
There are many ways to include your sisters and all of your besties in your ceremony, even if you
want to keep your wedding party small. ...  More...

Celebrate Your Grandmas in Your Wedding Ceremony

Categories: | Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremony |
(15/11/2020)
There are so many ways to include your grandmothers in your ceremony.  More ...

Celebrate Your Fathers in Your Wedding Ceremony

Categories: | Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremony |
(19/08/2020)
There are so many ways to include both fathers in your ceremony.. ... More ...

Celebrate Your Mothers in Your Wedding Ceremony

Categories: |  Wedding Ceremony | Inclusive Weddings |
(10/05/2020)
There are so many ways to include both mothers in your ceremony. ...  More ...

In 2020 Children Need to be Invited to Your Wedding

Categories: | Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Planning |
(12/07/2020)
There are good reasons why it is particularly important in 2020, a year where their lives have been
disrupted, for children to experience wedding ceremonies  ... More ...

Ageism

You Are Never Too Old To Get Married the Way you Want

Categories: |  Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Planning |
(03/03/2020)
How do you, as a mature age couple, negotiate the whole process of wedding planning when most of the marketing, information, and focus out in wedding land is on the younger couple wanting the fairy-tale wedding experience? ... More ...

Culture

The Power of the Subliminal: Celebrant-Led Ceremonies and Cultural Bias

Categories: Published Article   | Wedding Ceremony | Inclusive Weddings
(12/01/2023)
Wedding ceremonies are culturally loaded events influenced by Class Culture, Christian Culture, Consumer Culture, and Celebrity Culture. This is equally relevant to marrying couples and to anyone involved in the wedding industry. Repost of my article originally published  in The Celebrant, Issue 12, June 2022, pp 6-17 ... More...

Acknowledgement of Country

Categories:  Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Rituals |
(26/07/2019)
Starting your wedding or other ceremony with an Acknowledgement of Country sends a powerful message of respect and inclusion... More ...

Multicultural Fusion Weddings

Categories: Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Rituals | Wedding Traditions | Wedding Planning |
If you are an intercultural couple, how do you navigate your ceremony?  It is not uncommon to have two ceremonies.  But there is a third option - a fusion wedding ceremony that incorporates the traditions of what are important to you both ... More ...

Scottish Islamic Tartan

Disabilility and Neurodiversity

Getting Married When You Have a Disability

Categories: |  Inclusive Weddings   |  Wedding Legals   |
(19/08/2021) 
There is no disability or disease that will prevent you getting married in Australia...  More...

Ceremony Buddies: An Essential Resource for an Inclusive Ceremony

Categories:   | Published Article |   Inclusive Weddings  |
(23/11/2022) 
Ceremony Buddies ensure that guests with special needs are included in the wedding ceremony and feel comfortable. Repost of my article published in The Celebrant,  Issue 3, March 2020, pp 83-85/ While written for a celebrant audience it is relevant to anyone planning a wedding, including those getting married ... More ...

Gender and Sexual Orientation

You CAN have a wedding free of gender-role stereotypes 

Categories: |  Inclusive Wedding   |    Wedding Ceremony  |
(20/04/2021)
The Marriage Act permits couples to have a wedding that is totally free of gender-role stereotypes Regardless of how much pressure others may apply to try to make you confirm to gender stereotypes, you are legally entitled to ignore them.  . ... More ...

Getting married when you don’t identify with a gender

Categories:  Inclusive Wedding | Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Legals |
(23/05/2019)
Gender is now immaterial when getting married in Australia. When marrying you do not have to use gendered terminology or adhere to gendered role ...    More ...

You, Your Wedding, and Trans-Gender and Non-Binary Inclusivity

Categories: | Inclusive Wedding |
(27/10/2018)
If you’re a Cis-gender couple planning your own wedding, issues of gender identity may not be front and centre in the process. However there are good reasons why they should be. Here are some tips on how to make sure your wedding is a comfortable and inclusive experience for everyone who attends, regardless of their gender identity.    More ...

Has Marriage Equality Changed Weddings? – My Predictions Revisited

Categories: Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Planning | Inclusive Wedding |
(25/01/2019)
A year ago, I predicted that Marriage Equality would change all weddings in Australia, as more and more heterosexual couples, previously constrained by a wedding playbook that includes outmoded traditions and embedded roles defined by gender, experience the individual, meaningful, expressions of an equal relationship in the weddings of same-sex couples  - and that every wedding, gay or straight, would be the better for it.  So how accurate was I?   More ...

How Marriage Equality Will Change Wedding Ceremonies (17/01/2018)

Categories: Wedding Ceremony | Wedding Planning | Inclusive Wedding |
This is my prediction – wedding ceremonies will change, but it won’t be a case of  the wedding industry merely accommodating same-sex couples. Rather same sex couples will influence, by example, all civil wedding ceremonies in Australia, and all weddings will be the better for it.
More ...

Same Sex Ceremonies - Negotiating the Gendered Nature of Ceremony Traditions (09/01/2018)

Categories: Inclusive Weddings | Wedding Traditions |
Rather than assign roles, assign various customs .... More ...