This bride with cerebral palsy walked herself down the aisle, thank you very much
Disability Pride Month with non-stop disability-related posts on Offbeat Bride’s Facebook and Instagram this week. To kick the week off, we’re sharing Phuong & Regan’s gorgeous modern elegant Texas wedding… wait until you see Phuong’s proud walk down the aisle!
How to have a more gender-neutral wedding: grides, brooms, and bachelorx parties
When my partner and I were planning our wedding last year, we decided right away we wanted to skip the wedding traditions that didn’t feel like us. We love the beauty of passing on traditions from generation to generation but one of the traditions we didn’t love was the constant gender expectations. We wanted a more gender-neutral wedding approach.
Ask your parent to “support you down the aisle”
Even though having my father escort me down the aisle was one of my favorite memories from my first wedding, the second time I got married, I felt it was important to not make A Big Deal out of the processional. I thought I’d either walk down the aisle alone — an independent woman making her own life choice — or walk down the aisle with my partner, like no biggie.
Either way, no one was “giving me away” this time. That was for sure.
Then two things happened…
Why couples walk down the aisle TOGETHER + processional song ideas
What better way to keep your cool and soothe your nerves than by walking in to your ceremony with your partner (like Jenny and Dean happily did above!)? Sure, it’s awesome to have that surprise moment, but coming in to the ceremony together means you share a processional song and a really sweet moment together, avoid any unnecessary gender roles, and keep yourself on equal footing. For some couples, it’s totally the way to go. Here are a few of our favorite couples who opted to walk down the aisle together…
Separate, together, and in between: alternative processional ideas from readers
We’ve got a post that lays out some ways to craft your customized processional including how to lay out the order, how to choose the music, where to seat honored guests, etc. It’s totally worth a read if you’re at that stage of planning. But we also received some great ideas in the comments that I want to share with you today. Here are a few of our favorite ways to process down the aisle, outside of the traditional methods.
Music, laughter, hugs, and tears: the ways I honored my dad on our wedding day
Then the more our wedding plans coalesced, the more I needed Dad to have a role, somehow, in our wedding. Some friends suggested that we include a prayer in our ceremony to acknowledge him, but this seemed out of character for us. Others proposed placing an empty chair next to my mother to symbolize both his presence and absence, but this didn’t seem right, either. So, to create a space for Dad, Nick and I decided on the following. They may seem minute, but to me, they were huge…