WELCOME:
Friends and family, we have been invited here today to share with Jon and Katie a most important moment in their lives. In the time they have been together their love and understanding of each other has grown and matured. Now they have decided to live their lives together as husband and wife.
Who brings this woman to marry this man?
Please be seated.
Today, Jon and Katie proclaim their love to the world and we rejoice with and for them. Jon and Katie asked me to mention some people who were very dear to them and whom they wished could be here: Jon’s Mother Sue, Grandma Betsy, Uncle Joe and Grandpa George.
Thank you all for being here on this very special day.
CEREMONY:
Jon and Katie, you are here today, promising to face the future together, accepting whatever may lie ahead. What you have together is real love. Real love is something beyond the warmth and glow, the excitement and romance of being deeply in love. It is caring as much about the welfare and happiness of your marriage partner as about your own. But real love is not total absorption in each other; it is looking outward in the same direction – together. Love makes burdens lighter, because you divide them. Love makes joys more intense, because you share them. Love makes you stronger, so you can reach out and become involved with life in ways you dared not risk alone.
Marriage offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other human relationship can equal, a joining that is promised for a lifetime. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships. A wife and husband are each other’s best friend, confidant, lover, teacher and listener. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes that life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing love through the seasons of life. When two people pledge to love and care for each other in marriage they create a spirit unique to themselves, which binds them closer together than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise, a potential, made in the hearts of two people who love, which takes a lifetime to fulfill. We who are witnessing your marriage, hope that despite the stresses inevitable in any life, your love and respect for each other, your trust and understanding of each other, will increase your contentment and heighten your joy in living.
VOWS:
Jon and Katie, we are here to remember and rejoice with you and to recount with one another that it is love that guides us on our path, and to celebrate as you begin this journey together. It is in this spirit that you have come here today to exchange these vows.
Jon, please take Katie’s hands in yours:
Jon, do you take Katie to be your wife
Do you promise to live in truth with her and to always treat her with respect
Do you give her your hand and your heart, pledging your love and devotion to her
And do you promise to join your life to hers forever?
(I do)
Katie, do you take Jon to be your husband
Do you promise to live in truth with him and to always treat him with respect
Do you give him your hand and your heart, pledging your love and devotion to him
And do you promise to join your life to his forever?
(I do)
RINGS:
For thousands of years, lovers have exchanged rings as a token of their vows. These bands are not of great value in themselves, but are made precious by our wearing them. Your rings say that even in your uniqueness, you have chosen to be joined together. Let these rings be a sign that love has substance, as well as soul, a present as well as a past, and that love is a circle of happiness, wonder and delight.
The rings please……….
Jon, please place the ring on Katie’s finger and repeat after me:
Just as this circle is without end, my love for you is eternal
May it remind you always that you are surrounded by my enduring love
With this ring, I take you to be my partner for life
Katie, please place the ring on Jon’s finger and repeat after me:
Just as this circle is without end, my love for you is eternal
May it remind you always that you are surrounded by my enduring love
With this ring, I take you to be my partner for life
Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth for the other
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life inside you
Go now to your dwelling to enter the days of your life together and may your days be
good, and long upon the earth
PRONOUNCEMENT:
Katie and Jon, you have declared before all of us that you will live together in marriage. We have witnessed your commitment to each other and we wish you every happiness in your future life together. Now, by the authority vested in me, I pronounce you to be husband and wife.
You may now kiss the bride!
It is now my pleasure to present to you, Jon and Katie Smith