GREETING/OPENING
Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of Groom and Bride. Marriage is a promise, made in the hearts of two people who love each other, which takes a lifetime to fulfill. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships.
We thank everyone who has made the journey to this beautiful location to be part of this special ceremony between Bride and Groom, who’ve invited you here today to witness and celebrate their commitment to each other. Your presence is not only welcome, but needed, as Bride and Groom will depend upon your love and friendship for this special day, and also in their lives, from today forward.
RECOGNIZING LOVED ONES
We are reminded at this moment of the people who are dear to Bride and Groom who cannot be here today to share this moment. Therefore, it is all the more important that those of you here with Bride and Groom may stand as witness to the happiness which they have found together, and to the pledges they will make, each to the other.
To all guests and family
Do all of you, who have supported these two in friendship and love, now bestow your blessing on their union and their new family? If so, please answer now, “We do”
MARRIAGE STATEMENT
Love is life’s highest emotion. It makes us less selfish, it makes our personalities grow, and it makes our lives more meaningful. It’s caring about the welfare and happiness of your partner as your own. Love makes our burdens lighter because we divide them. It makes our joy more intense when it is shared. And it makes both of you stronger, to appreciate life in ways you dared not risk alone.
A successful relationship takes more than just love. It takes trust, to know in your hearts that you want the best for each other. It takes dedication, to stay open to one another, to learn and grow; even with it is difficult to do so. And it takes faith, to go forward together without knowing what the future holds for you both.
You have chosen to walk through life together. And there is no truer statement of love.
This choice was not made by any one single moment, but you grew to realize that you belonged together. You have come to thrive upon each other’s presence, loyalty and wisdom. The foundation of your love is a profound friendship. And this commitment you make today will be the foundation on which you build your lives together.
VOWS
Please share your intent with each other as you repeat after me:
Groom, do you take Bride to be your wedded wife? To live together in marriage. To honor and respect her. To comfort and love her, all the days of your lives? If so, please answer now ‘I do”
Bride, do you take Groom to be your wedded Husband? To live together in marriage. To honor and respect her. To comfort and love her, all the days of your lives? If so, please answer now ‘I do”
RINGS
Groom, please take the ring you have selected for Bride and place it upon her finger and repeat these words:
With this ring, I, Groom, take you Bride, to be my wife / To have and to hold / For better or worse / For richer or poorer / In sickness and in health / To love and to cherish / As long as we both shall live.
Bride, please take the ring you have selected for Groom and place it upon his finger and repeat these words:
With this ring, I, Bride, take you Groom, to be my husband / To have and to hold / For better or worse / For richer or poorer / In sickness and in health / To love and to cherish / As long as we both shall live.
SAND CEREMONY
Now we will celebrate Groom and Bride’s union as it is symbolized through the pouring of two individual containers of sand. One represents Groom (he pours a portion of her sand in vase) and all that you were, all that you are, and all that you will ever be.
The other represents Bride (she pours a portion of her sand on top Groom’s sand) and all that you were and all that you are, and all that you will ever be.
As the two vials of sand are poured into the third keepsake vase, (both Groom & Bride together pour their remaining sand in the central vase) the individual containers of sand will no longer exist, as they are now joined together as one. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual vases, so will the love and bond between the two of you render you inseparable.
PRONOUCEMENT
Groom and Bride, as the two of you come into this marriage uniting you as husband and wife, and as you this day affirm your faith and love for one another, I would ask that you always remember to cherish each other as special and unique individuals. Your lives have become joined with the times you have shared, and will be more complete by the memories ahead, ready to be made.
Groom and Bride, in so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in marriage, have promised your love for each other by these vows and the giving of these rings, I now pronounce you to be husband and wife.
You may kiss your bride.
INTRODUCTION
It is my honor to introduce to you for the first time Mr. and Mrs. Groom
