Through Meditation I Created Our Wedding Ceremony

Meditation

Well, through meditating, I got into an excellent habit of daily meditations at 6:30 am in November, which helped me get connected to my heart space. 

People say that it’s every girl’s dream to have a big wedding, but for me, it wasn’t like that. I wanted to elope… go to Vegas to have a ceremony with just me and Tony. However, Tony didn’t share the same vision as he is an only child, and it was important for our families to be part of this big day.

With that in mind, I wanted this ceremony to be meaningful not just for us but to everyone who attended our celebration as it was going to be a journey for all of to get to Bali as none of us lived there. It was a joint effort by all attending, especially under the circumstances that ended up happening.

Anyways… through many meditations, I kept on having the same visualisations coming to me that the ceremony was going to be in a circle. I knew I didn’t want rows of chairs as I wanted the vibe to be inclusive.

I really wanted the flowers to be placed on the ground before the ceremony in a beautiful mandala design as you see in my mood board below.

My Moodboard

MANDALA MEANS CIRCLE

Ancient Hindu scriptures depict mandalas as a period of creativity, of powerful existence, and a symbol of deeper connection with the self and the universe at large.

I have always been drawn to mandalas, and last year I took painting mandala workshop which I loved and have been doing them ever since. I find them very meditative.

Our wedding planner Ana also got that I loved circles as we also created a circle dance floor and all the tables were circles, so it kind of became our wedding concept.

After many discussions with the Wedding Planner Ana, we decided that is wasn’t going to happen with the Mandala being on the ground. As she told me the wind would blow all the flowers away and it would be too difficult to keep it in place.

I shared more idea with her, and we came up with the flowers to be suspended in the air. She took my vision and made it ten times better then I could ever imagine… which I had all faith in her that she would. She installs this beautiful masterpiece herself on the day.

Back to my meditations…

Another vision I had was everyone holding their hearts doing heart breathing. This came up for me many times over and over, and I realised that it was essential for me to include in the wedding ceremony.

Where Heart Breathing Comes From

For many years now, I have worked with Caryn from Soul Sparkle. Caryn creates amazing Retreats, where she teaches women how to connect with their hearts and soul through workshops, and I teach the yoga classes. After attending and participating in many of them personally, I made heart breathing part of my routine meditation.

Heart breathing is such a powerful feeling as you can’t help but connect to a deep part of yourself. Your soul!

I knew that the ceremony I wanted to create was not going to just about Tony and I connecting with our heart space, but I wanted everyone to feel that same connection.

It was only at Soul Glow Retreats that I felt the power of people connecting through this similar practice, and I guess subconsciously or consciously I don’t know… I kept seeing my family and friends surrounding us doing this beautiful practice together.

This vision led me to ask Caryn to officiant our wedding as I only saw her face in my vision and couldn’t imagine anyone else taking us through our ceremony. As soon as I asked Caryn, she cried and was so honoured and that I wanted her to be part of my big day in such a unique way. To me, it was a NO BRAINER as I’ve seen and watched her hold space for so many women over the years I knew she would create and hold space for my family and friends in the same way.

CLEANSING THE MANDALA (CIRCLE)

As yoga teachers for any ceremony or yoga event, we always cleanse the space we are hosting in with sage. This part of the service also came to me in my meditations every time. It was an essential part of the ceremony to cleanse with sage so that all the energy would be clear and positive before the bridal party arrived in the mandala circle.

The moment Caryn saw me walking down the aisle with my mother… see that post full of more pictures here.

CEREMONY MANDALA

When we were all together, Caryn proceeded with the ceremony explaining the Mandala as we created the design with how we positioned everyone in 3 circles.

THE CENTER OF THIS MANDALA  Represents the strongest bond of two families uniting for the first time

THE INNER CIRCLE Represents the power of friendship that goes above and beyond, which was our bridal party

FINAL CIRCLE Represents the sealing of the sacred container that is this Mandala made up of all of our dearest loved ones. 

Caryn then asked Tony and me to step forward and join hands as the next part of the ceremony began…

HEART BREATHING

As I stated earlier that I have attended many sessions doing heart Breathing with Caryn and honestly it’s hard to explain the power of the practice as it’s something that has to be felt. Connecting with your own heart space is such a personal feeling when you put to hands over your heart.

But what I really wanted was time so slow down for a moment during the day that goes by so fast.

So for me to want to share this to all my dearest friends and family that meant the world to me. I knew that by asking everyone to attend my wedding, they were doing so to witness the promises that Tony and I were going to make to one another.

That’s what wedding ceremonies are all about is just to witness two people saying I do. But for us, I wanted everyone to go deeper and not just sit and watch us speak words to each other.

I wanted them to all connect with their hearts as part of this ceremony. I wanted everyone, not just Tony and me to be connecting with our hearts. As it’s a ceremony about love and the love we all share collectively which is why we all made the effort to celebrate this occasion. I knew that Caryn’s heart breathing would be perfect.

After breathing in and out a few times listening to Caryn’s voice, she asked everyone to let go of their hearts and send love towards us while Tony and I stood there and just received love. What an extraordinary moment!

Seeing these photos now made my heart skip a beat as I only remember this moment as a feeling as our eyes were all closed.

Obviously visualising it for month and months in meditation and then writing it down and sharing it with Caryn. We both hoped it would be special but you never know until after the moment has passed and wait for it to have been received… to fully understand what it meant.

To see these images just melted my heart as I knew what was happening but couldn’t see anything… to have this moment captured with everyone breathing out, holding their hearts, being present and some tears being shed is just priceless.

It was one of my favourite moments in the ceremony. I can remember feeling so much love at the end. I know we will cherish it forever.

P.S Even though the Coronavirus caused so many cancellations, disappointment, stress and so much more… I am so glad we decided to go ahead with our wedding and not just elope. This was such an amazing creative process but I am also happy it’s a once and lifetime event!

More on the ceremony in the next blog #weddingseries