OPENING
Welcome to all friends and family on this beautiful and joyful day, Bride and Groom have asked me to extend a very warm welcome to you on this their wedding day.
Friends, I call upon everyone here to be a fellow witness with me in the marriage of Bride and Groom. We are here to celebrate with them, and wish them every happiness for their future life together.
Many of us would easily describe Bride and Groom as being tender and loving. Yet on this occasion they are also being both brave and daring.
As Lord Byron once said,
“The bravest are the tenderest and the loving are the daring”.
They dare to give truly of themselves, and do so with confidence that they will better who they are as individuals, as a husband, as a wife, and God-willing as parents.
As it has been said, Marriage is not a union merely between two individuals — it is a union between two souls and the intention of that bond is to perfect the nature of both.
To better express their thoughts on this day, Bride and Groom have selected the following reading:
READING (to be selected by the Bride and Groom)
A good marriage is founded on respect, trust, love and confidence. We believe that those qualities, which have attracted you both to each other, can be best developed during a life spent together.
Before you are joined together in marriage in my presence and in the presence of these your family and witnesses, we wish to acknowledge that you both come to this ceremony as complete individuals, who bearing free and unconstrained souls understand the profoundness of this lifetime commitment.
At this stage of the ceremony I ask if there be anyone who knows of any reason as to why Bride and Groom should not be joined in marriage. Speak now or forever hold your peace.
VOWS
I shall now ask you to make your marriage vows to each other
Do you Groom take Bride to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others so long as you both shall live?
Groom: I do
Do you Bride, take Groom to be your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others so long as you both shall live?
Bride: I do
RING VOWS
Groom, repeat after me: “With this ring, I thee wed. Take it and wear it as a symbol of my unending love for you”
Bride, repeat after me: “With this ring, I thee wed. Take it and wear it as a symbol of my unending love for you”
LOVE LETTER & WINE BOX
Bride and Groom have chosen as a couple to perform a Love Letter & Wine Box ceremony.
This box contains a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a love letter from each to the other. The letters describe the good qualities they find in one another, the reasons they fell in love, and their reasons for choosing to marry. The letters are sealed in individual envelopes and they have not seen what the other has written. You have created your very own “romantic” time capsule to be opened on your 5th wedding anniversary.
I recommend that you keep the box in a place of honor prominently displayed in your home as a constant reminder of your commitment to each other.
Bride and Groom should you ever find your marriage enduring insurmountable hardships, you are to as a couple, open this box, sit and drink the wine together, then separate and read the letters you wrote to one another when you were united as a couple in marriage. By reading these love letters you will reflect upon the reasons you fell in love and chose to marry each other here today.
The hope is, however, that you will never have a reason to open this box. And if this is the case, you are to open this box to share and enjoy on your 5th year wedding anniversary!
Bride and Groom, we will now seal the box.
(NOTE: Officiant drives the first nail, then the bride and groom nail the box shut. You can also have each member of your wedding party step up, drive in one nail to help nail the box shut.)
PRONOUNCEMENT
Now you have consented together in lawful marriage in the presence of your family, friends and witnesses. You have made special promises to each other, which have been symbolized by the joining of hands, taking of vows and the giving and receiving of two rings.
By the authority vested in me as a Minister in the State of Indiana, I now pronounce you to be husband and wife.
Groom, you many now kiss the Bride.
INTRODUCTION
Now that the ceremony is over we wish you every happiness in your life together, go and meet it gladly.
Friends, it is now my great pleasure to introduce to you, the very happy couple Mr. & Mrs. Groom.
“May joy and fresh days of love accompany your hearts”.
