Wedding Ceremony Sample 8
PROCESSION OF BRIDAL PARTY:
Music: Largo from the Four Seasons -Vivaldi
PROCESSION OF BRIDE : Air on the G String -Bach
(bride escorted to altar first by father)
Minister:
May the sun bring you energy by day.
May the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries.
And the breeze blow new strength into your being.
And all the days of your life may you walk gently
through the world and know its beauty.
MARRIAGE INTRODUCTION : Address
Love is the life of the soul. It is the harmony of the universe.
Today we celebrate the beginning of a journey for Jane and Bill. This journey is filled with joy because it is approached through love. Jane and Bill choose this path because they love each other. They have come to a point where two paths became one path - where two souls joined to share in life’s joys and challenges. For what greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labour, to minister to each other in all sorrow, and to share with each other all gladness.
Who presents Jane to be married to Bill?
Jane's Dad: I do.
(Father sits down)
Buddhist Traditional Bonding Ceremony
Surrounded by those you love and assured of their support, I ask you, Bill and Jane, to join hands.
As in Buddhist ceremonies, please immerse your hands to symbolize that your love is as indivisible as water.
Music: Arioso -Bach - Reflection String Trio
Reading by: Minister
The Art Of A Good Marriage - Wilferd Arlan 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 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 never 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 expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
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.
(Best man hands the wedding rings to the minister)
Throughout the ages, the circle has been a symbol of wholeness, of oneness, of perfect harmony. The wedding ring is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual bond which unites two loyal hearts in wedded love. These rings are symbols of the unity in which your lives are joined in one unbroken circle.
Sanctify these rings as a token of their solemn vows and a pledge of pure and endless love.
Exchange of Rings
Minister: Wholeness is the state where nothing is missing and everything is possible. Let these rings therefore represent wholeness. Let them remind you of a coming around of an eternal cycle-from want to plenty, from despair to joy, from failure to possibility, from loneliness to love. The I Ching states most beautifully: When two people are at one in their innermost hearts, they shatter the strength of iron or even of bronze. And when two people understand each other in their innermost hearts, their words are sweet and strong like the fragrance of orchids.
Minister: Bill, will you have Jane to be your wedded wife?
Bill: I will.
Then turn to her and repeat after me.
Bill: Jane, with a free and unconstrained soul, I give you all I am and all I am to become. Take this ring, and with it my promise, patience, and love, for the rest of my life.
Minister: Jane, will you have Bill to be your wedded husband?
Jane: I will.
Then turn to him and repeat after me
Jane: Bill, with a free and unconstrained soul, I give you all I am and all I am to become. Take this ring, and with it my promise, patience, and love, for the rest of my life.
Forasmuch as Bill and Jane have consented together in wedlock and there to have given and pledged their love to each other. Having declared the same by the presenting and receiving of rings and by the joining of hands. I hereby pronounce you to be husband and wife together. May your journey be filled with love and joy.
Kiss
Sand Blending Ceremony:
Bill and Jane may your love always be as constant as the never-ending waves, flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea. Just as there will never be a morning without the ocean’s flow, there will never be a day without your love for each other. You have just sealed your relationship by the giving and receiving of rings. This beautiful union is symbolized through the combining of these two individual containers of sand.
The first container represents you Jane , and all that you were, all that you are, and all that you will ever be, and the other represents you Bill, and all that you were, all that you are and all that you will ever be. Each one holds its own unique beauty, strength, and character. They can stand on their own and be whole, without need of anything else. However when these two are blended together they create an entirely new and extraordinarily more intricate entity. Each grain of sand brings to the mixture a lasting beauty that forever enriches the combination.
Please pour the sand into this common container to symbolize the union of your two lives. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual containers, so will your marriage be a molding of two individual personalities, bonded together forming one heart, one love.
The life that each of you experienced now, individually, will hereafter be inseparably united, for the two shall become one.
Signing of the Register
Music: Entrance of the Queen of Sheba -Handel
And now we will close this service with the Apache Blessing.
Apache Blessing
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 you will feel no loneliness, for each of you will be companionship to the other.
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life between you.
May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years,
May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth.
Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness.
Pronouncement of Marriage
Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce to you Bill and Jane for the first time as husband and wife.
Recessional: Music: Canon -Pachelbel
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or email us at weddingsonpei@gmail.com
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