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Making Handfasting Cords

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When planning our wedding, my husband and I really wanted our ceremony to represent our love and be very personal to us. We wanted to have some sort of unity ceremony, but I didn’t want to do something that we have seen before. After a bit of research, I came across an ancient Celtic tradition, called Handfasting.Handfasting is the act of binding a couple’s hands together with ribbons or cords to symbolize their vows to each other. The cords at knotted together, never to be taken apart. This is also where the phrase, “tying the knot,” comes from.

We decided that this is how we wanted to come together as husband and wife, but the next step was to get our cords! Some couples purchase cords, or use person items like scarves or ribbon during their ceremony, but we decided to make our own cords, and here’s how!

We picked up six different colored ribbon, I picked three and my husband picked three. Our wedding colors were ivory and green, so we stuck with our overall theme and chose different green, grey, cream and white colored ribbons.

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Once we had our colors selected, we cut we cut off five feet of each color and tied them together at the center.

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After the ribbons were knotted together, we braided three colors on each side. We decided to braid different colors on each side, and then leave the other three loose for a more casual look. I also took a charm off of the first necklace Brian ever gave me, and tied it to the end of one of the braids for a personal touch.

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After the braids were done and the charm was attached, we were done!! We had my maid of honor practice tying them around our hands a few times, so we knew how it would work during the ceremony, but it was very easy to figure out. We even watching some YouTube videos on a few different ceremonies to get the hang of it.

But, the great thing about handfasting cords, is that they can really be whatever you want them to be! I love that we made our together and that we added a personal touch to them. It made our ceremony so personal and it was apart of day that we will always remember.

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Wedding Photo Credit: Better Together Photography

Keep an eye out for more post on how we used personal touches throughout our wedding day!

  1. […] Do something different during your ceremony Your wedding day centers around your ceremony, so make it special for you and your spouse! It can be as simple as having your mom’s light a unity candle together, or having a close relative read a bible verse or a poem that is meaningful to you. We went as big as writing our own vows (shockingly this was Brian’s idea!), and doing a traditional Celtic Handfasting ceremony. […]

  2. […] Brian and I wanted our ceremony to be very personal, and very much about us as a couple. My cousin, Michael, officiated, which was really special since we’ve always been close. We had our step dads perform the readings (a bible verse and an Irish blessing), we wrote our own vows (Brian’s idea, shockingly), and did a traditional Celtic Handfasting Ceremony. […]

  3. […] Brian and I wanted our ceremony to be very personal, and very much about us as a couple. My cousin, Michael, officiated, which was really special since we’ve always been close. We had our step dads perform the readings (a bible verse and an Irish blessing), we wrote our own vows (Brian’s idea, shockingly), and did a traditional Celtic Handfasting Ceremony. […]

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