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By Ann Keeler Evans

Life is rich and we should call upon the richness of life and celebrate it in as many ways as we can! Each layer we add to the wedding ceremony deepens the sense memory and the ways it will pop up in the future and carry us back to a magical moment that we associate with that sense. The sense of smell is wildly connected to our emotions. Layers of scent allow us to remember and appreciate the complexity of life.

The obvious way to satisfy smell is with flowers. As long as the people who are allergic can get away from the fragrant blossoms, you can indulge your olfactory sense with great abandon. You don’t need to use thousands of them, at some of the most sophisticated weddings, I’ve seen the bride and her crowd each carry only one blossom… You can scatter flowers around the room or wedding ceremony site. Either a lot of single flowers or several masses of them: all of them fabulously odiferous. Then weave the meaning of those sweet smells into the wedding ceremony. Forever after, that scent will remind the couple (and their community) of the sweetness of their love. Most marriages do well to have tiny little reminders of the importance of the couple’s love for one another!

But there are other ways to celebrate scent. What about food? You probably want to be careful with things like chocolate at a ceremony (it wouldn’t do much for bridal clothes) but there are lots of foods which if warmed and in a chafing dish would provide a wonderful accent. If you were using food, you could talk about what those scents invoke. For me, food smells either mean home or comfort or excitement. Each of those is an element which any enduring marriage needs!

Less obvious and more intimate, how about you? What’s your favorite perfume? Or do you want to wear something that you’ve identified for this special occasion — a scent that you will use at future celebrations, both public and intimate! (Wouldn’t it be a fun shower to go somewhere and have a perfume created just for you?) You could also be anointed with essential oils as part of your preparation for your wedding day. You wouldn’t want to do this if you hadn’t done it before! You don’t want to find out that you’re allergic to whatever essential oil symbolizes serenity and spend your wedding day in hives! In this case you would want to discuss the oils that were chosen and whether they were chosen for scent alone, or for their essential properties. What characteristics do you need to thrive in marriage? What oils offer those characteristics? How careful do you need to be in blending the scents? How about the characteristics? A little discretion goes a long way toward creating a harmonious and peaceful marriage!