Wedding Ceremony

Of

We are gathered here today to celebrate the wedding of Beth and Glenn. So open your hearts and turn off your minds. We’ve come together to celebrate and have fun. This is a wedding. Beth and Glenn’s wedding, and we’re here to listen, to love and sing and dance and rejoice, and to send them into their future with one outrageous, gigantic blessing. So sit back now and open your hearts, and let the wedding begin.

Who gives this woman to be married to this man?

I do

There is an art to marriage as there is to any creative activity we human beings engage it. This art asks that we pay attention to the little things as well as the big ones. Never grow too old to hold hands. At least once every day, remember to say “I love you” In so much as it is possible, develop the capacity to forgive and forget and heal quarrels as they happen so that you do not go to bed angry. Your courtship should not end with the honeymoon, so pay attention that you do not come to take each other for granted, and remember to speak words of appreciation and demonstrate your gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is important to have a mutual sense of values and common objectives so that you stand together as you work through the world; and do things for each other, not as in duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of love and joy. Do not expect perfection of each other. Cultivate flexibility, patience, understanding, and a sense of humor in your relationship. Your marriage is not just for two people. Use it to form a circle of love that gathers your families and children who are a part of your lives.

Find room for the things of the spirit and make your search for the good and the beautiful a common search. In the words of a counselor; make yours a relationship in which, “the independence is equal, the dependence is mutual, and the obligation is reciprocal.” Remember that standing together never means dissolving your individual selves into each other, but indeed means the strenghening of the individuality into each.  A good marriage evolves when two distinct souls face life’s joy and its sorrow in harmony, not in unison.

This list sounds very long and very heavy, yet it is only a small part of what is required of two people who would truly accept that making a marriage over the years in as artistic endeavor, workthy of our best efforts. It is not just another relationship in our lives; it is the one that gives us courage and the support to reach out to other people in love and wholeness.

Do you Glenn, knowing this woman’s love for you and returning it, realizing her strengths and learning from them, recognizing her weaknesses and helping her to overcome them, take Beth to be your wedded wife?

I do

Do you Beth, knowing this man’s love for you and returning it, realizing his strengths and learning from them, recognizing his weaknesses and helping him to overcome them, take Glenn to be your wedded husband?

I do

Glenn, will you please repeat after me:

I, Glenn, choose you Beth, to be my wife, my partner and my best friend. I promise to take you to my heart, as you are, and as you will become. I promise to walk by your side, and support your dreams and be more in love with you tomorrow than I am today.

Beth, will you repeat after me:

I, Beth, choose you Glenn, to be my husband, my partner and my best friend. I promise to take you to my heart, as you are, and as you will become. I promise to walk by your side, and support your dreams and be more in love with you tomorrow than I am today.

What tokens of love and commitment do you offer each other today?

Rings

The ring is a symbol of the sun, and of the earth and of the universe. It is a symbol of perfection and of peace. These rings represent the perfect and undying love that exists between you.

Glenn, please place the ring on Beth’s finger and repeat after me:

I love you, Beth. This ring is my precious gift to you. Please accept it so that we may go steady for life.

Beth, please place the ring on Glenn’s finger and repeat after me;

As a symbol of how endlessly happy you make me and of how crazy I am about you, I give you this ring so you and the world will know how much and how always I love you.

Your gift to each other for your wedding today has been your wedding rings - which shall always be an outward demonstration of your vows of love and respect; and a public showing of your commitment to each other.

You now have what remains the most honorable title which may exist between a man and a woman - the title of "husband" and "wife." For your first gift as husband and wife, that gift will be a single rose.

In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a single rose always meant only one thing - it meant the words "I love you." So it is appropriate that for your first gift - as husband and wife - that gift would be a single rose.

Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife. 

After exchanging roses, the couple will then give each child a rose, a hug, and whisper, "I love you."

"Not only are Beth and Glenn creating a marriage today, but they also are forming a family with Amber, Laura, and Angelica. Just as it is appropriate for Beth and Glenn to declare their love for each other in the gift of a rose, they also wish to show you Amber, Laura and Angelica how much they love you with the gift of a rose."

In some ways it seems like you have not done anything at all. Just a moment ago you were holding one small rose - and now you are holding one small rose. In some ways, a marriage ceremony is like this. In some ways, tomorrow is going to seem no different than yesterday. But in fact today, just now, you both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you always remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage.

Beth and Glenn, I would ask that where ever you make your home in the future - whether it be a large and elegant home - or a small and graceful one - that you both pick one very special location for roses; so that on each anniversary of this truly wonderful occasion you both may take a rose to that spot both as a recommitment to your marriage - and a recommitment that THIS will be a marriage based upon love. 

In every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find the right words. It is easiest to hurt who we most love. It is easiest to be most hurt by who we most love. It might be difficult some time to words to say "I am sorry" or "I forgive you"; "I need you" or "I am hurting". If this should happen, if you simply cannot find these words, leave a rose at that spot which both of you have selected - for that rose than says what matters most of all and should overpower all other things and all other words.

That rose says the words: "I still love you." The other should accept this rose for the words which cannot be found, and remember the love and hope that you both share today.

if there is anything you remember of this marriage ceremony, it is that it was love that brought you here today, it is only love which can make it a glorious union, and it is by love which your marriage shall endure." 

You are now husband and wife. May you always remain sweethearts, helpmates and friends. May your life together be full of kindness and understanding, thoughtfulness and rejoicing. May the years bring you happiness and contentment. May you enter into each other’s sorrow by sympathy, into each other’s joy with gladness, into each other;’s hope with faith and trust, into each other’s need with the sure presence of love, into each other’s lives with enthusiasm and embracing.

Before this gathering, Beth and Glenn have promised each other their love and have given each other rings to wear as a sign of their deep commitment. Therefore, I now declare them to be husband and wife.

You may kiss your bride.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in congratulating the new Mr. and Mrs. Glenn and Beth Dye.