Unusual Wedding Ceremony Ideas: Six Creative Twists

Make sure your wedding ceremony is extra special and unique with some of these unusual wedding ceremony ideas, from the beautiful red rose ceremony to the unity sand ceremony, and even having your pets there!

For even more wedding ceremony inspiration, check out these creative wedding ceremony seating ideas.

6 of Our Favourite Unusual Wedding Ceremony Ideas

1) Bring Your Pets

Do you have a furry little friend who you’d like to have at your wedding? Well feel free to include them in your wedding ceremony! There are so many ways to include your bundle of fur, from carrying the rings or giving the bride away to even being a bridesmaid or groomsman. See more on how to include your dog in your wedding day here.

Featured above: Pet Tux

To make this one of the sweetest unusual wedding ceremony ideas, we even offer wedding attire for dogs in our shop so that your best friend can feel like a real member of the wedding party! A smart tuxedo will make for some very cute wedding pictures.

2) Make a First Fight Box

Every relationship goes through rough patches, and one way to ensure that the rain turns into a rainbow is to create a first fight box. Simply fill a box with well wishes, a letter to your future selves, and important items from the big day. By filling and sealing the box during the wedding (often with hammer and nails) your guests will have a chance to help you fill it up. Plus nailing the box closed is a great way to end the ceremony! The idea is that you open the box after your first fight and relive the feelings and memories of the big day, to remind yourselves how much you love each other.

Featured above: Love Letter Wedding Ceremony Box Set

Another take on this is the “love letter” box, where you and your partner write love letters to each other and seal them away with a bottle of wine for either the first anniversary or when making amends after an argument.

3) Sand Ceremony

This is truly the perfect alternative unity ceremony for a beach or summer wedding, as a sand ceremony has both you and your partner combine different coloured sands in a beautiful personalised vase (browse our unity sand ceremony sets in our shop.). For couples that already have children, they can feel involved by adding their own sand into the vase, showing the family coming together.

Featured above: Heart Shaped Sand Ceremony Vase Set – “The Adventure Begins” Etching | “Free Spirit” Personalised Sand Ceremony Vase Set

With a variety of different colours of sand to choose from there are so many different combinations you can have. This means that you and your party can pick your favourite colours and blend them together, and at the end of the day you have a beautiful memento from the big day.

4) Have a Handfasting

Looking for something unique and out in the fresh air? Well a handfasting may be for you! These unity ceremonies have been happening across Britain for at least 9,000 years and have a strong connection to the earth and nature. The service itself involves the couple’s hands and wrists being tied together, giving the name handfasting. Traditionally, the cloth ribbons then remain on their wrists until after the big day itself.

Featured above: Jayne and Keith’s Scottish Handfasting Wedding

The ceremony focuses heavily on the ties that we have to the earth; pagan goddesses and deities can take a centre stage and bless your lives together.

5) Red Rose Ceremony

Another of our unusual wedding ceremony ideas is the rose ceremony. Roses have always been a symbol of love, passion and devotion, and these are themes that fit in with any wedding. The rose ceremony includes all of your guests; they can all add a rose to the vase and leave their well wishes to the flowers. You and your partner add your own roses to the vase too, and it would be lovely to use roses that are different colours to your guests’ so that they stand out. After the big day you will have a beautiful bouquet or centrepiece to keep, but if you’re using real flowers you may have to look into drying or preserving them.

Featured above, our Rose Ceremony Set vases.

If roses aren’t your thing you can use any flowers you like! This ceremony can be adapted and changed to fit your colour, theme, and taste. Read more on the Rose Ceremony here.

6) Pick a Special Song

There are certain songs that are a tad overplayed at weddings—there’s only so many times you can hear the bridal march. Remember that it’s your big day and that, these days, most brides can pick absolutely any song that they like (if you’re having a religious wedding however, double check with the officiator of your ceremony as some of them may be a little strict on tradition). Music may seem like a very small thing, but it really does set the entire mood and theme of the day, and so this is perhaps one of the most straightforward of the unusual wedding ceremony ideas on our list.

Featured above: Our beautiful contemporary vintage wedding theme.

You should pick a song that is special to both you and your partner (maybe “your song” or the song that played at your first date?). One that means something to you will have more of an impact than a traditional orchestral song. For more on music, make sure you see our pick of the best love songs for your wedding.

 

For even more creative wedding ceremony inspiration, don’t miss these alternative unity ceremony ideas.