Planning Your Perfect Wedding and Perfect Marriage - Managing With Disabilities

One of the most fundamental needs of brides and grooms on their wedding day is to be as relaxed as possible.
This means the wedding ceremony and the wedding reception need to accommodate your needs.
You don't need to sacrifice any of the pomp and ritual of traditional wedding ceremonies, you just need to transform them so that the ritual is perfectly suited to you.
Lean heavily on the senses available to you to balance out the celebration.
Let your wedding be as big as your dreams for your happy-ever-after marriage.
Mobility challenges:

• Obviously the site(s) need to be accessible and accommodate any special needs you have.
  
• You don't need to process.
  Consider being in a secluded place and having the guests enter at the last minute.
  (Wedding Priestess thinks a little theater and bearer boys -- or girls -- might not be out of the question, might as well have fun!)
• If you're in a chair, set the florist loose, as long as it doesn't interfere with your mobility.
  
• Partners should be at the same level as they make their wedding vows.
  Both partners could sit on decorated thrones.
  (We got married at a Masonic Temple.
  My SweetPea doesn't stand well, so we were ensconced on Fabulous thrones no longer used for secret handshake rituals, and popped up and down.
  It was great!)
• If you're sitting for your wedding vows, and want to make it special, ask the community (who is able) to stand so that they can all see you.
  
• At the reception, mix up the levels so that some things are visible to people at chair height and others for those who are standing.
  It will be more interesting anyway.
  
• If the dance is interesting to you, a quick look at the internet should make it clear that dancing is possible.
  A wheel chair minuet with your decorated chair? Stunning!

Visual challenges:

• Play with the light.
  If you have good audio, people don't need to see.
  (Other than your celebrant, unless he or she reads Braille or memorizes well!)
• Include the other senses: have a water fountain or a crackling fire, fill a room with flowers and music.
  
• Slow the pace down so that there isn't a lot of fast movement so that your guests have time to become comfortable with the reduced light.
  
• (You do need to make sure the temp is comfortable, if you're going to play with the light, however.
  )

Hearing challenges:

• Find an interpretive signer.
  Have the signer teach the audience any responses.
  This is so beautiful.
  
• Use a dancer rather than a reader.
  
• Vows must be made so that both can understand, so either signed or lip-read and use a speech interpreter.
  
• If you want to still use music, use music that you can feel.
  Process to a bass or drums.
  

Don't be afraid to introduce your community to the reality of who you are and how you love one another.
Let your wedding ceremony reflect your dreams and the truth of your life, let your wedding vows express your values and your commitment to overcoming obstacles and let your wedding reception be a darn good time for everyone.
Doing this at your wedding will do a lot to secure your community's support.
It will also establish possibilities for the way you interact in your marriage.
And your wedding will be the most amazing and most beautiful wedding anyone has ever seen.
Who doesn't want that said about their wedding?