The use of the wine cup or Loving Cup at a wedding is an ancient tradition.
By the 15th century, it was common for the Celtic people to toast each other with a ceremonial Loving Cup.
In Scotland this cup is known as a quaich, which comes from the Celtic word cuach, meaning cup. The Loving Cup ceremony also has its roots in Irish and Jewish cultures.
Today there are different versions of the Loving Cup. The traditional quaich is shaped like a 2 handled bowl and often has an inlaid Celtic design. Loving Cups come in many designs, shapes, sizes and colours. Some couples choose to use a crystal wine glass and have their names and the date of their wedding etched in the glass.
The purpose of the Loving Cup ceremony is for the bride and groom to share their first drink together as wife and husband and to show the coming together of two families.
Special words can be added to include the Bride and Groom’s parents (and friends) as part of this ceremony.
The cup is then passed down from generation to generation, ensuring happiness and good fortune to all who drink from it. This is a special moment for the couple to toast their love, devotion, and friendship.
Ceremony Sample.
Officiant:
The years of life are as a cup of wine poured out for you to drink. This Loving Cup contains within it a wine with certain properties that are sweet and symbolic of happiness, joy, hope, peace, love and delight. This same wine also holds some bitter properties that are symbolic of disappointment, sorrow, grief, despair, and life’s trials and tribulations.
Together the sweet and the bitter represent “Love’s Journey” and all of the experiences that are a natural part of it. for all who share the wine from this Loving Cup, so may you share all things from this day on with love and understanding. Those who drink deeply from the Loving Cup with an open heart and willing spirit, invite the full range of challenges and experiences into their being for themselves and the Bride and Groom.
Officiant pours wine into the Loving Cup and holds it up.
Officiant:
This cup of wine is symbolic of the cup of life. as you all share the wine from the Loving Cup, you undertake to share all that the future may bring. It represents the blessing given and passed on to each participant in this ceremony.
All the sweetness life’s cup may hold for each of you will be the sweeter because you drink it together. Whatever drops of bitterness it may contain will be less bitter because you share them. Drink now, and may the cup of your lives be sweet and full to running over.
After family and friends have sipped wine from the Loving Cup, it is passed back to the officiant. Officiant holds up the Loving Cup and says the following.
Officiant:
This Loving Cup is symbolic of the pledges you have made to one another to share together the fullness of life. as you drink from this cup, you acknowledge to one another that your lives, separate until this moment, have now become one.
Officiant hands the Loving Cup to Bride and Groom.
Officiant:
Now drink to the love you’ve shared in the past.
The Bride and Groom sip from the Loving Cup
Officiant:
Drink to your love in the present, on this your wedding day.
The Bride and Groom sip from the Loving Cup
Officiant:
And drink to your love in the future and forevermore!
The Bride and Groom sip from the Loving Cup and hand it back to the Officiant
Officiant:
As you have shared the wine from this Loving Cup, so may you share your lives. May you explore the mysteries of the Loving Cup and share in the reflection of love in one another’s soul. from love all things proceed and unto love they must return. May you find life’s joys heightened, it’s bitterness sweetened, and all of life enriched by the love of family and friends.