Updated March 1, 2014.
Helen Post Curry, owner of Look Events, has produced weddings, galas and events for over 30 years. She has created heartfelt memories in all manner of locations, from the simplest of barns to the most glorious of ballrooms. However, the most unusual request she gets may be the most meaningful: the labyrinth wedding.
A Labyrinth Wedding is a Powerful Meditation
“Long involved with teaching walking meditation using labyrinths, Helen Curry was called upon to create her first Labyrinth Wedding in 1995. As an ordained inter-faith minister, she planned, produced and performed the ceremony using a portable canvas Ceremonial Labyrinth of her own design. Over the years she has gone on to do many others, both indoors and outdoors.
Labyrinth weddings are unusual in many ways. The most important distinction is that the ‘isle’ is circular, rather than a linear path. The couple is completely surrounded by their family and friends as they walk separate paths of the labyrinth into the center. They meet at the heart of the circle where they exchange their vows, and then walk out together.”
In her book, “The Way of the Labyrinth: A Powerful Meditation for Everyday Life,” Helen Curry says about labyrinth weddings:
“Weddings on the labyrinth are wonderful and have a completely different feel than traditional weddings. Rather than the traditional walk down the ‘straight and narrow’ of the church aisle, the couple walk around the paths and turns of the labyrinth–a much more accurate metaphor for the journey they are embarking upon.
Where many modern weddings seem to be rushed, the labyrinth wedding slows down time. It also seems to connect the participants and observers to the sacred in a way that many modern weddings don’t. 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 are anything but.”
If you’d like to know more about a labyrinth wedding, check out “The Way of the Labyrinth: A Powerful Meditation for Everyday Life,” published by Penguin Compass, a division of Penguin Putnam, or read an article by Beliefnet.com.
Have you attended or would you consider a labyrinth wedding?
