Gathering Words

For those of us blessed by a true partnership of love, we feel safe in the presence of our loved one. There is no need to hide any part of ourselves for fear of being judged or rejected. We can just be together from moment to moment, believing that those moments will thread together into eternity.

There is a gentleness to the presence of love that softens life’s rough edges. It makes us somehow braver to go forth into the world knowing that the shelter of someone’s love awaits us at day’s end. We are most vulnerable when we love. We place our trust in another to honor us and to care for us, to treasure us and to receive our love.

In love, we trust that the other will provide a safe haven in which we can experience and share the fullness of our being with one another.

And in so doing, we trust that our lives will be far richer than had we chosen separate journeys through  this world.

We trust that our love will fill us full and make us wiser and more beautiful beings.

We find that our union graces our lives with balance, a sweetness beyond any we have ever tasted, and a treasure beyond any measure of value we have ever known.

Whenever we attend a wedding celebration, we are given the opportunity to reexamine our own lives.

We might look at the radiance of the couple before us and be tempted to compare their obvious joy to the quality of our own primary relationships.

The truth is that each one of us is a powerful creator in the dance of love and marriage. Each one of us, each moment of every day, has the choice to rededicate ourselves to one another or to withhold our love and caring.

Love is powerful.

It is simple.

Yet it is very complex.

In order for love to flow between two people, four things must be happening at once. Each person gives their love to the other and each is the receiver of the other’s  love.

Love requires us to be vulnerable to each  other so that our love may flow back and forth through these four  doors. There are so many ways that we can choose to be in relationship to each other.

It is only through love that our spirits are lifted into a oneness that transcends all the dualities we experience in our lives.

Loving is the only experience that enables us to see that our separation is only a condition of the physical and material level of being— that our souls can soar and merge as one.

It is love that gives the deepest meaning to our lives. It is our highest  calling, our greatest purpose, and our finest achievement.

One of the great joys of the wedding day is the joining  together of  the  couple’s  families  and  friends. Bride and Groom are filled with gratitude to each and every one of you for the loving, caring, friendship, and support that you have given them throughout their lives.

Being able to share their wedding day with you, surrounded by your love and support, is a treasured  blessing.

Knowing that your best wishes go forward with Bride and Groom  strengthens them as they embark upon their journey as  Marriage Partners.

A Letter Written and Read by Groom’s Son

Bride and Groom, I wish you every happiness on your wedding day.

May it exceed your wildest dreams as a day filled with laughter, community, and fair skies, perfectly lovely in every detail.

May this day live forever in your  hearts as the beautiful beginning of your forever together. May the days that follow be a romantic, magical time, discovering the joy of living together as one.

And as the days turn to weeks and months and years, take the time to enjoy the little things in life, like lavender sunsets and evening walks.

May you both wake each morning to the happy surprise that you love one another even more than the day before. And may you gracefully learn life’s lessons of patience and compromise as you learn to trust each other’s feelings as your own.

Your first year of marriage will be gone before you know it. Treasure each anniversary as a happy reminder of the vows that join your hearts, your minds, and your destinies.

Perhaps your favorite anniversary gift will be to renew your vows each passing year.

May your days “for better,” “for richer,” and “in health” far outnumber stormy days and times of trouble.

As you live and love throughout the years, may you realize all the fulfillment  marriage  can bring, and know that all your days have been happier because you have shared them with each other.

Marriage Address

Officiant:

Bride and Groom, demonstrate your love for yourselves and each other through caring and sharing. Stretch your love large enough to embrace whatever life brings to you. Let it fill you, surround you, comfort and protect you.

Let your hearts be truly safe and at home with each other.

Be generous in expressing your  love. Be open to receive love from each other. Be flexible and forgiving with each  other.

Let your relationship be a catalyst that transforms you into the expression of your highest selves.

Remember that your relationship is alive and ever-changing and that your love is a miracle,  always inviting you to grow, to learn, to blossom, and to expand.

How you regard each other and how you behave toward each other will determine the destiny of your union. It is your creation together, your sacred responsibility. Be kind to your relationship.

Nourish it with tender loving care, and, above all else, keep your loving alive.

Treat it as the precious blessing it is.

Do not just be married or in love; but let your marriage be an active process of loving each other.

The quality of your marriage is up to you. Both of you as individuals and together as a couple will choose what kind of marriage you will create, promote, and allow through your thoughts, feelings, and actions each day.

May you always honor the sanctity of your union and thus be blessed beyond your wildest dreams.

Wedding Vows

Officiant:

I now invite you all to join me in witnessing Bride’s and Groom’s Wedding Vows.

Groom, do you take this woman as your wife and equal, your lover and your best friend; keeping yourself only unto her, for as long as you both shall live?

Groom: Yes, I do.

Officiant:

Bride, do you take this  man as  your  husband  and  equal, your lover and your best friend; keeping yourself only unto  him, for as long as you both shall live?

Bride: Yes, I do.

Ring Exchange

Officiant:

May I have the rings, please?

These rings are circles, and circles are symbolic of the sun, the earth, and the universe. As arms that embrace, these wedding rings you give and receive this day reflect the circle of shared love into which you enter as partners in life.

May you always be blessed, and may you abide in peace and love.

Groom, place this ring on Bride’s finger.

Groom:

As a sign of my love and my knowledge that in marrying you, I am becoming much more than I  am, I give you this ring with the promise that I will love you and keep my heart open to you all the days of my life.

Officiant:

Bride, place this ring on Groom’s finger.

Bride:

As a sign of my love and my knowledge that in marrying you, I am becoming much more than I  am, I give you this ring with the promise that I will love you and keep my heart open to you all the days of my life.

Final Blessing

Now, because you have chosen one another and pledged to love each other for all the days of your lives, before God and before this loving community of family and friends, By virtue of the authority vested in me by the First Nation Church and the Knights of St. Valentine and in accordance with the laws of the State of the Maryland, it gives me great joy to pronounce you husband and wife. Congratulations!

Mr. and Mrs.        , you may now kiss as husband and wife for the first  time!