Handfasting Course for Wedding Celebrants

Are you a wedding celebrant who would like to confidently offer different kinds of handfasting ceremonies?
Did your wedding celebrant training provide you with enough information to create and perform the kinds of handfasting ceremonies you would like to create?
Are you interested in learning more about handfasting? Our handfasting course for wedding celebrants is aimed at all wedding celebrants who want to offer a range of handfasting ceremonies as part of their celebrant services.

Handfasting Ceremonies

Handfasting is a Pagan wedding custom, considered by many to have been around for centuries. It involves the hands of those the ceremony is for being bound together with any chosen materials. Handfasting is a meaningful ceremony and through the introduction and rise in popularity of wedding celebrants, handfasting is now accessible to non-Pagans too.

Handfasting during a Pagan wedding is different to the versions of handfasting taught to and performed by most wedding celebrants. Religious appropriation is important, and celebrants must respect this when offering handfasting ceremonies. When celebrancy became a service in the UK, perhaps celebrants thought merely offering wedding ceremonies wasn’t different enough to what was already available for those who did not want a religious wedding. Looking for different things to include, handfasting made its way into celebrant ceremonies as a unity ceremony.

Wedding celebrants were and still are taught about unity ceremonies to offer their clients more of an individualised wedding ceremony. Handfasting became the most requested of the unity ceremonies even though it is a ritual and a religious wedding custom. Like other wedding customs, it has been adopted and adapted by celebrants.

Handfasting is a meaningful and memorable ceremony, binding those each ceremony is for together through choice and in unity.
Ellie Farrell

Handfasting by a Wedding Celebrant

Many wedding celebrants offer handfasting ceremonies. Most include handfasting within a wedding. Very few specialise in handfasting with several wedding celebrants stating they shy away from promoting handfasting or try to steer clients away from requesting it because of their lack of confidence and knowledge.

Some celebrant training companies spend longer than others teaching trainee celebrants about handfasting. Choice Celebrant Founder Ellie Farrell has been specialising in handfasting ceremonies and has taught hundreds of trainee celebrants how to create and perform them over the last nine years. Still supporting and helping all celebrants who need it and answering questions about handfasting, now you have the opportunity to learn all about handfasting from Ellie.

Below are 12 of the most asked questions celebrants ask about handfasting.

Are ribbons or a braided cord used?
Who provides the ribbons or cords for the ceremony
What is used for handfasting?
How do I make handfasting cords/bindings?
How is handfasting performed?
How are the bindings made and who does it?
How is the knot tied?
Are vows said?
Where in the ceremony does a handfasting take place?
Can rings still be exchanged?
Does a poem have to be said?
Are there more poems than ‘The Blessing of the Hands’?

Are you one of the many celebrants who is familiar with the following words, replicated on many websites?

In the joining of hands and the fashion of a knot, so are your lives now bound, one to another. By this cord you are thus bound to your vow. May this knot remain tied for as long as love shall last.

Do you feel you want to include more than you currently include in the handfasting section of your wedding ceremony?
Would you like to be more creative with your ceremony words?
Are you concerned you aren’t receiving as many handfasting bookings as other celebrants post about in Facebook groups?

Handfasting Course for Wedding Celebrants

As plenty of wedding celebrants have stated they are lacking in knowledge or confidence to offer handfasting ceremonies, and others have expressed a desire to learn how to create and perform different kinds and styles of handfasting ceremonies, we have created a Handfasting for Celebrants Training Course.

Aimed at all wedding celebrants from trainee celebrants, newly trained or established celebrants, or those who are yet to have a booking for a handfasting ceremony, the course is open to all who have completed with certification a wedding celebrant training course. Whatever training company trained you is irrelevant as this course is accessible to all wedding celebrants.

Devised, written, and led by award winning celebrant Ellie Farrell, our newly launched Handfasting for Celebrants Training Course will provide you with knowledge, skills and confidence to create, perform and market handfasting ceremonies, picking up where your celebrant training left off.

An instructional and practical course held on Zoom without any pre-recorded videos. Online face to face at a time and a day to suit both you and your Celebrant Trainer. Not only will you learn how to write and perform different kinds of handfasting ceremonies, but you can also learn how to make handfasting cords meaning no more buying from Etsy.

There is more than one way to make a binding; more than one way to tie a knot.
Ellie Farrell

Handfasting like celebrant weddings has become widespread so why not embrace it and add it to your list of services knowing you can create and perform each one you asked to do with confidence, knowledge, and support. We can help you reach your best potential as a celebrant who offers unique handfasting ceremonies.

Included is a handfasting kit which for you to practice with, display at wedding fairs and show to your clients. Doing the course different ways to create handfasting cords and bindings are explained (there is more to the creation of handfasting bindings than braiding a few ribbons together). You will also be awarded a certificate and a website/social media badge to display to show you are a celebrant who is knowledgeable and confident in the creation and delivery of different kinds of handfasting ceremonies.

This handfasting course for wedding celebrants is a must for all wedding celebrants (regardless of who you trained with) if you want to expand your business and attract new clients.

I cannot recommend this training highly enough. You will learn things here that are not taught by other course providers. Everything is given a cultural and historical context. I was surprised with the quality of writing that I was able to produce with the encouragement of my tutor. You won’t regret embarking on this course.

Tone Bonner

Handfasting is the most requested unity ceremony and ceremony ritual in celebrant weddings. No longer something to be feared out of lack of confidence or limited knowledge, handfasting requests have increased in most celebrant weddings. Can you afford not to take this handfasting for wedding celebrants course?

Blog by Choice Celebrant Training