Along with a wonderful idea for a DIY beaded bouquet, Tribe member Ginny also had a good idea to augment her ring warming to suit her small wedding ceremony. Here is her less-than-perfect, but sweet experience.
I had never heard of a ring warming until I discovered the wonders of Offbeat Bride, and then it became an idea I couldn't let go of. It was something I was very adamant and excited about and I tried to explain it to everyone since no one in the Great State of Alabama has ever heard of it.
I've read that sometimes ring warming can take a bit of time. One of our goals was to keep the ceremony short and simple, so we decided to augment the ring warming section to suit our wedding.
We had the idea to keep it to just our family doing the ring warming — though we wanted to include ALL family, so still like 40-ish people. Our guestlist only had about 100 people, so it wasn't going to be huge, but like I said: “short and simple.” The coordinator arranged seating so that family would be at the front in our small venue and we told our parents (in the front) and my uncle (who was supposed to be in the last family row) what we needed them to do.
This is what the officiant read at our wedding to explain the ring-warming ceremony:
Ginny and Adam will exchange rings as a physical symbol of the vows they are making to one another. As the ceremony procedes, will the families of Ginny and Adam please warm these rings by passing them down the row. As you hold them in your hands, pause for a moment, and make your wishes for the couple and for their future together before you pass them on to the next person. These rings will not only be a gift from one to another but will be given with the love, support and wisdom of their family and friends.
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Originally I didn't want to have any readings in our ceremony (keep it short and simple), but then I got paranoid that the ring warming would take a long time. So I ended up asking both our sisters to do a reading, about two days before the wedding, to fill in time while the rings were being passed, JUST IN CASE. Our entire ceremony lasted about seven minutes, and I had estimated that if all 100 people ended up getting the ring and each person held the ring three seconds, it would take about five minutes for the ring to go around, so that should be plenty of time.
Somehow though, in all the wedding day bliss, my dad misunderstood that he was supposed to pass the rings backwards and instead he passed the rings sideways to Adam's dad.
We had told the last groomsman in the lineup that his job was to get the rings when they got to the end of the row Adam's parents were sitting in. He apparently took this responsibility VERY seriously because when my dad passed them the wrong way, then Adam's parents got the rings instead of everyone else, Shawn snatched the rings away from Adam's mom. Which means the rings ended up only getting passed down the front row on each side and the bridal party… so it lasted like twenty-five seconds.
When I saw what happened, for a split second I kind of freaked, but then I realized it didn't matter and at least our parents got to hold the rings. In the wedding video, you can see me telling the officiant that he doesn't have to do his readings if he doesnt want to since the rings are already back, and then we all start laughing. And we laughed basically all the way through the ceremony from there. It was awesome!
The video is shaky, and the video missed the part where the ring warming is explained, but here's the link to the last half of the ceremony, so you can see how one works during a wedding.
