Karen Dempsey

But the marriage is something that the couple are stepping into wholeheartedly.

They know that they don't know what's ahead.

But what they do know is that regardless of what's to come, this is the person they want by their side, come what may.

And to me, that is deeply profound.

And it can get lost in the over-romanticising sometimes of, there's lovely stories about how couples met and how they got engaged.

But all of that in the grand scheme of things boils down to

They met each other somehow, crossed paths, decided this person is interesting enough to move on to meet them the next time, the next time.

And the series of all those yeses lead them to a space where they say, we are going to commit to one another.

I don't believe in the till death do us part unless the couple use that language themselves.

Because I really think that the power of a marriage is in the choice.

The choice with which the couple choose one another and the choice with which every day they decide, yes, I am in this marriage because I want to be.

Yes.

And the love story is a big thing that is coming out in a lot of wedding ceremonies.

A lot of them do incorporate a love story.

But I don't necessarily incorporate the love story because I don't go seeking it.

I use what the couple tell me.

And to me, the power of a marriage ceremony is the ancientness of it.

It's not that, you know, there's a word bespoke that is bandied around a lot with weddings.

This is a bespoke ceremony, bespoke this, bespoke that.

To me, for the ceremony, it should be recognizable to everybody that's there as this ancient tradition of two people choosing one another for whatever reason they're choosing one another.