Short and Sweet Honey Ceremony

Putting our ceremony together was oddly simple. We have been on the same page since day one that our ceremony would be short and simple; having an outdoor winter ceremony has helped us keep it to that.
We needed an officiant and we knew right away that our officiant would be someone special to us, someone who knew us. We aren't church-goers and so having a church officiant didn't make any sense. While it took a couple months into our engagement to actually decide who that person would be, once we thought of it, it was like "Duh!". Our officiant is Best Man Cruise's dad, Mark. Mr. Honey has known him for years and years and while I've only known him a couple years, he is the perfect person for the task. We asked him over wings and beer one night and he happily accepted. In the months to come, I did some research on how Mark would become officially officiated. I found the best website to be openministry.org where the ordination was free, so I even splurged and spent $14.95 on a certificate. We celebrated with Margaritas and Mexican food that night.

We have an Officiant!

Once Mark had 'the power invested in him' as he likes to say, I outlined the flow of our ceremony, leaving the word content in the hands of Mark. So, here's how our short and sweet ceremony will go.

We chose the Plain White T's 1, 2, 3, 4 for the wedding party to walk down the aisle to:

Mama Honey and my Papa will start off the processional, followed by Mr. Honey who will walk with Officiant Mark and FFIL. We chose this super easy, non-formal format because we aren't having any escorts...I realize how very casual it is, but it works for us.

Because of our uneven bridal party, I've spent far too long analyzing how this will work...but I think I've got the main idea down. As a refresher, we have 8 bridesmaids, 5 groomsmen and 1 groomsdog. BM Kel Bel is walking Zeus, two lucky groomsmen will be escorting two bridesmaids at a time and then the three remaining 'men will escort one 'maid. After this part of the wedding party is down, our 3 flower girls and 2 ring bearers will all head down together.

Then it's mine and my Dad's turn. 1,2,3,4 will fade out and the song I chose many moons ago will fade in:

The heart of ceremony will go like this:
- A welcome from Officiant Mark
- A quip on marriage by Officiant Mark
- The Honey's exchange vows
- Honey's exchange rings
- Officiant Mark pronounces us Husband & Wife
- WE KISS

The song we chose for our recessional is also from Plain White T's...Rhythm of Love:

We will immediately join our entire wedding in the reception area and begin celebrating as husband and wife!

I truly think our ceremony will be between 10 and 15 minutes, short enough to keep peoples attention (and to keep guests from freezing!) but long enough to get plenty of sentiment and love across. I can't wait to hear what words Mark throws into the mix!

Now that I'm tearing up listening to the soundtrack that is our ceremony, tell me about your ceremony! What songs did you hand pick? Who is your officiant? Was your ceremony easy to create?
It's getting real, hive...in two weeks we will in fact be performing this ceremony!!

*All videos from YouTube.