Gathering 1–2 min
[Guests are seated. The couple takes their place facing each other and the officiant, near whoever is holding the cords.]
A handfasting ceremony script
Bracketed lines are directions to perform, not lines to read aloud.
Welcome and what handfasting is 2–3 min
Welcome, everyone. Please, be seated.
[Partner A] and [Partner B] have chosen to be married with a handfasting — one of the oldest ways two people have ever joined their lives. Long before rings and registries, couples across many cultures bound their hands together with cord as they made their vows. It’s a simple, honest picture: two separate people choosing, with their own hands, to be tied to each other. It’s also where we get the phrase “tying the knot.”
Couples come to handfasting from different directions — some from the Celtic and pagan traditions where it has deep roots, some simply drawn to its beauty. However [Partner A] and [Partner B] arrived at it, in a few moments they’ll make their promises, and as they do, their hands will be bound together — and they’ll leave here still holding the knot they made.
Joining hands and the cords 1–2 min
[The person holding the cords brings them forward. The couple joins hands, traditionally right hand to right hand and left to left, so the arms cross and form a figure eight.]
[Partner A] and [Partner B], join your hands, and look at each other. These cords are given with love. As I wrap each one around your hands, I’ll name what it binds you to. Every one is easy to place and easy to slip free — because what holds you together isn’t the cord, but the promises you make while it rests on your wrists.
The binding 2–3 min
With this first cord, I bind you to friendship. May you be, before anything else, kind to each other — and each other’s favorite company.
[The officiant loosely drapes the first cord across their joined hands.]
With this second cord, I bind you to honesty and to patience. May you tell each other the truth gently, and give each other room to grow, to fail, and to try again.
[The second cord is laid over the first.]
And with this third cord, I bind you to joy and endurance. May you laugh often and easily, and hold fast to each other through whatever weather the years bring.
[The third cord is added. The couple’s joined hands now rest within the loosely gathered cords.]
The vows over bound hands 2 min
Now, with your hands bound and your people watching, make your promises. [Partner A], repeat after me.
I bind myself to you, [Partner B], of my own free will. I promise you my friendship, my honesty, and my whole heart, for as long as I live. These are the ties I gladly choose.
And [Partner B], repeat after me.
I bind myself to you, [Partner A], of my own free will. I promise you my friendship, my honesty, and my whole heart, for as long as I live. These are the ties I gladly choose.
Tying the knot 1–2 min
[The officiant, or a chosen family member, gently gathers the cords and ties them into a single knot as the couple holds still.]
The knot is tied — not by the cord, but by your own words. [Partner A] and [Partner B], you came here as two, and with your own hands and your own promises you’ve bound your lives together.
Slipping free and keeping the knot 1 min
[The couple gently slides their hands free of the cords, and the officiant sets the tied knot aside for them to keep.]
Slip your hands free now, and keep this knot. The cords come off easily — as they should, because you were never really held together by anything so simple as a rope. You’re held by what you promised. Put this knot somewhere you’ll see it, and remember the day you tied it.
Pronouncement 1 min
[If the couple is exchanging rings, they do so now, before the pronouncement.]
[Partner A] and [Partner B], you’ve bound your hands and spoken your promises in front of all of us. And so, by the power vested in me by the [state / jurisdiction], it is my joy to declare you married. You may kiss.
[The couple kisses, to applause.]
Recessional 1 min
For the first time, everyone — [the newly married couple, announced as they wish].
[The couple leads the recessional, the party behind, the officiant last.]