Marriage Vows
Officiant recites your vows
Groom and Bride say “I do” The groom first, then the bride

Choose one of the four different marriage vows.

MV 1         ________, I solemly promise before God, our family and friends.  That as I love you, I will honor and cherish you.  Forsaking all others for you alone.  I will faithfully offer you, all of my love and support, which a husband/wife, shares with his wife/husband, in the commitment of our marriage.

MV 2      In the name of God, I ________, take you   
To be my husband/wife
To have and to hold from this day forward
For better for worse, for richer for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish, until we are parted by death,
This is my solemn vow.

MV 3      Do you now choose    
To be your life companion
To share your life with him/her, to speak truthfully
And lovingly to him/her
To accept him/her fully as he/she is
And delight in who he/she is becoming
To respect his/her uniqueness, encourage his/her fulfillment
And compassionately support him/her
Through all the changes of your years together

MV 4      I express my love for you before God, our family and friends
I will love and respect you and always be honest with you
I will respect our commitment to each other now
And through all the days of our lives together
You are the person with whom, I want to spend my life with and grow old with
I will always support who you are and hold you dear in my heart
I accept this, our wedding day,
As the beginning of our lives together as husband and wife

Ring Vows
Officiant recites vows
Bride and Groom repeats after, Groom repeats vows first

Choose one of the four different ring vows.

RV 1         I love you as no other.  All that I am, I will share with you.  This ring I give to you, is a sign of my love and commitment to you.  Receive and wear this ring, as a symbol of my faith and my trust in you.  Before God our family and friends I take you to be my husband/wife.

RV 2         With this ring I thee wed, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

RV 3         I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirt.   With this ring, I thee wed.

RV 4         This ring I give to you in token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love.

 
Poems

“Blessing of the Apaches”
   Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.  Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.  Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other.  Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before 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.
Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together.  Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.  When frustration, difficulty and fear assail your relationship as they threaten all relationships at one time or another - remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong.  In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives.  remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there.  And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.

“Two Hearts”
  May these two hearts be united one to the other
Like flowers and its perfume, like flute and its melody
May they have many summers of sweet love and happiness.
May they bring forth children and grandchildren.
May they in the autumn of life
Ripen through service into the serenity of the spirit
And my they at the end of their days break all mortal bonds and encounter the great unknown with fearless hearts

"Marriage is the Beginning”
   Marriage is the beginning of the song of life
It is the bond that units the strangeness of the past
With the brightness of the future
The link between the silence of the feelings of praise
With music that is set by night to be sung in the day
Marriage creates a happiness
That no other happiness can surpass
But that of the soul when she embraces God
It is the union of two souls in a strong love
For the abolishment of loneliness
It is the union of a golden ring in a chain
Whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity
I see beauty as the bride and spirit as the groom
And life as a ceremony

“Take My Hand”
Take my hand, come walk with me along life’s winding way
Take my hand, come stand with me, together we will say.
It’s you that I have chosen.  It’s you with whom I’ll stay.
It’s you with whom I’ll share my life as I want no other way.
I want you always by my side through laughter and through tears.  The good, the bad, we’ll share it all, through all the coming years.
Because I want this union, to continue to be blessed I pray we both will care enough to always give our best.
Then when our jouney ends will find that we’ve come through it all still lovers, ever friends!

"Take My Hand" Song Lyrics written by Dick Johnson and Glen Navis gnavis@charter.net

 
Bible Scriptures

Matthew 19:4-6
  He who has created them from the beginning made them male and female and said “for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall became one flesh.  Consequently they are longer two, but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

1 Corinthians 13 4-8
  Love is patience, love is kind, and is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek it’s own, is not provoked, does not take in to account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails…

Phillippians 2:2-4
   If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself, do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude within yourself which was also in Christ Jesus.

 
Options to Personalize Your Ceremony

PICTURE PROVIDED BY WEDDING AND BEACH PHOTOGRAPHY, RALPH CLEMMENTS