Traditional-Cherokee-Wedding
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The ceremony lay out of the Circle of marriage



Circle: North: Elders South: Young married couples & children East: Young men West: Veterans & warriors Minister will be standing in the circle slightly to the south and facing south. Bride & Groom will be facing the minister. There should be chairs for the elders who cannot stand.

Step one
Find a Cherokee minister to perform your wedding. You may visit your local tribal council or even search the yellow pages directory for licensed Cherokee ministers. While many Cherokee ministers are affiliated with a specific denomination, most will adapt the wedding service to your specific religious and spiritual preferences.

Step two
Choose the location for your Cherokee wedding. Traditionally, Cherokee ceremonies are performed outdoors where the bridal couple will be accompanied by nature, or the "Great Life," often near a stream or river and surrounded by trees.

Step three
Prepare the sacred wedding objects that will be used during the ceremony. These should include sage sticks, to cleanse and purify the wedding party, tobacco to offer to the earth, separate bride and groom wedding baskets that include objects symbolically important to you, a marriage branch, or a forked cedar branch that is hung above the matrimonial bed and a wedding blanket, either light blue or white, that symbolizes the sacred union.

Step Four
Plan the specifics of your Cherokee wedding ceremony with your minister. The ceremony should begin with an offering and ritual cleansing, gifting tobacco to the Mother Earth who allows the ceremony to take place on her sacred ground. Included in this ritual should be a saging, or cleansing with a sage stick, of the wedding party. After the cleansing ritual, the wedding blanket is spread out on the ground between the couple and the minister.

Step Five
Call the ceremony together with the exchange of the bride and groom's baskets, followed by a traditional Cherokee wedding prayer.

Step Six
End the ceremony with a ritual dance.The wedding guests will dance around the couple seven times, placing gifts before them. Once the guests have passed the couple seven times, they will remove the blanket, folding it together, taking care that it does not touch the ground until the marriage has been consummated. Following the ceremony is usually a celebration of food and drink.



There are a few thing we are still trying to gather for this and they are as Follows:

1 white Cherokee wedding blanket

2 Light blue wedding blankets

3 Large hand woven baskets

1 Native American Cherokee wedding vase

1 Sage smudging stick

3 packages tobacco

3 braids sweet grass

3 packages of ceder

1 pair size mens 9 black knee high moccasins

1 pair size woman's 9 wide knee high moccasins

1 2x white leather with whit fringe Native American wedding dress.

Please If you know of other things we would need tell us. Thank you so much.


















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Mountian Cloud Dancing
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This is a round Dance at the Tamworth Powwow this year

Wedding Ceremony

Introduction by Minister, Sageing of all guests, and Wedding Party.

(TO Bride):( ), what do you provide for this union of marriage? Mother of Bride will hand Bride the Brides basket. Bride: I provide these things to my husband and home. They are a symbol that I will care for you and love you always.

(TO Groom): ( ), what do you provide for this union of marriage? Mother of Groom will hand Groom the Groom's basket. Groom: I provide these things to my wife. They are a symbol that I will provide, love and protect our family always.

(TO Bride & Groom): You may exchange baskets. Bride & Groom to set baskets in front of them, and hold hands.

(A Reading or a Native American Blessing) 1. (A Native American Blessing) Now you will feel no rain, for you will be shelter to each other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you. Soon you will go to your resting place, to enter into the days of your togetherness. May your days be good and long upon the earth.

2. (TO THE COUPLE) A Native American Blessing) Above you are the stars, below you are the stones. As time does pass, remember; Like a star should your love be constant. Like a stone should your love be firm. Be close, yet not too close. Possess one another, yet be understanding. Have patience with the other; for storms will come, but they will go quickly. Be free in giving of affection and warmth. Make love often, and be sensuous to one another. Have no fear, and let not the ways of words of the unenlightened give you unease. For the Great Spirit is with you, now and always.

Blessings by Family and wedding guests.

Traditional Vows (if desired)

(REPEAT VOWS) I, ( , ) take you ( , ) as my (wife, husband). I do solemnly avow my love for you. I will comfort you, keep you, love you, defend you in sickness or in health, in riches or poverty, in sorrow or joy, seeking only to be with you until death parts us. All these things I pledge upon my honor. The Mothers will wrap the wedding blanket around Bride & Groom.

(RING BLESSING) Circles have no beginning and has no end, and so in the long and sacred tradition of marriage rings have come to symbolize eternal love and endless union of body, of mind, and of the spirit. Aho!

(EXCHANGE RINGS) This ring is a symbol of my love and faithfulness, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you, and pledge to you my love and life.

(BLESSING of the baskets) Father Sky and Mother Earth, creator and nurturer of all life, we give heartfelt thanks for the moment that brought ( , ) together in the Holy State of Marriage.. Aho!

Now as you ( ) and you ( ) have consented together in matrimony and have pledged your faith to each other by the giving and the receiving of these rings before your family and Community; according to the powers invested in me by the State of New Hampshire,

I NOW PRONOUNCE THAT YOU ARE HUSBAND AND WIFE.

(KISS THE BRIDE)

Minister walks Bride & Groom to the blanket spread on the ground. Minister unties the Wedding Blanket. Sisters will fold the blanket and put it in a safe place.

Optional: (Groom): This marriage branch is a symbol of our love for each other, and for our lives becoming as one.

Bride & Groom will notch the branch while Best Man gently shake the turtle rattle.

The drums will begin and guests will dance around the couple 7 times placing gifts on the blanket before them.

The Wedding Blanket is folded and tied by Bride & Groom and taken on the honeymoon. The blanket will not touch the ground until the marriage is consummated.

The wedding party will dance and celebrate with food & drink.







The payers of the ceremony



# 1 Cherokee wedding prayer: Now you will feel no rain, for you will be shelter to each other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you. Soon you will go to your resting place, to enter into the days of your togetherness. May your days be good and long upon the earth.



# 2 A Cherokee wedding blessing: Above you are the stars, below you are the stones. As time does pass, remember; Like a star should your love be constant. Like a stone should your love be firm. Be close, yet not too close. Possess one another, yet be understanding. Have patience with the other; for storms will come, but they will go quickly. Be free in giving of affection and warmth. Make love often, and be sensuous to one another. Have no fear, and let not the ways of words of the unenlightened give you unease. For the Great Spirit is with you, now and always.

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Please help us have a traditional Native American Cherokee wedding of our dreams.