Love is the Reason
Welcome
Love is the reason we are here today on this beautiful day.
In marriage we not only say “I love you today!” But also “I promise to love you for all of your tomorrows.”
Friends and family, your presence is welcome on this glorious day!
It is one of life’s richest surprises when the fateful meeting of two individuals leads them to proceed together along a
common path. It is indeed one of life’s finest experiences when a chance relationship grows into a permanent bond of love. This meeting and this love are what bring us together today. The uniting of these two friends to establish a new family is an important and memorable event. It brings together two separate families and backgrounds and creates a union that is a sign of hope and joy for the future.
Charge to the Couple
Name and Name, I want you to know that marriage is a precious gift, a lifetime commitment and a challenge to love one another more completely each and every day. As you hold that amazing person’s hands, take a good look at them, so you may see the gift that they are to you. These are the hands of your best friend, that are holding yours on your wedding day. These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future. These are the hands that when wrinkled and aged will still be reaching for yours. With that in mind, we all know that there will be stormy times, good times and times of joy, in your lives. As you remember today, try to keep these few words in mind.
Love is never going to bed angry
Let your love be stronger than your anger
Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend than it is to break.
Believe the best of your beloved rather than the worst.
Confide in your partner and ask for help when you need it.
Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting relationship.
Give your spouse the same courtesies and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.
Say I love you every day.
True life is lived when tiny changes occur. This is a change in your relationship, in your lives, and how you view each other. When you first met you had that instant bond, today is the day you strengthen that bond through marriage. You both have given much thought and considerations that guided you to this decision to marry. You both know each other’s faults and strengths, and you set each other free to fully be yourselves. Your devotion to one another gives you the courage to face all the challenges life brings. Always remember that the wisest couples have hope. They believe in the power of loving marriages. Arguments and obstacles will breach times of great happiness. But all moments and events are conduits to learning more about the world, oneself, and each other. In marriage, you should therefore become more and more affectionate, knowledgeable, and committed as you age apart and together. Marriage is indeed about feeling the joyous, fluttering thrill you feel for one another. But it also has a deeper meaning. It is about offering unconditional sympathy, understanding, and care. It is about cultivating love and wisdom, so they may be perched on your shoulders from this day forward.
Vows
This is a big moment for your both, for in just a few moments you will say those words that will change your lives forever.
So, this for you, for you, a small poem of happiness, to remind you and bless your new lives together.
Life is filled with small glories and little triumphs
a fragile, short cheerful song
filled with hope and all sorts of futures
Because at weddings we imagine the future
Because it's all about "what happened next?"
all the work and negotiation and building and talk
that makes even the tiniest happily ever after
something to be proud of for a wee forever
This is a small thought for both of you
like a feather or a prayer,
a wish of trust and love and hope
and fine brave hearts and true.
I now have some very important questions for you both.
Name, will you have Name to be your wife/husband/partner to live together as friend and mate? Will you love her/his as a person, respect her/him as an equal, sharing joy as well as sorrow, triumph as well as defeat. And keep her/him beside you as long as you both shall live?
Name
I do
Now please repeat after me-
I Name, take you Name, to be my wife/husband, my partner in life and my love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.
Name, will you have Name, to be your wife/husband/partner to live together as friend and mate? Will you love him as a person, respect him as an equal, sharing joy as well as sorrow, triumph as well as defeat. And keep him beside you as long as you both shall live?
Name
I do
Now please repeat after me-
I Name, take you Name, to be my wife/husband, my partner in life and my love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.
Will you Name and Name be each other's partners from this day forward? Will you bring out the best in one another, share your happiest moments together, and love each other absolutely — for the rest of this lifetime and for whatever may come next?
Name and Name
We will.
Often marriage is viewed as the union of two people. Yet marriages not only unite the couple, it unites the families. With the changing structure of what a family is in today's world we are offered unique and wonderful opportunities to simply increase the number of loving caring relationships we have in our lives. Name and Groom would like to take this moment to recognize the significant role that Name(s)play in this marriage celebrated today. You are a family drawn together by love and held together by devotion.
Always remember that the wisest couples have hope. They believe in the power of loving marriages. Arguments and obstacles will breach times of great happiness. But all moments and events are conduits to learning more about the world, oneself, and each other. It is about cultivating love and wisdom, so they may be perched on your shoulders from this day forward. It is about trying to defer to one another, so that peace reigns in your home.
(Optional)
Name and Name, will you continue to love and support the children? Will you make the time to listen to them, cherish and guide them? Will you show them respect, kindness, tolerance and honesty? Acknowledging the past, will you respect the unseen ties that bind them? Will you provide a safe and loving and caring home where each
child is encouraged to develop their own unique qualities, in the knowledge that they will always be loved and valued for themselves? Will you make these promises lovingly and freely?
child is encouraged to develop their own unique qualities, in the knowledge that they will always be loved and valued for themselves? Will you make these promises lovingly and freely?
Name and Name
I/We will
Child(rens) Name(s), will you continue to love and support your parents? Will you make the time to listen to them, cherish and guide them? Will you show them respect, kindness, tolerance and honesty? Acknowledging the past, will you respect the unseen ties that bind them? Will you provide a safe and loving and caring home where the are also encouraged to develop their own unique qualities, in the knowledge that they will always be loved and valued for themselves? Will you make these promises lovingly and freely?
Child(rens) Name(s)
I/We will
Rings
This is the point in the ceremony when people usually talk about the wedding bands being a perfect circle, having no beginning and no end. But we all know that these rings have a beginning. Rock is dug up from the earth. Metals are liquefied in a furnace at a thousand degrees. The hot metal is forged, cooled, and then painstakingly polished. Something beautiful is made from raw elements. Love is like that. It comes from humble beginnings, made by imperfect beings. It is the process of making something beautiful where there was once nothing at all.
Name, as you place this ring on Name’s finger please repeat after me-
This ring, a gift for you, symbolizes my desire that you be my husband/wife/partner from this day forward. As this ring has no end and neither shall my love for you.
Name as you place this ring on Name’s finger please repeat after me-
This ring, a gift for you, symbolizes my desire that you be my husband/wife/partner from this day forward. As this ring has no end and neither shall my love for you.
(Optional)
No truer words were spoken that speaks of love than these by Sir Philip Sidney.
It is called The ‘Bargain’
My true love has my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for another given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven:
My true love has my heart, and I have his.
His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.
Closing
Name and Name, in your journey of life together, remind yourselves often of the love that brought you together. Give the highest priority to your love When challenges come, remember to focus on what is right between you. In this way, you can ride out the storms. And when clouds hide the sun in your lives- remember, even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is always there.
Now you feel no rain as you are a shelter to each other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to each other. There is no more loneness for you as you will be companions to each other. Now you are two persons standing in front of me, but you have three lives in front of you. Name’s life, Name ’s life, Child(rens) Names and your lives together.
As you Name and you Name have consented together, pledged your vows to each other, and have exchanged rings as tokens of your love and commitment to each there. With accordance with the great state of Colorado, and with great joy, I pronounce you now happily married!
You may kiss!