Colorado Wedding Ministers

We Do I Do For YOU!

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I Long to Love
Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body…
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me,
Who won’t hold them against me,
Who loves me when I’m unlikable,
Who sees the small child in me, and
Who looks for the divine potential of me…
Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night,
With someone I feel blessed to hold…
Because marriage means opportunity,
To grow in love in friendship…
Because marriage is a discipline,
To be added to a list of achievements…
Because marriages do not fail, people fail,
When they enter into marriage,
Expecting another to make them whole…
Because, knowing this,
I promise myself to take full responsibility,
For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness,
I create me,
I take half of the responsibility for my marriage,
Together we create our marriage…
Because with this understanding,
The possibilities are limitless.

 

Instructions for Life in the New Millennium
By His Holiness the 14th Dali Lama
Take into account that great love
and great achievements involve great risk.
And that a loving atmosphere in your home
is the foundation for your life.
Be gentle with the earth, be gentle with one another.
When disagreements come remember always
to protect the spirit of your union.
When you realize you’ve made a mistake,
take immediate steps to correct it.
Remember that the best relationship is one
in which your love for each other
exceeds your need for each other.
So love yourselves, love one another,
love all that is your life together and all else will follow.

Friendship & Love
We have come together from near and far to celebrate your lives as individuals and to bestow our blessings upon you as you begin a magical journey together as husband and wife. We have come together to witness the creation of a brand new family, and to share in the joy of that moment with you. Your marriage will develop a true friendship between you and that friendship must be strong and able to withstand the tests of time. Remember that when you are a true friend to someone you want to spend time with them; you want to share with them; care for them when they are sick spiritually or physically; you want to learn new things with them.
You want to change with them; you want to grow in truth with them; and you want to experience all that life has to offer with them. Through this process you will wind-up on the same page together, and that is the secret to having peace and happiness in your lives. Take responsibility for making the other one to feel safe, and give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness, and kindness that your relationship deserves. Never allow anything to be more important than the one you have chosen to spend your life together with.

 

Of Shared Love in Marriage
By Victor Hugo
You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. A great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. And even loved in spite of ourselves. 

A selection from the "Mandolin" 
By Louis de Bernieres
Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

Love isn’t Practical
It isn’t meant to be easy. It doesn’t appear on command. It doesn’t let you fall for whomever you’d like. It surfaces neither at the most opportune moment nor in the most convenient, it’ll pair you with someone you might never have expected. It’ll put you face to face with endless obstacles. But in the end, none of that will matter because it’s how you overcome its obstacles that will define your love. It may not be practical, but love is ultimately the best thing that will ever happen to you. It is to dream, and to dare.... And always believe that all things are possible with faith and love.

Wedding Prayer
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth. 
Habitation 
by Margret Atwood
Marriage is not, a house or even a tent
It is before that, and colder:
The edge of the forest, the edge of the desert
The unpainted stairs, at the back, where we squat
Outside, eating popcorn, where painfully and with wonder
At having survived even, this far
We are learning to make fire.
“Love”
by Roy Croft
I love you, not only for what you are—
but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you, not only for what
you have made of yourself—
but for what you are making of me.
I love you for the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
and passing over all the foolish, weak things
that you can’t help dimly seeing there,
and for drawing out into the light
all the beautiful belongings
that no one else had looked quite far enough to find.
I love you because you are helping me to make
of the lumber of my life not a tavern, but a temple.
Out of the works of my every day not a reproach, but a song.
I love you because you have done
more than any creed could have done
to make me good. And more than any fate
could have done to make me happy.
You have done it without a touch,
without a word, without a sign.
You have done it by being yourself.
Real Love
Real love is identifiable by the way it makes us feel. Love should feel good. There is a peaceful quality to an authentic experience of love that penetrates to our core, touching a part of ourselves that has always been there. True love activates this inner being, filling us with warmth and light. An authentic experience of love does not ask us to look a certain way, drive a certain car, or have a certain job. It takes us as we are, no changes required. When someone truly loves us, their love for us awakens our love for ourselves. They remind us that what we seek outside of ourselves is a mirror image of the lover within. In this way, true love never makes us feel needy or lacking or anxious. Instead, true love empowers us with its implicit message that we are, always have been, and always will be, made of love.
Love is like owning a Dog
On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.
Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.
 
Love can make messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
 
Sometimes love just wants to go out for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise. It will run you around the block
and leave you panting, breathless. Pull you in different directions
at once, or wind itself around and around you
until you’re all wound up and you cannot move.
Love is like a large cat
Love is like a large cat sitting on its paws .You may pet it all you like; it lives by its own laws. It comes and goes as it decides no matter what you say. It seems the more you want it near, the more it goes away. And then when you are quite content to sit out in the sun alone with just your thoughts and dreams, not needing anyone. Out it comes, as if in fear that somehow you’ll forget, and jumps up purring in your lap, demanding to be pet.

The Art of Marriage 
by Wilferd A. Peterson 
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.

A good marriage must be created.

In the art of marriage the little things are the big things...

It is never being too old to hold hands.

It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted;

the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,

it should continue through all the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.

It is standing together facing the world.

It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude

of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.

It is speaking words of appreciation

and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience,

understanding and a sense of humour.

It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.

It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,

dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.

It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.

"A passage from "Gift from the Sea"
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
When you love someone, you do not love them all the time in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility, it is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity, in freedom.
The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting as it is now. For relationships, too, must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides. One must accept the security of the winged life, of the ebb and flow of intermittency."
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.
It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.
To Love...
To love is to remember and keep alive forever all those unique qualities that drew you to one another in the beginning.... Those first halting phrase...the thrill of discovery.... That wonderful feeling of oneness when your eyes met. 
To love is to constantly search for new ways to bring each other to happiness, to make the most of every moment you share together, and marvel at how your feelings for one another keep rising to new dimensions. 
To love is to create an oasis of tranquility for one another and a quiet place, apart from others, where you need not pretend...where you can be yourselves.... And know within your hearts, you will be accepted by one another. To love is to greet each day with anticipation...Always eager for another opportunity to share new adventures...And gather up new memories TOGETHER! 
To love is to follow the rainbow through the rain, to be able to laugh at yourselves and be willing to say...."I was wrong, I'm sorry"...To forgive, and more importantly, to FORGET, and to always believe and trust in one another. 
To love is to watch with wonder all the miracles of creation, to find beauty in all the simple things of life, and to find, within ourselves, a deeper appreciation and a new awareness of how wonderful it is to be alive...To be happy...To be…TOGETHER. 
To love is to come together from the pathways of our past and then move forward...Hand in hand, along the uncharted roads of our future, ready to risk, to dream, and to dare.... And always believe that all things are possible with faith and love. 

To Love  #2
As you take these vows, I would have you remember: To love is to enter a whole New World,
a world of togetherness, a world of sharing. Always remember those unique qualities that drew you to each other in the beginning...the thrill of discovery.... That wonderful feeling of oneness when your eyes met. To love is to constantly search for new ways to bring each other to happiness, to make the most of every moment you share together. With love there is no need to pretend...where you can be yourselves.... And know within your hearts, you will be accepted by one another. To love is to always believe and trust in one another.

"To Love is Not to Possess"

by James Kavanaugh

To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one's self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one's self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another--and to one's inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide In the moon's own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite a child's scars
Or an adult's deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be Who they really are--and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being Where true and lasting love can alone abide.

 On Marriage
by Khalil Gibran
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. 
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. 
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. 
But let there be spaces in your togetherness, 
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. 
Love one another but make not a bond of love: 
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. 
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. 
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. 
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, 
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. 
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. 
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. 
And stand together, yet not too near together: 
For the pillars of the temple stand apart, 
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.