sample ceremony 3

Processional
Welcome
We are gathered here, in the presence of history, and family, and the beauty of nature, to join __________ and ________ in the sacred union of marriage.

We come to celebrate something that already exists: the love of two people for each other. We come to look toward something which has not yet come into being: a true and mutual marriage. We are suspended in this moment between a beginning and a full unfolding, yet this moment is large with meaning and hope; for two people come to pledge themselves to each other and to a rewarding adventure, the creation of a marriage.

On behalf of _____ and _____ I welcome you to this time and place in their lives. It is important to them that you, their loved ones, are here to celebrate with them and to witness this public declaration of their private commitment.

Marriage is the greatest commitment two people can give. _____ and _____ have found that special person in each other and now … finally … after nine years ... are ready to take that step. Into this closest of relationships, these two come to be joined by a ceremony which, to be true, must be but a symbol of something inner and real – a sacred union of hearts and lives. Love is a living thing, waiting within each one of us for an awakening touch. In this ceremony, we celebrate love come to life. May the love _____ and _____ share grow sure and strong. We rejoice in its presence among us.

Candle
There are many who could not be here for this celebration today. Family and friends too far away for the trip. Loved ones who have passed away. We honor their memories and blessings among us with the lighting of this candle.

Family blessings
From time immemorial, weddings have been public occasions where family and friends gather to express the joy and approval they feel for the new union.

Today we recognize that _____ and _____ are individuals, feely choosing one another, freely giving themselves to one another. Today we recognize also that they are deeply rooted in their families. Families which have loved and nurtured them, families which have shown them so much about the meaning of the commitments they will make today. No love, however strong, survives in isolation. And so they seek the blessings of their families.

Rex and Karen, Manu and Sue, would you please stand.

Do you who have loved and nurtured _____ and _____, give them your blessings now as they enter into this new relationship? And do you aspire in the days and years ahead to give them your love, understanding, and support during both good and bad times? If so, say, “We do.”

Thank you. You may be seated.

Let us have a time of reflecting, with words and music woven together. The wedding party will sit, and ______ brother ____ will begin with a selection from Corinthians.

Reading I Corinthians 13: 4-8
Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful.
It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way.
It is not prone to anger; nor does it brood over injuries.
Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.

Music

I invite our couple’s fathers up – _______ and _______ – to share a selection from The Little Prince, first in its original french, then in English translation.

Reading Excerpt from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944)
In French -
In English -

It was then that the fox appeared.
“Good morning,” said the fox.
“Good morning,” the little prince responded politely…
“Who are you?” asked the little prince, and added, “You are very pretty to look at.”
“I am a fox,” the fox said.
“Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince.
“I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “You have not yet befriended me.” …
“What does that mean—befriend?” …
“It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties.”
“To establish ties?”
“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you befriend me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in the world. To you, I shall be unique in the world. … It will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me… But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful it will be when you have come to know me! The grain, which is golden, will remind me of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat …”
…
So the little prince befriended the fox.
[And the fox shared with him this] secret, a very simple secret: One can only see clearly with the heart; that which is most important is invisible to the eye.

"That which is most important is invisible to the eye," repeated the little prince, so that he would remember.

Music

Homily
_____ and _____, you stand here before me and before these loved ones, to say that, indeed, you have befriended one another, that you have established ties, and that you wish now to make a permanent and public declaration of those ties.

Sometimes in a wedding I feel it is necessary to caution a couple still caught up in the new blush and passion of their relationship that it will not always be like this, that there will be hard times, that their love will change as time passes. I feel I hardly need to make that caution today. You have known one another 9 years already. You said to me “it is like we have grown up together. We have grown into who we are together. The way we are now and who we are now is not who we were when we were 18.” And surely, who you are now is not who you will be, or how you will be together in another 9 years, or 9 after that, or 9 after that. Always your relationship will be a delicate balance of change and constancy.

In a few moments when you make your vows you will say these words:
I love you now and always
for all that you are
and all that you will be.

In those words lies the essence of our relationships. To love one another as you are is to give a great gift indeed. But the second part of the vow is more courageous-- “to love all that you will be,” to trust what is not known..

When other human qualities have been analyzed...and bureaucratized, trust will remain.
Trust lives beyond rules and regulations,
It's stronger than bonds of sentiment.
It's the tender pledge on a wedding day, and it is the single
foundation of peace between nations.
With it, our individual lives can meet any...obstacles; without it,
even civilizations quake.
"Loving all that you will be" gives witness to the mystery of the
other...and affirms that mystery to be good. (John Taylor, adapted)

Trust in the mystery of who you are individually, and together. That will be the stable ground from which you grow. Real love, a befriending kind of love, is not total absorption in each other. It is the security that comes from truly knowing and being known. It is looking outward in the same direction, together. It is a love that makes you stronger so that you can reach out and become involved with life in ways you dared not risk alone, calling each other out of your burrows.

Nothing is easier than saying words and nothing harder than living them day after day. What you promise today must be renewed and re-decided tomorrow. At the end of this ceremony you will legally be husband and wife, but you still must decide each day that stretches out before you that you want to be married. You must decide that among all the changes in your selves and your lives, your commitment to one another will be the constancy that carries you through.

If you can do this, you will truly have befriended one another. You will have created a bond strong but flexible, that ties you together as one, yet allows each to be yourself, unique in all the world.

Are you ready now to make the promises that will bind your lives together?

Exchange of vows
Join hands please.

I, _______, take you, _______,
to be my wife/husband
friend of my heart
love of my life.

I love you now and always
for all that you are
and all that you will be.

We will share our burdens
and they will lighten.
We will share our joys
and they will grow.
We will live our life
with open minds and warm hearts.

With these words
and all the unspoken words of my heart
I marry you
and bind my life to yours.

Exchange of rings
May I have the rings, please.

_____ and _____, you have chosen to exchange rings today, traditional symbols of wholeness, continuity, and the joining of two lives. As the circular path of the ring comes back on itself, may you always come back to one another, and to the wholeness that is your union. Let these rings be a reminder to yourselves and to the world of the profound commitment you have made together today, and of the endurance of your love for one another.

_________, as you place this ring on _______’s finger, please repeat after me.

I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and commitment.

Pronouncement
Michael and Natalie, you have been blessed, made vows, and exchanged rings. What you desire has come to pass. I now pronounce you married. Congratulations!

Kiss

Benediction
May your love for one another grow deeper and stronger through the years.
May the good true light within guide you on your journey together.
May you learn from one another what it is to be loved completely and wholly, and then may you turn that love outward and share it with the world.
And long, long years from now, may you look at one another and be able to say, “Because of you, I have lived the life I always wanted to live – because of you, I have become the person I longed to be.”

May it be so.