A Blend of Traditions

Shane and Eleanor: 18th February 2012

Shane and Eleanor were married at the beautiful Lochside House in Ayrshire, on a day which brought sleet, snow, dark cold and bright, bright sunshine.

The couple have very different traditional backgrounds which they wanted to honour and represent in their ceremony. Prior to saying their vows, Eleanor and Shane lit a Unity candle symbolising the joining of 2 seperate lives into one. As they lit the Unity candle from their two seperate flames of brighness, their guests together offered them a blessing:

"May the blessing of light be with you always, and may the sun shine upon you and warm your hearts, until it grows like a great fire so that others may feel the warmth of your love for one another." 

Shane and Eleanor also included the Jewish tradition of breaking a glass at the end of a ceremony. There are many things that glass can symbolise – the fragility of human relationships and the care that must be taken to nurture and look after these precious relationships; or fruitfulness – that happiness, and children, will be as numerous as the shards of glass. But for Shane and Eleanor, this ritual was a reminder that the breaking of the glass, like the commitment they made during their wedding ceremony, is irrevocable and permanent.

Mazel Tov!