Ann Verlinden INTAMS review | Volume 15 | Issue 1 | Spring 2009 | Pages 37 > 43 Rites of Passage in an Individualised Society: Personal Wedding Rituals in Flanders (Summary) People have always marked the key moments in their lives with symbols, rituals and festivities. Marriage is one of these moments in life people wish to celebrate. Even in a secularised, individualised and consumption-oriented society, the need for rites of passage seems to persist. In this paper the author explains why she started an office for personal rituals and why she thought such an office would be successful in contemporary society. From her perspective as a sociologist of religion she explains why the need for rites of passage persists. However, these rites have changed over time. She illustrates that now wedding rituals, like any other ritual, are designed according to people’s personal taste and preferences. In an individualised society people wish to create or design their own wedding ceremony in a personal way. In this context, a wedding ceremony counsellor, but even a priest in case of a church wedding, is positioned more and more in the role of "facilitator" of rituals. Ann Verlinden, born in 1970, was as a PhD student in the research team of prof. Karel Dobbelaere, unit Sociology of Religion and Culture, K.U.Leuven. In 1999 she defended her PhD at K.U.Leuven on implicit religion and superstition. After her PhD she started hét Moment. (www.hetmoment.org), the first office in personal rituals in Flanders. Ann Verlinden works as research coordinator at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, and she lectures about Consumption Sociology at the Lessius- Hogeschool, Antwerp.