Hi guys! My fiance and I are having a friend officiate our wedding in August, so we're working on writing the ceremony script together. We're not religious and we didn't want to include any overly mushy gushy stuff. We pulled bits and pieces from scripts we found online, and modified them to sound more like "us". In place of saying our own vows (because that makes me super uncomfortable), we're each going to share a few of our favorite things about each other with our officiant and he's going to include those in the "officiant talks about marriage" section.
I'd love any feedback you all can provide! Thanks.
PROCESSIONAL
OPENING WORDS
Officiant: Welcome!
Good afternoon family and friends! We have come here today to celebrate the
wedding of Bride and Groom.
On behalf of Bride and Groom, I’d like to thank you for
joining us. They are delighted that you have come to share in their joy during
this special day. By your presence, you celebrate with them the love they have
found in each other, and you support their decision to commit themselves to a
lifelong relationship.
THE BLESSING
Officiant: Bride and Groom want also want to acknowledge their parents on this special day. [NAMES OF PARENTS], you have prepared your children for this day in
countless ways. You have given Bride and Groom the tools to succeed as
individuals but you have also shown them how to succeed in a loving
relationship. Because of your guidance they can confidently and willingly take
this step together.
Will you, [NAMES OF PARENTS] bless Bride and Groom in their marriage? Will you celebrate them in their times of joy, and support
them and their marriage in times of hardship?
Parents: We will.
OPENING READING
Officiant: Bride and Groom have asked (reader) to share a reading.
Reader: Read the
reading - TBD
OFFICIANT TALKS
ABOUT MARRIAGE
Officiant: Thank you,
(reader).
As Bride and Groom prepared for the ceremony part of this
wedding celebration, they reflected on what it is that they love about each
other. And this was the easiest part of
planning this wedding!
Groom… Bride loves…
Bride... Groom loves…
Marriage is the promise between two people who love each
other, who trust that love, who honor each other another as individuals, and
who wish to spend the rest of their lives together.
It is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of
human relationships. No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that
– through love and patience; dedication and perseverance; through talking and
listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through
silliness and laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate
your differences, and by learning to
make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest.
A successful marriage is not something that just happens. It
takes work, it takes patience, and it takes time. It takes a commitment from
both of you to do whatever it takes to make your relationship thrive and not
just simply survive.
Groom will you take Bride to be your lawfully wedded wife and
travel the rest of life’s road with her? Will you love her, laugh with her,
comfort her, honor her, and be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Groom: I will.
Officiant: Bride will
you take Groom to be your lawfully wedded husband and travel the rest of life’s
road with him? Will you love him, laugh with him, comfort him, honor him, and
be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?
Bride: I will.
SECOND READING
Officiant: At this time I’d like to invite (reader)
to share a reading.
Reader: Reads
reading - TBD
EXCHANGE OF RINGS/VOWS
Officiant: Thank you. [ASK FOR RINGS] These rings
symbolize the commitment Bride and Groom are making to each other, and will
serve as a reminder of the promises they have made today and will keep for the
rest of their lives.
Repeat after me (Groom goes first, then Bride, placing each
other’s rings on their finger afterwards):
I take you as you are/
Loving who you are now and who you are yet to become/
I promise from this day forward/
To be grateful for our love and our life/
To be generous with my time, my energy and my affection/
To be patient with you and with myself/
To fill our life with adventure and our home with laughter/
To encourage you to grow as an individual and inspire you to
do so/
To love you completely/
These things I pledge to you before our friends and family/
FISHERMAN’S KNOT
Officiant: Bride and Groom have chosen to do something unique and
special today in tying a “fisherman’s knot”.
Also known as a true lovers knot, the fisherman’s knot is
one of the simplest to tie, but also one of the sturdiest. Its bond will not break,
but become even stronger under pressure.
Bride and Groom, please tie the knot.
Each of these ropes represent your past, your own individual
and separate lives before today. As you intertwine your ropes, you are joining
your two lives into one, representing the present. The completed knot
represents your future, secure in the knowledge that your relationship will
continue to be strong despite the inevitable changes life brings.
The goal of marriage is to achieve a blending of hearts and
lives, but like the spaces between these cords formed by the knot, let there
also be spaces in your new life together, so each may encourage and support the
individual growth of the other.
I ask that you now pull on this rope to see it strengthen
under pressure while still allowing us to see the individual cords – just as
your support of each other as induvial strengthens your union. Let this knot
indicate the strength of your relationship and be a symbol of your unity from
this day forward.
CLOSING &
DECLARATION OF MARRIAGE
Officiant: Bride and Groom, in the presence of your family and friends who have joined you to share
this moment of joy in your lives, you have expressed your love and commitment
to each other. Therefore, it is my joyful responsibility to pronounce you
husband and wife. You may now seal your marriage with a kiss.
(woop woop we kiss!)
And now, introducing to you for the first time as a married
couple, Bride and Groom!