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TRADITIONAL WEDDING CEREMONY

 

Greeting:

…...... and …...... , we are gathered here today in the presence of the Divine to celebrate your union together as husband and wife in holy matrimony.

A wedding is a celebration of two people connected in love entering the Divine Mystery of Oneness as they sanctify their bond through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Marriage is an act of faith and a personal commitment as well as a moral and physical union between two human beings. Marriage has been described as the best and most important relationship that can exist between two individuals. It allows the construction of their love and trust into a single energy of spiritual life. Marriage holds the promise of fulfillment of the highest states of Unconditional Love and of a long life shared in the consecration to the ideal of loving kindness backed with the will to make it last.

Reading:

The Apostle Paul has described the nature and characteristics of true love in this way:

"Love is patient , love is kind. Love is not envious, jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own ways. It is not irritable nor resentful. It does not rejoice at wrong and wrongdoing. But rejoices in right and truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things….. Love never ends. So faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love."

or

We read in "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran:

"True love gives nothing but itself, and takes nothing but from itself. Love does not possess, nor would it be possessed. For love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself, to awake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at noon and meditate love’s ecstasy. To return home at eventide with gratitude. And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips."

or

As described by the poet Helen Steiner Rice in " The Magic of Love"

"Love is like Magic and it always will be,

For Love still remains Life’s Sweet Mystery!

Love works in ways that are wondrous and strange

And there’s Nothing in Life that Love cannot change!

Love can transform the most common place

Into beauty and splendor and sweetness and grace!

Love is unselfish, understanding and kind,

For it sees with its Heart and not with its Mind

Love gives and forgives, there is nothing too much

For Love to heal with its Magic Touch!

Love is the language that every heart speaks,

For Love is the one thing that every heart seeks!

Vows:

___ and ___, will you take ___ to be your wedded wife, to love, to cherish, to continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion? And ___, will you take ___ to be your wedded husband, to love, to cherish, to continually bestow upon him your heart’s deepest devotion?

Please hold hands and repeat after me "___

Groom:

"You are consecrated to me now as my wife, from this day forward. To love and to cherish, to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in sadness and in joy, to share together as we both shall love."

Bride:

"You are consecrated to me now as my husband, from this day forward. To love and to cherish, to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in sadness and in joy, to share together as we both shall love."

Exchange of Rings:

Minister: What token of your devotion do you offer your beloved?

Blessings of the Rings:

May these rings be blessed as the symbol of this affectionate unity. These two lives are now joined in one unbroken circle. Wherever they go, may they always return to one another in their togetherness. May these two find in each other the love for which all men and women yearn. May they grow in understanding and in compassion. May the home, which they establish together, be such a place of sanctuary that many will find there a friend. May these rings, on their fingers, symbolize the never-ending Love of God and the Unconditional Love they have vowed to each other.

(Handing ring to groom/bride) _______, in placing this ring on _______’s finger, repeat after me "_______ I give you this ring as the pledge of my love and as the symbol of our unity. Amen."

The Prouncement:

As_______ and _______ have consented together in marriage before this company; have pledged their faith and declared their unity by each giving and receiving a ring, I, as an ordained minister, pronounce them as husband and wife – and offer them the Benediction of the Apaches:

"Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness for you. Now there is no more loneliness. Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, to enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth!"