Your wedding day has a birthday – it’s the birth of your relationship as a married couple. So it has a horoscope or birth chart and can be interpreted astrologically. Many people have both a civil and a religious wedding. The civil ceremony will fulfill the state or country’s legal requirements, and the religious one should ideally satisfy the couple’s spiritual needs. But which creates the wedding chart?
The religious ceremony often seems to have more to do with family tradition than anything else these days. But many people are deeply involved with a church and don’t feel that a wedding is totally legitimate until they’re married in a religious setting. Some countries will not legitimize a marriage without a civil ceremony. Sometimes couples have personal circumstances (like jobs, children, etc.) that force the issue and require that they be married quickly. They may not have time to arrange for a religious ceremony or invite family and friends, and opt for the quickest and easiest route: going to the town hall or justice of the peace as soon as they can.
If there are two ceremonies, then both will be important astrologically. All else being equal, however, the first exchange of vows actually makes you a married couple, and therefore becomes more significant, giving you your wedding chart. This would be the one to try to optimize astrologically.
But there is no “one size fits all” in wedding astrology. If you don’t feel you’re truly married until you take your vows in a church, then that would be the more significant time for you, even if it’s the second ceremony. In this case, it would be more important to choose a good horoscope chart for the religious ceremony.
Long-time couple David Bowie and Iman were first married on April 24, 1992 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Even though the ceremony was legally binding and the couple had previously lived together, David said that, “We did all the bureaucracy and all the paper signing but we didn’t really feel married… at the back of our minds our real marriage, sanctified by God, had to happen in a church in Florence.”
Both felt an emotional tie to Italy. Iman came from a religious Muslim family, but that was not an issue in her choice. She was born in Somalia, once an Italian territory; she spoke Italian and worked in Italy from her early years as a model. David also felt a connection to Italy since he’d been a long-time fan of Italian art and had visited the country often. And their families and friends all came together for their church wedding. So even though their civil marriage was first, it’s clear in this case that the church wedding date and time gives us their wedding astrology chart.
In France, only the civil service is legally binding. Eva Longoria married Tony Parker in a civil service in Paris on July 6, 2007. But since both are Catholic, they felt it was important to marry in a church. Their July 7, 2007 church wedding would be the date to use for their wedding astrology.
Sometimes, as when the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were married in Paris on June 3, 1937, the civil and religious ceremonies are so closely timed that it will make only a little difference in the wedding astrology.
Tom Cruise married Katie Holmes in a Scientology ceremony in Bracciano, Italy on November 18, 2006, but the couple had officialized their marriage in Los Angeles about two weeks before. Even though non-Catholic weddings are not recognized in Italy, this was probably the more significant moment for Tom, who has been a Scientologist for years. But what about Katie, who’d been Catholic? Perhaps the initial legally binding moment may have been more important to her.
Of course, everyone should try to be married under good astrological auspices for both ceremonies if there are more than one. But in deciding which horoscope is the “true” wedding chart, only the couple can ultimately decide!