We come together in a spirit of reverence and love to celebrate a truly joyous occasion. Today is a day of unison and harmony, a day when songs rejoice in new paths to follow, and new dreams to explore. Today is a moment of trust and faith, a moment when poems and prayers bring magic to the hours. Today is a time of renewed hope and expanding horizons, a time when we see the beauty of sharing and the bounty of giving.
For today we gather to join in marriage, BRIDE and GROOM
Marriage is a chance to experience all that life has to offer.
To give friendship as well as love. to give strength as well as understanding.
To share together the sunshine and the sorrow, the laughter and the tears.
To play, to create, to achieve, to work, to live and to love together as partners and friends.
Declaration of Commitment:
GROOM and BRIDE, We are gathered now to share this moment with you, as you affirm your love and your commitment to expand the areas of your lives that you will share with each other.
This is a commitment to share your lives generously, taking care to express the affection and the appreciation you feel, --yet, mindful of the need in each of you for a measure of time that is yours--unshared...
This is a commitment to listen when the other needs to talk, to talk when the other needs to listen-- and to share always your honest feelings and differences, not to cause pain, but to avoid the greater pain that a hurt suffered in silence can bring--
This is a commitment to look upon each other's perfections with joy, and frailties with understanding; and to forgive yourself and each other those weaknesses you cannot love.
This is a commitment to recognize that you have grown and changed from the you of yesterday to the you of today, to realize that marriage does not forever fix you where you are, but gives you greater opportunity for change and growth than you have yet known, and to support and encourage each other through these changes, which are a part of the continuing process of life...
And finally, this is a commitment to have faith in yourself and each other, and to keep faith in those things upon which you will build your life together...
GROOM and BRIDE, do you accept these commitments?
They each answer: "I DO."
Vows:
Minister: (to congregation) We come now to join BRIDE and GROOM in marriage, reminding them that it is an estate desired and cherished by the peoples of all generations. With a love that will not falter and abiding faith in one another, as we, their witnesses and friends, will vow to support them as they begin the weaving of their lives in an endless togetherness.
(To BRIDE and GROOM) Turn now to face one another and join hands as you exchange your vows
BRIDE, will you take GROOM to be your husband; will you love, honor and cherish him now and forever more?
BRIDE: "I will."
Repeat your vows after me...
I, BRIDE, take you, GROOM, to be my husband, lover, companion, and friend.
I promise to honor and tenderly care for you.
I pledge to share my life openly with you, to speak the truth to you, in love, during good times and bad.
I will always try to keep an unselfish heart and mind, to continuously renew harmony in our marriage.
I will cherish, respect, support, and encourage your own fulfillment as an individual, through all the changes of our lives.
This I promise to you, today and always.
(Vows Continued)
GROOM will you take BRIDE to be your wife; will you love, honor and cherish her now and forever more?
GROOM: "I will."
Repeat your vows after me...
I, GROOM, take you, BRIDE, to be my wife, lover, companion, and friend.
I promise to honor and tenderly care for you.
I pledge to share my life openly with you, to speak the truth to you, in love, during good times and bad.
I will always try to keep an unselfish heart and mind, to continuously renew harmony in our marriage
I will cherish, respect, support, and encourage your own fulfillment as an individual, through all the changes of our lives.
This I promise to you, today and always.
Introduction to Ring Ceremony:
Minister: May I have the rings, please?
The metal in these rings
Has little real value
Except in its use today
As they form the symbol of your union.
These words are gone
As I say them
But as I say them
Your lives are changed forever.
You are man and woman
Born to trouble and to joy;
And this is your greatest triumph --
That the greatest of gifts
Are yours for the risk of asking.
We are to witness now
The sealing of this promise with these rings
Sign and token before the world
Of the world you will create --
single, and whole, and quiet --
Within the world outside.
Together you are one; as one you are a world.
Ring Ceremony:
GROOM, as you place this ring on BRIDE's finger, please repeat after me:
"I give you this ring...
to wear upon your hand...
as a symbol of our commitment and love."
BRIDE, as you place this ring on GROOM's finger, please repeat after me:
"I give you this ring...
to wear upon your hand...
as a symbol of our commitment and love."
A Wish for Your Life Together:
As you start your married life together and begin to build special memories, I should like to speak of some of the things many of us wish for you. First of all, we wish for you a love that makes both of you better people, a love that gives you a zest for the joy of living. We wish for you a home, not a place of stone or wood, but an island of serenity. We hope that your home stands as a symbol of two people living together in love and peace.
We wish for you children, children who will learn from you your best traits, children to whom you will pass on the concept of a family that brings people close in times of joy and need. Finally, we wish that through all of your days, you will be able to say to each other, "because you have loved me and been my best friend, you have given me faith in myself.
Declaration:
Minister: Turn, now to face your friends and family.
Now, forasmuch as GROOM and BRIDE have thus pledged themselves each to the other in the presence of this company, I, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the state and in the name of the church, do pronounce that they are husband and wife.
