The Wine Ceremony
Officiant:
Welcome to the marriage of ____________ and _____________.
Reading: The poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote:
"Love one another, but not make a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but not eat from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together,
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."
Officiant to Groom:
____________, when you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. That is impossible. It is even a lie to pretend it is possible. And yet that is exactly what most of us demand. We insist on permanence, on duration, on continuity. The only continuity possible in life as in love is in growth, in fluidity, and in freedom, as dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in creating the same pattern.
Officiant to Bride:
____________, the only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not even in hoping. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back nostalgically to what it was, nor forward in dread or anticipation to what it might be. It is loving in the present relationship, accepting it as it is now. Relationships must be like islands, which one must accept for what they are here and now with their limits, islands surrounded and interrupted by the sea, continually visited and abandoned by the tide. One must accept the security of the ebb and flow of intimacy.
The Bride and Groom pour each other a glass of wine.
Officiant:
The years of our lives are a cup of wine poured out for us to drink. The grapes when they are pressed give forth good juices for the wine. Under the winepress of time, our lives give forth labor and honor and love. Many days you will sit at the same table and eat and drink together. Drink now and may the cup of your lives be sweet and full to running over.
The Bride and Groom touch their glasses and drink a sip of wine.
Officiant:
Now, ____________ and ____________, will you take vows here, before all of us, which symbolize the many unseated vows you have already made and will continue to make to each other throughout your relationship.
Bride:
The words I say to you now are ones I have waited a lifetime to utter, words I say in love and in confidence. I see you as a strong, growing partner, the person with whom I wish to share my life. I offer you all the days before me, no matter what may come our way. I freely take you, ____________, as my husband. Take this ring as a sign of my commitment.
Groom:
I promise to stand by you, to be there when you need me, and to share the happiness and sadness of my life with you. If the secret of life is to enjoy the passage of time, then let us share our time together from this day forward. I come to this place today as a man standing alone; I will walk from it by your side. Today, I shall carry you across the threshold and enter into a new and lasting lifetime commitment. I commit myself to you, ____________, as your husband.
Officiant:
When you share a joy, it is doubled, and when you share a sorrow, it is halved.
Pronouncement of Marriage
You have booth pledged your love to each other before these witnesses. Therefore, by the authority granted to me, I joyfully pronounce you husband and wife.
Provided by Reverend Adelaida Avila
In Beauty It Is Done
Officiant:
We have come together in the presence of God to witness the joining of ___________ and ____________ in Holy Matrimony. This is a special time of celebration that ___________ and ____________ will long remember, and because of this, they are thankful you are here to share their joy.
Gracious God, before whom we stand, look with favor upon this couple, who desire to make their vows before you and this gathering of family and friends. We are thankful to the families, which have reared them to adulthood. May they experience your presence as they pledge their lives, one to another, and celebrate this new beginning.
"The Fountains mingle with the River
And the Rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion:
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law devine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother,
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
Percy B. Shelley
Groom:
I, ____________, take you, ____________ as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and in tranquillity, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not know yet, in all the ways that life may find us.
Bride:
I, ____________, take you, ____________ as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and in tranquillity, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not know yet, in all the ways that life may find us.
Exchange of Rings:
The Groom place’s his Bride’s ring on her finger. He says:
____________, take this ring as a symbol of my love and fidelity.
The Bride place’s her Groom’s ring on his finger. She says:
____________, take this ring as a symbol of my love and fidelity.
Officiant:
Inasmuch as you, ____________ and ____________, have come before your family and friends and declared your love and devotion to each other, I now greet you with them as husband and wife.
Let all things that go before you be beautiful;
Let all things that go behind you be beautiful;
In beauty it is done.
We have come together in the presence of God to witness the joining of ___________ and ____________ in Holy Matrimony. This is a special time of celebration that ___________ and ____________ will long remember, and because of this, they are thankful you are here to share their joy.
Gracious God, before whom we stand, look with favor upon this couple, who desire to make their vows before you and this gathering of family and friends. We are thankful to the families, which have reared them to adulthood. May they experience your presence as they pledge their lives, one to another, and celebrate this new beginning.
"The Fountains mingle with the River
And the Rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion:
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law devine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother,
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
Percy B. Shelley
Groom:
I, ____________, take you, ____________ as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and in tranquillity, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not know yet, in all the ways that life may find us.
Bride:
I, ____________, take you, ____________ as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and in tranquillity, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not know yet, in all the ways that life may find us.
Exchange of Rings:
The Groom place’s his Bride’s ring on her finger. He says:
____________, take this ring as a symbol of my love and fidelity.
The Bride place’s her Groom’s ring on his finger. She says:
____________, take this ring as a symbol of my love and fidelity.
Officiant:
Inasmuch as you, ____________ and ____________, have come before your family and friends and declared your love and devotion to each other, I now greet you with them as husband and wife.
Let all things that go before you be beautiful;
Let all things that go behind you be beautiful;
In beauty it is done.
Provided by Reverend Adelaida Avila
There is No Greater Gift
Officiant:
There is no greater gift than the love that makes two people one. To behold this love blossoming between two hearts is always a joy; and to behold the vows of lovers as they take each to the other, throughout all the changes of life, is a glorious moment of the soul. It speaks of the great conviction by which people mutually rely upon and believe in one another. In a world where faith often falls short of our expectation, it is a wonderful tribute to two people to see them joining hands and hearts in perfect faith.
Reading: Optional
Officiant to Groom/Bride:
____________, will you have this woman/man to be your wedded wife/husband, to live together after ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love her/him, comfort her/him, honor and keep her/him, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, and forsaking all others, keep you only unto her/him, so long as you both shall live?
Groom/Bride: I will.
Officiant
What token of these pledges do you offer? Best man presents rings.
Officiant
Bless this act, that the intentions of this moment, symbolized by this visible act, shall be fulfilled through the days of their lives. Amen.
Groom/Bride
With this ring, I thee wed, and pledge my faithful love.
Officiant - Let us Pray
O thou who art the Spirit of Love for the human race, send thy blessing upon these thy servants, whom we bless in the name of love. Enable them faithfully to perform this covenant that they have made in our presence. May their hearts be united in the bonds of each other's joys, consoled of each other's sorrows, helpers to each other in all the vicissitudes of life. Grant that they may faithfully discharge the duties that belong to the condition into which they have entered, and that, as good companions, they may walk the road together from this day forward. Amen.
For inasmuch as ____________ and ____________ have consented together in wedlock, and have witnessed the same before this company, and thereto have engaged and pledged themselves to each other, and have declared the same by giving and receiving a ring and joining hands, I pronounce that they are husband and wife.
May you always be in love.
May your love be as beautiful on each day you share, as is on this day of your wedding.
Amen.
Provided by Reverend Adelaida Avila
Provided by Reverend Adelaida Avila
