Joining Hands and Hearts: Interfaith, Intercultural Wedding Celebrations: A Practical Guide for Couples

By Susanna Stefanachi Macomb

Book Overview

So you're getting married The wedding is the most gloriously celebrated of life's rites of passage. Today couples of all faiths, colors, and cultures are choosing an interfaith ceremony for its spiritually inclusive and personal approach. It is a way of rejoicing in our differences and celebrating our commonality in an atmosphere of mutual love and respect. If yours is an interfaith, intercultural, or interracial union, then you have already embraced a love that knows no boundaries. What could be more beautiful? But now that it's time to make a public statement to the world, you may suddenly be filled with questions: How do we make sure that our ceremony is a reflection of our love and our relationship? How do we remain true to ourselves and still make our families happy? How can we create a wedding ceremony that merges our religious, spiritual, cultural, and personal beliefs? Can we do this without offending or alienating anyone? Who will officiate at our ceremony? When and where will the ceremony take place? Which rituals will we include? Joining Hands and Hearts will help you answer all of these questions and more, with a detailed questionnaire to help you learn more about yourselves and each other, practical guides to structuring an interfaith wedding ceremony, tender counsel on how to work with your families, and the most complete manual of religious, cultural, and universal rituals, prayers, vows, and blessings available. In warm, inclusive language, Reverend Susanna Macomb guides you through the most sensitive of issues with love and encouragement. She offers the stories and ceremonies of other couples to inspire you. You are not alone Interfaith, intercultural, and interracial couples bring healing and hope for all of us. You are the future, and Joining Hands and Hearts can help you celebrate your union with all of the love, grace, and magic it deserves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743436989
• ISBN13: 9780743436984
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

great book from a great person

Rev. Macomb's book is a must not only for those who are planning interfaith or intercutltural weddings. I'd say it's a must for ANYONE who is planning a wedding b/c it is laden with wisdom, knowledge, and real compassion and emotion. There is a multitude of beautiful readings that are pertinent to various parts of a ceremony, as well as a treasure-trove of tid-bits and historical facts about so many cultures. Most importantly, the book keeps things in perspective: why you are getting married, why it is important, and what it means. The book is well organized and well written, and has an honest and spiritual voice that is both calm and soothing. We were lucky enough to have Rev. Susanna conduct our ceremony--she is a genuine and kind person who really loves and cares about what she does, and if you can't have her actually marry you, then this book is the next best thing!

The answers we were looking for

As a groom with many doubts heading into an interfaith marriage, it has answered so many questions and offered many possibilities that I did not even know were available to me. Neither my future wife or I are very religious to say the least, but still we needed that tradition, without the ceremony becoming stodgy or sappy. We wanted it to be personal and unique and enjoyable, but without all the usual bells and whistles. With Ms. Stefanachi's book, we found exactly what I had in mind, and avoided the cookie-cutter variety I had seen in the past. And since we need to present our ideas to our family and make them appealing, this book helped us in that regard as well. I really like the author's non-judgmental attitude. She definitely seems to have a good way of speaking to people through her words, and the ways of organizing the info. The book helped me overcome those doubts and gave me the answers we were looking for.

Joining Hands and Hearts: More than Practical

I am an event planner who deals with brides and grooms everyday from every culture and religion. This book has been helpful for me as a planner as well as the many couples who marry. This is more than a practical guide but a journey into many different ways of approaching cultures and religions. It has given me great insight into helping couples throught a very happy and at times a very stressful event. BRAVO...finally a how to guide that WORKS...

A really useful book for a sometimes difficult process

My fiancée and I felt really asea when we started planning our interfaith wedding. We had trouble finding books that had examples of successful ceremonies and real stories about what couples dealt with during the process. There's a tremendous amount of detail here but it's not overwhelming--and most importantly, it let us, as an interfaith couple, start to figure out what we did and didn't want in our ceremony. And the tone of the book is also very warm and supportive, never letting you forget that it's supposed to be a joyous celebration (sometimes a hard thing for a groom to remember!). The book describes literally dozens of practices and customs from faiths and peoples around the world, and my fiancée and I found ourselves getting carried away with what we wanted to put into our wedding! Don't worry, though, you'll find this book as helpful as we did.

Trying to plan a non religious ceremony

Planning a wedding can be very confusing especially with so many details to put together. One part of the wedding I need help with is planning the ceremony. Since my finance and I are of different faiths and not religious I am looking to plan a more spiritual ceremony, meaningful non-denominational that is heartfelt, joyful with many personal and unique details and have no idea how to begin!!!Joining Hands and Hearts by Susanna Stefanachi Macomb is the perfect guide and is so many books rolled into one. On one had it is a "How To" guide to plan your own unique ceremony. This book is also a guide for couples who are of different faiths and shows you how to create a ceremony that will include your families as well as your customs. But what surprised me most was this book is also a love story. The stories that the couples tell are so unique and truly show how fate and coincidence can bring couples together. If you have recently gotten engaged or know somebody who has then this book is a must!!!!