A business name is an important decision. It can always be rebranded and have a name change, but as you build a reputation it becomes harder to do so: stationery, websites, socials, even word of mouth all need updating to reflect the new name (I still don’t know a single person who says ‘X’ in conversation for example). Like a business name, a wedding theme is a key aspect of an important part of your life you are working to create. With a wedding theme you can change your mind as much as you want until pieces are bought, and then it becomes a lot more of a hassle and a financial issue to switch to another theme so it’s important to consider in advance.
I was lucky with both my business name and parts of my wedding theme to be influenced by a game that means a lot to me and is nostalgic of the early parts of my own relationship: Persona 3. Today, 2nd February, a remake of this game, the first my husband and I played together 11 years ago, has been released. I figured what an excellent excuse to revisit the meaning begin Velvet Moon Ceremonies and the subtle touches we added to our wedding theme that were a nod to this game.
Why 'Velvet Moon Ceremonies'?
Let’s start with business! When beginning my celebrant journey back in 2019 I knew I wanted a business name that reflected me, and so I dove through some of my favourite things for inspiration. Realising Persona 3 was an important aspect, I thought too it would be lovely to have a wedding celebrant name inspired by a game that was a key part of my own relationship. So let’s break it down:
Velvet: this comes from a room in the game, simply called ‘The Velvet Room’. It’s a room where you spend a lot of your time, undertaking one of the key game mechanics, and I’ve always loved the blue and gold theming, the atmosphere of it and the music that loops whilst there.
Moon: the moon is important in the game, with key boss fights happening every Full Moon that you spend the game building up to and training for. Moon, like velvet, also has a slightly alternative vibe and inspires, to me at least, witchy and magical feeling. I also have always loved galaxy and space aesthetics, so the moon inclusion just made sense!
Ceremonies: ok so I nearly didn't include this, but I think should be obvious enough why 'ceremonies' is part of my business name when that's what I'm all about!
How Persona influenced my own wedding
Back sometime around 2015 to 2016 my partner and I had been together for three years. We’d made it through the struggles of writing dissertations and getting jobs after uni, and basically settled into a “at some point we’d like to get married, but it’s not the right point in time just yet”. During one of the discussions around how we would like to have a wedding one day I was wondering what sort of theme we might have. Purple is my favourite colour but it didn’t feel right for a celebration of us. I’ve always loved Disney but it’s not something we’ve ever bonded over, and at that point we hadn’t found our shared love of Final Fantasy XIV or Star Wars. So he made the first Persona suggestion: “why not have a Velvet Room theme?” Instantly I envisioned royal blues and golds, and knew purple touches would still go with it too. And so from that early on our theme was set!
Over the years from 2016 we found new loves, mainly FFXIV as I mentioned before, and the theme shifted to simply ‘Us’, and anything we thought fit that got included. In the end a lot of the inspiration came from our main jobs in FFXIV, something I’ll have to do another blog post about sometime, but the Velvet Room influence can still very much be seen seven or so years after the idea was first spoken of.
![Photo by Kirsty Rockett Photography. Our butterfly guest book [from Etsy seller 'YourWeddingTheme], where guests could sign a butterfly to mark their attendance.](http://velvetmoonceremonies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/NJWed-203_websize.jpg "Guest book")
In choosing Holmewood Hall we got to have a gold ceremony room we could add royal blue sashes to, and that blue and gold colouring continued through our cake, our stationery and signs, our bridal and grooms party outfits, and onto our butterfly themed guest book (which you can find on Etsy here!). The butterflies were also a nod to the game we both love, as they’re a motif throughout Persona 3.
Finally, Persona was present in some of the most important music of our day: my aisle walk and our first dance! The Velvet Room theme itself, often called A Poem for Everyone’s Souls or Aria of the Soul, is a piano and solo vocalist piece (as suggested by the second name!) that was the perfect mood for me to walk down the aisle to. An upbeat, jazzy number called Maze of Life was absolutely the right choice for our first dance, with it’s lyrics all about going on an adventure together no matter what life throws your way, and allowed me to choreograph a fun dance for us to perform on our wedding day!
So there you have it, I hope you enjoyed my little dive into how a game I first heard of over a decade ago has shaped my business and my wedding.
For any other wedding business owners I hope this helps you know that what you feel is right for your wedding you should just go for, even if the meaning only makes sense to you, and for any couples planning their wedding who wanted a theme but were hoping to keep it perhaps a bit more subtle I’m here to tell you that’s absolutely possible too!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a hundred hour JRPG to start playing.
