During the Handfasting ceremony, the couple’s hands are tied together with one or several colored cords or ribbons, symbolizing the desire of the couple to be united. The cord is often kept by the couple in a box or ornate bag as a reminder of their vows.
Handfastings, done in the past as a commitment for a year and a day, can be combined with ring vows and a license to make it a legally binding contract.
Here are some of the meanings attached to the colors:
Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps you’ve wondered where the words “tying the knot” come from. The expression actually refers to an early Keltic marriage ritual called a “Handfasting.”
After the wedding vows and ring exchange, the couple’s left wrists were bound together with colored cord or ribbon, signifying the joining of their lives in sacred union.
A modern handfasting is a symbolic ceremony to honor a couple’s desire for commitment to each other, and to acknowledge that their lives and their destinies are now bound together.
Groom and Bride, now that your vows of love have been spoken, I’ll ask you, please, to cross your arms, and take each other’s hands. By joining your hands in this manner, you create the sign of infinity. So may your love for one another have no limits, and your time together have no end.
The cords are a symbol of the life you have chosen to live together. Up until this moment you have been separate in thought, word, and deed. As the cords are tied together, so shall your lives become intertwined.
With these cords, I bind you to the vows that you have made to one another. With this knot, I tie you heart to heart, together as one.
Groom and Bride, the knot of this binding is not bound by the cord, but rather, by your own vows of love. For, as always, you hold in your own hands the making or breaking of this union. May this “love knot” always be a reminder of the binding together of two hands, two hearts, and two souls into one.
And so are you bound, each to the other, for all the days of your lives.