Invocation
Dear friends and family!
On behalf of this beautiful couple, I welcome you and thank you for coming.
_____& _____ wanted to have a very intimate and meaningful celebration of their love and they are very grateful to you all for joining them in this special ceremony and bearing witness to natural progression of their relationship, as they legally become husband and wife.
Your wonderful company is a special gift that they will promise never to forget. They appreciate your continued love, support and encouragement throughout their lives.
Marriage is a supreme sharing of experience and adventure in the most intimate of human relationships. Today ______ and _____ proclaim their love to the world. And we who gather here rejoice with them and for them in the new life they now undertake together. We are here to participate and witness the special ceremony of marriage, which is a means to establishing and continuing a home.
Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficulty and fear assail your relationship, remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part that seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives – remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.
Silent Blessing (optional):
I would like to invite you to take a moment to bring to mind all the loved ones who couldn’t be with us today. An also those who have passed away. Although they are absent physically, we know that they are with us is Spirit and help us bless this union.
Or:
Let us also take a moment to honor those who could not be here with us today.
[…5 second pause…]
The commitment you are making is a promise to live by the following principles. You both promise to be faithful partners, to be true, to encourage and inspire one another and to comfort one another in times of sorrow or struggle. You promise to love, honor, support and respect each other when life seems easy and when it seems hard, when your love is simple and when it’s an added crazy effort. These things you commit to today, now and forever.
READING BY A FAMILY MEMBER (optional)
Hand Blessing:
You and your beloved face each other. First join your right palms, and then your left palms. This forms an infinity symbol with your hands, which symbolizes a love that will go on forever.
“Now join your hands, and with your hand’s your hearts.”
Then you look into one another’s eyes.
Blessing:
These are the hands of your best friend. They are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.
These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief wracks your mind.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.
May these hands always reach out with love, tenderness and respect.
May these hands continue to build a loving relationship that lasts a
lifetime.
With eyes locked, and hands linked, this ritual is a beautiful symbol of the union of two hearts, two lives, and two souls.
Vows:
______ & _____ Have written their own vows which they will now share with one another.
Or we can ask the question, and you’ll say your “I do”:
To Bride: Do you …., knowing this man’s love for you and returning it, realizing his strengths and learning from them, recognizing his weaknesses and helping him to overcome them, take …. to be your lawfully wedded husband?
I do.
To Groom: Do you …., knowing this woman’s love for you and returning it, realizing her strengths and learning from them, recognizing her weaknesses and helping her to overcome them, take …. to be your lawfully wedded wife?
I do.
Exchange of rings:
Do you have the rings?
The wedding rings, which you are about to exchange, are unbroken circles that symbolize unending and everlasting love. Your rings are visible symbols that represent the inner commitment you have just made to each other in your hearts. As you wear your rings may your life together be filled with love, prosperity and happiness in all things.
The Groom places the Bride’s ring on her finger and says: “ I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and my love. With this ring I marry You”
The Bride places the Groom’s ring on his finger and says: “I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and my love. With this ring I marry You”
Pronouncement:
_________ and _______, you have spoken the words and performed the rites which unite your lives. It is my legal right as a minister and my greatest joy and privilege to declare you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.
