Wedding traditions offer richness and color to enrich your wedding ceremony and transform your life. And what’s even more fun is that they can be remade to fit your life.

The tradition behind scattering flower petals before the bride is based on the notion that no dirt should stick to her before she reaches her groom (spotless!) Quaint, but not quite as appropriate for today’s world. So why not flip it?

Leave your wedding ceremony on a carpet of flowers. Walk towards your future along a path of petals. Let those flowers symbolize the love (and its beauty) that protects you from the roughness of the road and that transforms each path into one of joy? Navigate that hallway awash with the love of your friends and sure of your love for each other.

What to do? (This works whether or not you have an aisle runner. Aisle runners just make cleanup a bit easier, if you spread things that can’t be left to rot. Hint: local leaves or flowers are always a good idea!)

• At the end of the wedding ceremony, have the children (yes, all the children) come to the front and collect baskets, bags, bowls of flowers. Then ask them to parade, making sure they understand that the entire hallway should be covered in petals. (You will need many petals and many children!) They can do this in solemn silence, with quiet music, or with the support of their parents. Note: As with all wedding events involving children, make someone (not the bride and groom) responsible for helping them achieve their goals.
• Once the path is full of colors and abundance, step out into your future. Quite often, couples stand in front, not knowing what to do other than trying to get to the hall. Now you have a job. You must walk carefully towards your future, hand in hand with your loved one, aware of the beauty that you have before you. Smile a lot; It’s something good. Smile at your community that will cheer you on.
• If you want, spread a piece of tape from your hand to those of your assistants. Take them down the aisle with you on the glorious path that is your future. Because it’s true: when we’re happy, we drag the world in our wake. That is a worthy goal for any marriage! In fact, you may want to place the celebration of joy as part of your assumed responsibilities in your wedding vows. That will make the endurance challenges part of the promises much easier.

Move into your future with grace and joy and the good wishes of your entire community. This metaphor of the flowery road is one that occurs in real life.

Flowering trees and shrubs lose their flowers and cover the world with beauty. Every time that happens, every time they see a photo of it, they will remember their wedding ceremony and wedding vows, and they will be reinforced in their love for each other. (Actually: actively look for pictures of this beauty. Cut them out, put them in your lover’s pocket as a keepsake. Or look for branches with cut flowers to put around the house and let them sit until they line the table with beauty.) be happy together!