How to add a meditation to your wedding ceremony

maria bridge
3 min readJun 24, 2018

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My partner Bridge and I got married 2x. After wedding ceremony #1 went by in a blur, we realized we wanted to slow things down for wedding ceremony #2. So we decided to add in a 2 minute meditation to our ceremony. Here’s how you can, too.

Our quick story is below, but if you just want the good stuff, here are your go to resources:

  1. The meditation transcript
  2. The meditation recording (Soundcloud 2:16 minutes)

Hope this helps you!

Our story: Wedding #1

We got married at Burning Man 2017, at sunrise, on a Tuesday, surrounded by 70 Burner friends and strangers. All were welcome.

Our friend Caleb, led a procession to us by drum. My campmate Rachel gifted me an interstellar light up cape at 5am that I decided to wear last minute. I designed and constructed my hat, bodice, and bouquet. Bridge found a vintage ecuadorian poncho and some cheap silver leggings.

Interstellar light up cape

We were married by our closet friend, Anneke. We chose readings that were special to us. Inspired by another Burner couple, we crafted joint vows for one another, and joint vows for our community.

Burning Man Wedding Ceremony, officiated by Anneke.

The ceremony was considered, authentic, and honest. Anneke and I planned it all out to take ~25 minutes.

And it did. It ran perfectly on schedule.

But, the whole thing was a blur.

Which was why, we when prepared for Wedding #2, we decided to add in a two minute meditation to the ceremony.

Wedding #2 — Joshua Tree National Park

For our second wedding, we kept the ceremony largely the same. We kept the same readings, and the same vows. Anneke officiated again.

In more traditional clothing, but the same trio.

The biggest change was swapping out a two breath “mindful moment” from our first ceremony for a complete 2 minute meditation.

It made a HUGE difference.

In wedding #1, I felt caught up in the energy and the whirlwind of the excitement.

In wedding #2, I felt calm, more present than I perhaps had ever been, and able to experience Bridge, the love of our community, and the beauty of the natural environment.

The meditation took 2 minutes, but helped us to make time expand. I felt every moment and every minute of the ceremony. The content was the same, but my mindset was different.

I’d highly recommend adding this to your own ceremony. The full two minutes was essential. And our attendees new to meditating and less new-agey than us, were those who gave us the most positive feedback.

So, here’s to hoping this helps someone else out there. Any questions, drop me a note :)

— With love, maria, bridge, and anneke.

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maria bridge
maria bridge

Written by maria bridge

Writing on meditation, behavioral psychology, and applied ethics. Stanford MBA, Bain alum, certified Koru Mindfulness teacher.