Ceremonies

Barbara Brady, Celebrant

We are limited only by our imaginations as we co-create your personal ceremony or ritual together.

In addition to wedding ceremonies, commitment ceremonies and memorial ceremonies, as a Life Transitions Coach, I also create and lead ceremonies for people going through any transition including:

~ Women or Men going through separation and/or divorce

~ Engagement rituals to mark this “in-between” stage between single status and marriage

~ Individuals, Couple or Families relocating to Southwest Florida, U.S. or abroad

~ Individuals going through Career Transition

~ Milestone Birthdays such as 16, 21, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, etc.

~ Baby blessings

Ceremonies or rituals I’ve led have included:

~ A healing ritual for a man over a personal issue; Asheville, NC

~ A marriage ceremony for a friend, three weeks after her official wedding celebration, so local friends could participate. Bon Jovi lyrics were part of this theme; Asheville, NC

~ Weddings, with venues that have included: a German restaurant, a mountaintop cabin deck, a castle, and  a farm

~ Rituals at a single women’s workshop on how to “Joyfully Fly Solo”; Asheville, NC

~ A baby blessing for a newly adopted baby; Asheville, NC

~ A home clearing and heart opening ritual for a woman and her daughter to welcome the woman’s new husband into their home before their marriage celebration; Black Mountain, NC

Ceremonies I’ve originated:

~ My own self-marriage ceremony, to commit to marrying myself first before any other. For full story, please click on “Self-Marriage” tab under “Ceremonies”.

Why have ceremonies or rituals? Are they really necessary?

When a rite of passage is marked with an appropriate ritual or ceremony, it’s like a checking in point – a dot in a “connect the dots” drawing. You and your attendees can see what’s being left behind, what the transition is, and where you’re going. Almost like a highway rest stop where you re-check your map and route, you can see where you’ve come from, where you are now, and where you’re going.

Because ceremony and ritual when done properly also focus on your heart expression, it’s an opportune time for you, when going through a rite of passage to check in with yourself  to see what this passage means. All the emotions that fall into this rite of passage are faced now. Grief over leaving single life, excitement and fear about getting married, for example. The emotions are felt, acknowledged and expressed, so you can move on. Without these outward “check points” focused on in ritual, the whole journey becomes unmarked, and your emotions may build up, unacknowledged; unexpressed; resulting in a kind of un-grounding, and baggage you then carry from one passage to the next. There’s no clearing out along the way, if you will.

In contrast, when you make time for engaging in the process of ritual and ceremony, taking time to honor and celebrate your life passage, it’s as if you’re taking hold of your life by the reins, (which is moving at fast forward for us much of the time) and  s-l-o-w-i-n-g   i-t-   d-o-w-n. “W-h-o-a!” You make time to see, acknowledge, express and integrate the changes you’re experiencing; changes in physical status – whether it’s career, marriage, divorce, separation, illness, healing, becoming an empty-nester, finances, relocation; changes in emotions – grief, anger, fear, hope, excitement, joy, bliss, and all emotions in between. By taking time to mark your life event or life passage with a ceremony, you’re telling yourself, the universe and others that you matter. Your friends and family matter. Your community matters. You make yourself open to giving and receiving from others, which is one of the greatest gifts any of us can give.