What is the Rose Ceremony?

There are so many ways to symbolise your union in marriage in your wedding ceremony. A popular ritual is the Rose Ceremony. The Rose Ceremony add a romantic and beautiful visual representation of love into your ceremony.

As with all the wedding ceremony rituals there are many ways to do the Rose Ceremony, with different wording to suit the couple. Indeed, you can work with your celebrant to craft the ceremony and write your own personal words.

I performed the Rose Ceremony for Michelle and Joe, and this is how they chose to do it. After their vows and rings their mothers presented them each with a single red rose. As they presented the roses I said:

“Today is a celebration of love and as mothers you have set the best example of what love is. For this they are eternally grateful.”

Michelle and Joe then exchanged the roses as the first gift to each other as husband and wife. As they exchanged the roses I said:

“In some ways, it seems like you have not done anything at all. Just a moment ago, you were holding one red rose, and now you are holding another red rose. And in some ways, a marriage ceremony is much like this. It may appear like tomorrow is going to be no different than yesterday, but in fact, today, just now, you both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life – one I hope you always remember – the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage.”

As I said there are other ways to do this ceremony. Here are some ideas of how you might include the rose ceremony but can also use your imagination and create your own.

Give roses to the children or other family members.

The couple could give out roses as a symbol of their love for their children and for each other’s families, as well as for each other.

Guests create a bouquet.

Guests could each collect a rose (or other flower) on arrival and as they make their way into the ceremony space, place it into a vase and give with it their wishes, hopes and love for the couple. The bouquet of roses which is created by the guests can then be used as a wedding bouquet or displayed on the ceremony table and taken home or dried later, to have as a keepsake of their wedding day and their guests love and wishes for their future together.