Non-Denominational Wedding Ceremony
Introduction
Friends and family: welcome and thank you for being here on this important day. We are gathered together to celebrate the very special love between ___________ and ______________, by joining them in marriage.
Marriage consists of entrusting our deepest selves into the loving care of another. It is a public and legal act, but it is also an emotional and spiritual act. Marriage is a coming together at all levels of being – mind, body and spirit. ____________ and ____________ commit themselves to each other in sacred trust. They promise to embrace conflict as well as peace; to work as well as play; to struggle as well as coast; to give as well as receive; and to be with, stay with and move towards one another.
We are gathered here today because love gathers us, and especially because love has found _________ and _______ and has woven them together. We are here to remember and rejoice, and to recount with one another that love, as it’s purest, is all the nourishment a soul needs on its journey through life.
It is within this loving circle of family and friends gathered here today that ______ and ______ have sought out and found with your support, the path of love, which joins their souls together.
This is an opportunity for us to share not only in the joy of love but also to reaffirm and appreciate the love and the friendship we experience in our own lives. May we all celebrate by being fully present during our short time together.
Opening Blessing
Please join me in prayer.
We give thanks for the love that has gathered us together in this place, and especially for the beautiful, heartwarming love that ___________ and ________ have chosen to consecrate this day in marriage.
We wish you wisdom in hardship, laughter in joy, and trust in each other. We offer blessings over all beginnings you ever choose together, and the brightness of all dawning times.
We wish you strength over grimness, light in darkness, and pride in each other. We offer blessings over all things you are passionate in together, and the warmth of flame in the joining of your souls.
We wish your compassion in grief, patience in frustration, and delight in each other. We offer blessings over all laughter you share together, and the calm of the eternal waves under moonlight.
We wish you fortitude in delay, beauty in stillness, and support in each other. We offer blessings over all things lasting you hold together, and the glow at the heart of an amber.
We wish you delight in life, diversity in unity, love always. We offer blessings over all companions traveled with together, and true hearts to share freely. In heartfelt love and delight, we offer blessings.
For their wisdom in choosing love, and for their willingness to journey on the path of love, we give thanks. And for this circle of loving family and friends, and their open hears and loving spirits, we give thanks. Amen.
Community Acknowledgement
There are two kinds of family – the family you are born into and the family you choose through friendship and special relationship. ___________ and ___________ are blessed with both these families.
____________ and _____________ acknowledge and thank you today for your presence in their daily lives, and for being the loving foundation in which their love flourishes.
Prayers or readings by wedding participants
Charge to the Couple by the Minister
__________ and ______ by coming here today, you have now taken the initial step in what hopefully will be a wonderful and lasting life together. Marriage is a conscious act of will. A marital commitment includes the willingness to be open and vulnerable and having the courage to take risks. Your commitment today is to accept the challenges of establishing and nurturing the intimacy of your conscious partnership.
Marriage is going to expand you as individuals, define you as a couple, and deepen your love for one another. With this wedding, you will be brought together as one, yet you are still two separate entities with unique ideas, talents and ways of being. Respect and value those differences, and your relationship will flourish.
For a marriage to be successful, you must each be loyal to the other, stand firm in your defense of each other and be supportive of one another’s life goals and dreams. A good marriage is one that fosters respect, a devoted love, and a willingness to compromise with each other. In addition, you will need strength, courage, patience and a really good sense of humor. These are the foundation blocks of a strong marriage.
Statement of Intent to Marry
___________ and ____________, your marriage today is the public and legal joining of your lives that have already been united as one in your hearts
Seeing that no moment is without meaning, no undertaking is without significance, no individual is of such a quality as to be diminished by even so important an enterprise as marriage, we ask that you both, together and as your unique special selves, be honored and expanded by the promises you are about to make, the marriage you are about to create. And may love, nourishment for your souls, be always in your midst, the foundation of your marriage.
___________ and ___________ do you now choose to walk the path of love, hand in hand, with an open mind and open heart, and a willingness to witness and withstand the ongoing becoming of yourselves, and with a promise to listen, to have patience, and to work through difficult times?
And will you always keep in mind that love, given and accepted freely, provides nourishment and health for your souls as they journey through this lifetime together?
We do
Do you _______, take ____________ from this day forward to be your beloved, your partner/ your husband? Do you promise to always love him, adore him, respect him and to give thanks for the gift of his love? I do
Do you _______, take ____________ from this day forward to be your beloved, your partner/ your wife? Do you promise to always love her, adore her, respect her and to give thanks for the gift of her love? I do
Optional personal vows made by each partner
Exchange of Rings
Wholeness is the state in which nothing is missing and everything is possible, in which what has been completed by what is, and in which there is no lack.
These rings represent wholeness, a coming around of the cycle: from sickness to health, from want to plenty, from despair to joy, from failure to possibility, from loneliness to love.
Let these rings also be a sign that love has substance as well as soul, a present as well as a past, and that despite its occasional sorrows, love is a circle of happiness, wonder and delight.
As you place this ring on _______ finger, please repeat after me:
I give you this ring
As a reminder that I will
Love, honor and cherish you
In all times
And in all places
I ask you to wear this ring
As a sign to the world
That you are my wife/partner/spouse
As you place this ring on _______ finger, please repeat after me:
I give you this ring
As a reminder that I will
Love, honor and cherish you
In all times
And in all places
I ask you to wear this ring
As a sign to the world
That you are my husband/partner/spouse
Pronouncement
Because you _______ and ________ have come together with your hearts, minds and souls and formalized the existence of the bond between you with vows spoken and exchanging rings in our presence, I now pronounce you husband and wife/married. You may now kiss each other.
Benediction
May your marriage bring you all the excitement a marriage should bring, and may life grant you patience, tolerance and understanding. May you always need one another – not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you ___________ and __________.
May you need one another; but not out of weakness. May you want one another; but not out of lack. May you entice one another; but not compel one another. May you succeed in all the important ways with one another, but not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say “I love you” and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you have the good sense enough to take the first step back.
May you enter into the Mystery, which is the awareness of one another’s presence – warm and near when you are side by side, warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even in distance cities.
May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another. Congratulations _________ and ____________.
Thank you all for joining __________ and __________ here to witness their marriage today.
Joanna Scaparotti | RMT & Ordained Minister | 617-429-1793 | joannascaparotti@gmail.com