TWO LOVERS
Friends, we are gathered here to witness and to celebrate the marriage of Bride and Groom.
Marriage is the deepest and most complete commitment two lovers can make. It is a promise to share, forever, in one another's dreams for the future and in the joys and sorrows of the present. It is a firm and unshakable vow to live life together as long as life persists.
A wedding is not the time such a vow is made. Bride and Groom made their decision to wed long before today, under circumstances far more intimate. Perhaps even they cannot say exactly when it became inevitable that they would join their lives in matrimony. Surely the decision was made in their hearts before any promises crossed their lips.
The purpose of a wedding is to publicly declare this decision - these vows already made. You have been invited to witness this declaration. You are their family. You are their closest friends. It is natural that Bride and Groom should want to share with you the great joy that they feel in their love.
But you have been invited as more than mere spectators. A wedding is at once an intensely private and a fundamentally public affair. Just as is the product of a wedding, the family. The most private of institutions, the family is also a fundamental unit of community and civilization. A family's obligation is not only to itself, but also to the society to which it belongs. And society in turn, has its obligations to the families that comprise it.
As Bride and Groom's family and their most trusted friends, you have in the past helped to shape them. You have helped them to overcome life's various obstacles. They ask you to recognize them as a new family and to offer them the same support and friendship as they embark together as family on their married life.
Please join hands.
Marriage is a relationship not to be entered into lightly or thoughtlessly, but reverently, soberly, with deep purposes and in the spirit of enduring love.
Much is required of you both. Knowing this, does each of you wish to proceed with this marriage?
Both: We do.Groom, what pledge do you offer in token of these vows?
Groom: This ring.
Groom, as you place this ring, a symbol of your commitment in marriage, on the third finger of Bride's left hand, please repeat after me:
With this ring, I wed you, and pledge my faithful love. From this day forward, I will place you and our marriage at the center of my life. I will love and cherish you, with all my heart. Honor and respect you, with all my strength. I will remain faithful, in sickness and in health, rather rich or poor, in sorrow and in joy. This I promise, for as long as my life shall last.
Bride, what pledge do you offer in token of these vows?
Bride: This ring.
Brfide, as you place this ring, a symbol of your commitment in marriage, on the third finger of groom's left hand, please repeat after me:
With this ring, I wed you, and pledge my faithful love. From this day forward, I will place you and our marriage at the center of my life. I will love and cherish you, with all my heart. Honor and respect you, with all my strength. I will remain faithful, in sickness and in health, rather rich or poor, in sorrow and in joy. This I promise, for as long as my life shall last.
Optional: (One of these unification ceremonies listed below may be included in your regular ceremony at no extra charge. Two or more unification ceremonies are an additional charge).
Groom and Bride, having declared in the presence of these witnesses that you take one another as husband and wife, and having symbolized your marriage by the joining of hands and the giving and acceptance of rings; I now therefore by virtue of the authority vested in me, I do now declare in the presence of these witnesses that you are husband and wife.
Let me express to y ou both, warm, good wishes and congratulations of all who are h ere.
You may seal your promises with a kiss.
Unification Ceremonies:
