Begin the Ritual: 10 Questions to ask yourself to design the perfect Zion Elopement Ceremony

Why am I encouraging YOU to think about rituals and add them into your wedding experince?

Whether personal or professional, silly or serious, individual or communal, secular or spiritual, rituals are simple yet powerful tools for deepening the experience of life.

Slow Down – Rituals disrupt the automatic and habitual, slowing us down to be more conscious, present, and grateful.

Embody values – Rituals make the intangible tangible, creating spaces for the shared experience and expression of our values.

Connect to others – Rituals combat loneliness by connecting us to ideas and communities bigger than ourselves.

Connect across time – Rituals connect us with the past, root us in the present, and help us envision the future.

10 Questions to design your wedding ritual:

Most couples plan everything around the ceremony… and then hope the ceremony takes care of itself.

But if you’re getting married in Zion, you already know something most weddings forget: place matters.

In a canyon carved by time, with wind moving through cottonwoods and sandstone holding the heat of the day, a ceremony doesn’t need to be bigger. It needs to be truer.

These questions are here to help you slow down and design a wedding ceremony that feels like a real threshold. Not performative. Not copy/paste. Something that matches the kind of love that brought you all the way here.

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How to use

Start alone. Write what’s honest, not what “sounds right.”
Then share with each other, ideally somewhere unrushed, coffee in hand, phones down.
If you want bonus magic: answer a few of them outside, even if it’s just on the porch at sunrise. Zion has a way of pulling the truth to the surface.

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A few tips (keep it simple, keep it true)

Take your time.
Write first, share later.
Let the landscape remind you: simple can be sacred.

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01. VALUES

What are the three values you want your marriage to be built on?
What do you want people to feel when they witness you two committing to those values here?

02. WHY

Why Zion? Why this kind of ceremony? Why now?
If you stripped away tradition, aesthetics, and expectations, what’s left that still feels essential?

03. IMPACT

When you walk away from this ceremony, what do you want to feel in your body?
What shift do you want between you and your partner?
And if anyone is present with you, what do you hope changes for them too?

04. PURPOSE

Besides “getting married,” what is this day for?
Adventure? Peace? Reconnection? Healing? Celebration? Simplicity?
Pick two purposes that matter most, and let everything else become optional.

05. BEYOND

In Zion, it’s hard not to feel something bigger than yourself.
What do you feel connected to that’s larger than you, larger than a single lifetime?
Nature? God? Ancestors? Time? The stars? The river? The unknown?

06. TRADITIONS

What traditions (from family, culture, spirituality, or your own relationship) would make this feel complete?
Which ones translate beautifully outdoors, with less “production” and more presence?

07. BOUNDARIES

What parts of weddings feel like noise to you?
What expectations are you not willing to carry into this day?
What are you choosing to leave behind at the trailhead, metaphorically (or literally)?

08. OBSTACLES

What are you nervous might get in the way of this feeling meaningful?
Internal: nerves, self-consciousness, perfectionism, family pressure.
External: weather, crowds, timing, logistics, permits, energy levels.
What would help you feel calm no matter what Zion does that day?

09. PARTICIPATION

Who will be present and how can they be more than spectators?
What would make their presence necessary?
(A reading, a blessing, a circle moment, warming the rings, speaking one sentence each, etc.)

10. ESSENCE

Describe your wedding in three words.
Now ask: do your plans actually support those three words?
If not, what’s one brave change you could make to bring the day back into alignment?

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This is for YOU

Zion doesn’t ask you to perform. It asks you to be present.
Let your ceremony match the place: honest, elemental, and unforgettable.