When a straight couple plans their wedding, there are choices such as "shall we do traditional or contemporary?" "Church or register office?" "On dry land or tumbling out of an aeroplane?"
Okay, so the last one is a bit silly, but what I'm trying to get at is that there is an entire wealth of traditions and hundreds of years of marriage ceremonies to draw upon.
When I have spoken to gay couples, many have said they are a bit bamboozled when thinking about the kind of wedding they want. I remember speaking to one lady who said "it's not like we can just do what everyone else does, like straight couples can."
I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that – it was so contrary to the way I see it. For me, a gay couple has an entire world of wedding traditions to pick and choose from, and reject entirely if they so wish. If you want to be 'given away' by a parent, or best friend, or family friend, then why not? If you want to have a best man AND a best woman, why not? If you want to have a very traditional styled ceremony in a grand civil venue, why not?
Just because those traditions and rituals were developed for straight marriage, it doesn't mean that they can't be drawn upon for a gay wedding. After all, union and love underpin many of them, and that's what this is all about.
The world of weddings is your oyster, a veritable feast of ideas and traditions for you to peruse and pick the ones which are right for you and your civil partnership ceremony, and that is exactly what this section is about. You'll find information about worldwide traditions and what other people have done too, all with the aim of inspiring you in the planning of your ceremony.
