Celtic Wedding

Celtic Love Symbols for Weddings & A Craft Project For You
By Kathi Hennesey

As wedding season gets into full swing, future brides and grooms, along with their families, are busy planning their special day and looking for ways to make it unique and memorable. One popular and time-honored practice is to include symbols of family cultural heritage. And so the wedding day joins two people, celebrates their newly-shared ancestry, and strengthens the bonds between generations.

Our rubber stamps focus on Scottish, Irish and Welsh love symbols, so we want to share ways to incorporate using them for a wedding. The wonderful thing is that these expressions of love and affection can be used before, during and after the big day. As symbols of the new couple‘s bond, they‘re perfect for special occasion gifts and cards, such as anniversaries, birthdays, Valentine‘s Day, Christmas and baby showers.

Most readers here will be familiar with the popular symbols of the love bond used by these cultures for wedding ceremonies: The Scottish luckenbooth, the Irish claddagh and the Welsh love spoon.

Scottish Luckenbooth

The Scottish luckenbooth usually includes one or two hearts with a crown on top, and can include other embellishments such as a thistle. The tradition of the Scottish luckenbooth dates back to the 15th century, when these types of brooches – usually made of silver – were given as betrothal or wedding gifts, then pinned to the newborn children for protection.

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Irish Claddagh

The  Irish claddagh features a crown and a heart held by two hands. Legend tells us that the crown stands for loyalty, the heart for love, and the hands for friendship. The claddagh ring has been a traditional design for engagement and wedding rings, in Ireland, for generations. It continues to be extremely popular today.

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Welsh Love Spoon

The Welsh love spoon, carved from wood, can include a variety of designs on the handle, including hearts, locks, crosses, bells, dragons, wheels and Celtic knotwork. It was traditionally given to a young woman by her suitor. The earliest known dated Welsh love spoon dates from 1667.

Knotwork Hearts

For a more universal Celtic-theme – and less specifically Scottish, Irish or Welsh – there are wonderful knotwork heart designs to symbolize unending love or the joining of two people in the love bond. The familiar symbol of the heart representing love and romance developed in 15th century Europe and its popular use with Celtic knotwork is a perfect marriage of designs.

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Wedding Stationery

So with a few specific motifs in mind, we return to the idea of using them for a wedding. The perfect place to introduce a special love symbol is on stationery: the engagement announcements, then the wedding/shower invitations and save-the-date cards. Many couples choose to design and create these items themselves, or have them custom made with their unique symbol and added personalization. The Scottish luckenbooth, Irish claddagh, Welsh love spoon and Celtic knotwork hearts, with all their variations, are all beautiful and elegant designs for stationery and paper products.

Creative Ideas

For the big day itself, the possibilities are endless. From the guest book, to the décor, wedding favors and gifts, this is a place for creativity to shine.

Here are some places where Celtic, Scottish, Irish and Welsh love symbols can be used:

  • Guest book cover and guest book table décor (setting the stage!)
  • Decorations: Banners, wedding favors, table cards and card holders.
  • Wedding reception: Engraved glasses for bride and groom toasts, unity candles.
  • Wedding cake: Cake topper, cake pulls (special themed charms), cake embellishments, engraved/decorated cake serving sets..
  • Gifts for bride and groom: Household items, such as engraved glassware, wall plaques, photo frames, framed prints, keepsake ornaments.
  • Jewelry worn by the bride and her bridesmaids, wedding rings (especially the Irish claddagh).
  • Groomsmen gifts: Engraved money clips, flasks/barware, business card holders, and pocket watches.

After the wedding, love symbols can continue the theme in wedding scrapbooks and memory books, thank-you cards and even anniversary gifts.  Keepsake items from the wedding, such as toasting glasses engraved with love symbols, can be displayed in the newly-married couple’s home.

Just The Beginning

This article just scratches the surface, but hopefully it will provide a few ideas and some inspiration for anyone involved with an upcoming wedding. There’s no lack of wonderful websites with many more ideas and DIY projects that can be found through Internet searches. Pinterest is also a great place to browse for themed wedding boards and great visuals.

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Let us end with an Irish wedding toast:

Here’s to you both, a beautiful pair
On the birthday of your love affair
Here’s to the husband and here’s to the wife
May yourselves be lovers for the rest of your life

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Muslin Bag Crafting How-To

Get the Free PDF for stamping on muslin bags – CLICK HERE

 

These handy little bags are great for lots of uses:

  • jewelry – keep it protected
  • jewelry – gift bags
  • wedding favors – fill with Jordan almonds or chocolate
  • wedding favors – fill with rice or bird seed to throw
  • gift bags – whatever your imagination decides
  • bag for selling items – rubber stamps set and a mini ink pad

Want more ideas for muslin bags?
Put the following in your search engine, and click on images.

MUSLIN BAGS DIY IMAGES

MuslinBagDIY2018
MuslinBagDIY2018

Scottish Clan Badges

Scottish Clan Crest Badges

A Brief History and Meaning Behind the Images and Rubber Stamps

By Kim Victoria

Going to a Games Event with your stamp?

Get Your FREE PDF GUIDE to Caring for a Rubber Stamp

“Clan” means Family, it’s that simple. All societies have clan groups, which may also be called tribe, family, house, kinship group, band, etc. In Scotland the clans were groups of families, bound together by geographical area and survival necessity for centuries.

 

As interest in genealogy and heritage has increased, so too has interest in knowing about family names and DNA. Many Scottish societies are accumulating DNA and historical family information related to clan groups. Knowing about your family bloodlines is interesting, gives you connection to more of the world, and can help you know how to maintain optimal health for you and your family.

 

A part of that connection is the Scottish Clan Crest Badge, which you may use to show your family ties to that clan.

 

When Scotland was a wild place with few roads and isolated valleys and islands, each district was its own clan society ruled by a clan chief. All the families living there were part of that clan, even when they had different bloodlines. Those with different bloodlines and surnames were known as “septs” of the ruling chief’s name.

 

Heraldry and heraldic art developed as chiefs created emblems for flags, banners, and insignia on apparel; so that when there was a dispute, or war between clans, the colors and emblems would help the combatants know who they were fighting for – and against. These emblems developed into a sophisticated art form. Eventually a registrar was developed for what became known as “Coat of Arms.”

 

Tartan also developed this way; and also because only certain plant dyes existed in specific areas. In-other-words, clans originally only had “district tartans;” clan tartans developed later.

Coat of Arms and the Badge

Only an individual has a coat of arms; which is a display awarded by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms, the official herald-in-chief for Scotland.  No one may use another person’s coat of arms for themselves. Therefore, to show kinship with the same family as the Clan Chief they may use a crest badge emblem.

 

The crest badge is that part of the clan chief’s coat of arms above the helmet. The crest is placed inside a strap and buckle to make the pictorial statement “I support my chief.”

 

Over time, many clans lost having a chief due to death without heir. The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs resolved that crest badges should also include the words “An Cirean Ceann Cinnidh” to designate that there is a living, recognized chief for that clan. It means “Crest of the Chief of the Clan” in Gaelic. Please visit your clan’s or society’s web site for more information. († for pronunciation guide)

About the Rubber Stamps

Kim Victoria worked with Chiefs, presidents and other officials in the Scottish clan societies to ensure that all the crest badges follow the current recognized heraldic conventions. As new chiefs are recognized, their crest or mottoe of their coat of arms may be different than the previous chief and thus the crest badge must change also.

 

Some of the rubber stamp designs have, and some don’t have, the words “an cirean ceann cinnidh,” either because there is not a recognized chief, or because many stamps went into production before the resolution was made. You may request that the words be cut off of the stamp you purchase, or have a custom stamp made with the words if they are not currently available for your clan.

 

Kim Victoria has designed these crest badge images with rubber stamping in mind. The designs have been modified to display well in the smaller size and to reproduce beautifully with inks. Mounted on Eastern hard maple, and vulcanized from the best red rubber in the industry, by Circustamps of California. Custom stamps are polymer only, which is also an excellent stamping material.

 

If you do not see your clan name and want to have a stamp of that badge please see Custom Stamps Services for more information. Or got to my Etsy shop and start a conversation there. View page 4 of the Clan Badge listings to see the existing custom clans.

 

All are original hand-drawn art by Kim Victoria © Copyright 1998 through 2018
The name of the clan is usually not part of the stamp design, unless requested custom.
Only one spelling is available with the red rubber.

Red rubber badges are 1 1/4” X 1 3/4” size. Custom polymer stamps can be different sizes.

Useful Information and Links

†     The words “An Cirean Ceann Cinnidh” means “Crest of the Chief of the Clan” in Gaelic.
Pronunciation and literal translation is roughly:
The – Crest – Head – a Clan
un – kirin – keyow’n – keeñee

The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs requests the use of these words with the badge when there is a living chief for that clan.

The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs official web pages

 

Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland (wikipedia link)

FREE PDF GUIDE to Caring for a Rubber Stamp