These days, many couples want to arrange their own wedding in a simple natural ceremony and a Handfasting ceremony is perfect for this but a Handfasting is not a legal ceremony unless an officially recognised celebrant conducts the ceremony. That does not mean that you cannot have a Handfasting and you do not have to be a witch or follow the pagan path either.
When my husband Martin and I were arranging our wedding we planned to have a Handfasting in our garden, and to make it legal, we had an official ceremony at our local registry office. As a solitary witch I did not know anyone that I could ask to perform the ceremony so I prepared the Handfasting ceremony myself and my maid of honour, who does not follow the pagan path, narrated so that our guests could understand what was going on.
My granddaughter Eva was just a few months old at the time and we decided to have a wiccaning or baby naming ceremony at the same time and you will find these ceremonies further on in this book. I can almost hear you asking, “But what is a Handfasting?”
A Handfasting is simple exchange of promises between two people who wish to commit themselves to each other.
