Handfasting - a year and a day?

A couple of friends are planning a handfasting next spring and asked me about the 'year and a day' tradition. As I understand it, some couples do a trial handfasting for a year and a day and then decide whether to renew it, while others treat it as a lifelong commitment from the start.

How did you do yours, if you've had one? And did you combine it with a legal wedding?

We did a year and a day first, then renewed it at the same spot the following summer with the legal paperwork the same weekend. It was really meaningful to stand in the same place and choose each other again.

Ours was for 'as long as love shall last'. We used three cords - green, red and white - braided by our closest friends during the ceremony. Still have it hanging over our bed eleven years later.