Labyrinth Wedding Ceremony....................

A Precious Moment in Time


Weddings in our labyrinth are wonderful and have a completely different feel than traditional weddings.  You don't have to be married on our Labyrinths, to get married on our scenic country grounds! Rather than the traditional walk down the "straight and narrow" of a church aisle, the couple follows separate lavender paths that wind around and mirror each other. Although they both arrive at the center of the labyrinth, they get to the center while walking the separate paths and turns of the labyrinth. Then, they arrive in the same place together, as we do in life itself.  These separate paths are a good metaphor for the journey a bride and groom are embarking upon. Sometimes weddings seem to be rushed. The labyrinth wedding slows down time. A labryinth has a magical way of connecting the participants and observers to the wedding event.  It's hard for the bride and groom not to connect to their inner journey as they walk the labyrinth--and it's hard for the observers not to be drawn to the center with them. Traditional weddings are familiar and predictable. Labyrinth weddings draw your friends and family in to this precious moment in a way traditional weddings may not. Many labyrinth wedding ceremonies start with the guests seated in chairs forming concentric circles around the labyrinth. Once everyone

is seated, the person performing the ceremony walks into the center to create a "sacred space."

A Native American Wedding Prayer

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other.

Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to each other.

Now there is no more loneliness for you, for each of you will be comfort to the other.

Though you are two bodies, there is but one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness and may the days of your life be good and long upon the earth.

Lavender design from Tebri Vineyard and Lavender Farms, Monroe, Oregon.

The finished lavender labyrinth design for the wedding place at Elk Ridge Ranch and Vineyards expected growth by 2015. It will be a replica of this existing design which was photographed on site at

Te Bri Vineyards and lavender farm in Monroe, Oregon. Photo above 2 year growth, below 3 year.

A couple of local home-school farm kid neighbors get credit for art and geometry lessons by helping design and build the labyrinth. Labyrinths make great educational projects.

groom gets to the center. He waits for her. The bride arrives and they come together at the center. Often at this point, there are selected readings by friends or family members.

If it's a second marriage for either one of them, and there are children, the children come in. The couple then exchange their vows. Often the couples have chosen to be in the center by themselves, although there is no particular rules – it’s your wedding do what you wish! However, the image of the couple standing alone in the center is very powerful. After exchanging vows and rings, it's a beautiful image as the couple walks out of the center of the labyrinth together. Our lavender lined exit path allows them to walk straight out of the center side by side as in married life to greet their family and friends.

There is generally music. Some people choose to have additional readings. The person performing the ceremony generally will meet them at the labyrinth exit for the final blessing. There are many variations on this basic outline. This is your wedding and it’s your decision on how the ceremony is played out and which blessing that you choose to use. Very often, couples have written the whole ceremony. That's appropriate because it's their day.

We love to use the Native American wedding prayer because of the beautiful and full of meaning and poetry used in a very tender and appropriate way.

 We often use a reading that works very nicely to explain the labyrinth and how it relates to the marriage ceremony. It also leads into the image of the circle as it relates to marriage and the rings. The blessing and the labyrinth together emblemize these connections beautifully.  After the person performing the ceremony has come back out to the entrance again, the groom comes to the entrance of the labyrinth and is blessed by his family as he begins his journey. The blessing can be as simple or as elaborate as they choose to make it. The groom then begins his walk, sometimes in silence, sometimes with music, and sometimes with readings by friends or family members. Sometimes the groom gets to the center before the bride arrives. Sometimes it is arranged that the groom's walk so that he does not get all the way to the center before the bride arrives. He will only have begun his journey and stopped part way around as she comes to the entrance. He will often just stand still while she is blessed by her family and friends, again as simply or as elaborately as they choose. Now both the bride and groom are walking the labyrinth.  As in life, the two of them have begun their journeys separately; the labyrinth allows this reality to be reflected. At this time they are both moving

around in circles, both on the same path, heading to the same place, yet not walking together. They pass each other, which is really powerful because you know they are eventually going to meet. The

Labyrinth in progress Elk Ridge Ranch -The Wedding Place October, 2014. Rusk, Indiana.