Your Wedding Ceremony - 9 Steps to Creating a Relationship Altar to Enrich Your Perfect Marriage

There seems to be some evidence that employing metaphors makes the connection between the thing and the metaphor more real. So that when you're discussing your love and you say that your love is like a rose, then you will be drawn to roses and make connections with your partner when you encounter roses. In that way the metaphor strengthens the relationship. One of the things that we don't use often enough is the power of an altar to accomplish something. (And by altar I don't mean a large edifice erected to golden bulls. Biblical stories warn us that that doesn't go so well!) Altars are metaphors for the relationship. Building an altar is declaring an intention. It is making a place in your house, often your bedroom, to pay attention to your desires.
Altars need to be tended. And the more time you spend cleaning, sprucing up, rearranging your altar, the more likely you are to spend time cleaning, sprucing up and tending your relationship. I haven't met a person who doesn't flourish when he or she is looked after and cosseted a bit. But if you acknowledge that marriage and the keeping of wedding vows are difficult tasks, why not give yourselves some support as you plan for your wedding ceremony and celebration? How should you build this altar?

1. Take a small table and find a place for it in your bedroom. You can use one of your bureaus but it's better if it's neutral space.
2. If you have a special cloth, use that. Otherwise just clean and polish your table. (Think of it as dressing for a date!) You could do something whimsical as well. If the two of you do the Times crossword puzzle together, use the page with the completed crossword as your altar cloth. (change it every day when you finish the next crossword!)
3. Put a picture of each one of you on the altar. Pick a picture of yourself that you love, one where you felt strong and confident. Or ask your partner to pick a photo where he or she found you gorgeous and completely lovable. (you can even use both, if they're not the same and you have the room!)
4. Put a couple of small objects on the altar that represent your lives, your individual lives.
5. Then choose a photo of the two of you. It might be a formal photo if you had an engagement photo taken, or it could be a picture that captures the essence of who you are. Once you marry, put a wedding photo on the altar. Find one where you're obviously enjoying one another. Or find one from the ceremony that conveys your feelings for one another.
6. Put some mementos on the altar from your shared life. Ticket stubs, beach pebbles, bicycle pumps... They should be things that represent the things you like about one another and the things you enjoy doing together.
7. Put a candle on it. Light that candle when you're in the room. Light it when before you make love, light it if you've had a stupid fight over wedding favors.
8. Put fresh flowers on it. Or favorite foods. But you must keep these fresh. You don't want to leave stale or dead flowers or food to honor your love.
9. Tend your relationship. Tend your marriage. Tend one another, and your marriage will thrive.

Bottom Line?: Give your relationship the chance it deserves to succeed wildly, against all odds! After all, you deserve it. Your relationship deserves it! If you want in-depth pointers, ideas, information about designing your perfect wedding ceremony, explore my site! And now I'd like to invite you to sign up to receive 2 free templates for creating the wedding vows of your dreams and the marriage of a lifetime: hhttp://www.key2loves.blogspot.com
The Rev. Ann Keeler Evans - helping you move from "I do" to happily and healthily ever after!