A Quaker Ceremony

We are not having an official Quaker wedding ceremony as there are traditions, such as giving away the bride, that we are still honoring in our homemade ceremony. However, we are not having an 'official' officiant and we are honoring the "open worship" part of a Quaker Ceremony.

The "open worship" refers to a time when the ceremony is opened up to all those attending to stand and say a few words in support for the couple. There are usually some silent periods which are very normal in Quaker worship and are meant as a time for reflection.

The reason for no officiant, as we understand, is because in the Quaker tradition there are no religious leaders per say. No ministers or priests. Rather, they believe that God is always present and when they feel moved to say something, it is his will. The same is true of how they practice regular weekly worship.

Some great resources for what to expect are found below:

The Knot explains what to expect.

A Backyard Wedding depiction is very similar to how we'll adapt our ceremony.

Wikipedia (of course) provides a straight forward definition of a Quaker wedding.  If you want to know more specifically about the Quaker religion you can read about it here.