We booked our officiant! (If you remember I posted about how hard it is to find one and how to even start, we got pretty lucky with her). She gave us some forms on what sort of ceremony we would like to start off with, but we're both extremely new to weddings, we've never been to one in our adult life so we don't know what seems like a good idea or not. Our wedding is very far off so she's not rushing us so she gave a list of ritual ideas and an option to add additional ones to start off with.
For some background information we're atheists, I came from a Roman Catholic Dominican family and he came from a non-religious Chinese (Hong Kong) family where only his mom is Buddhist. If we were to include any rituals from our family backgrounds they would have to be able to blend well with non-religious beliefs.
We want the officiant to say a few words about our parents and grandparents and loved ones who have died, but we don't want specific parent rituals (Like passing a rose to our mothers) because his parents won't be there. But as an option, we would like a ritual that includes our guests without them feeling weird (We thought the stone ceremony was too much and the passing the sign of peace seems like a nice idea but it felt too much like Catholic mass).
From the list we really like the memory box ceremony (Adding love letters and a bottle of wine in a box to open later), sand ceremony (In an hourglass), tree planting ceremony (We don't have a house yet though so it would have to be slow growing in a pot for a year or two), wine ceremony.
Do you guys know of any other ideas (Even made up ones) for non-religious weddings? Or ones that can include guests somehow? Even in a small way. Maybe this will help other Atheist brides here with a list.