Wedding Vows & Ceremony Discussions

Entire Ceremony Script

Okay. Venue. Food. Music. Photo. Video. Check check check.
 Im finally at the nitty gritty details and I haven't been to enough weddings to know what happens during a non religious ceremony. Ive found old threads and old articles but whats going on these days.

We want to say our own vows and if im correct we need Opening, The Expression of Intent and Vows (we want to write our own) so which comes first?

Please share your entire ceremony script! =)

Re: Entire Ceremony Script

  • I just used Google to find non-religious ceremonies.  Then I took my favorite elements from the few I liked best and merged them into one.  As long as you say your "I do's" (and any other verbiage required by your state/county for the marriage license) you're good! 

    For our ceremony we started we started with a basic "Thanks for Coming", added a brief "Moment of Silence" for all of our friends/family that couldn't make it today, then we moved into the "Exchanging of the rings", a short statement about the circle and the actual exchange.  Then we made our promises/vows.  Then said our "I do's" and were pronounced Man and Wife.

    I think the whole think was about 10 minutes.  You can do whatever you like and get as creative as wish, but less is more.  I wouldn't include any rituals that don't hold a significance to you or your FI. 

    Good luck and happy planning!

  • OP do you have an officiant?

    Officiants vary widely with the whole "do what you want" on one end of the spectrum and "here's a whole list of options, in order, pick out what you like best from each section" on the other end of the spectrum.


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  • Okay. Venue. Food. Music. Photo. Video. Check check check.
     Im finally at the nitty gritty details and I haven't been to enough weddings to know what happens during a non religious ceremony. Ive found old threads and old articles but whats going on these days.

    We want to say our own vows and if im correct we need Opening, The Expression of Intent and Vows (we want to write our own) so which comes first?

    Please share your entire ceremony script! =)

    Officiant: Please be seated.

    Welcome

    Officiant: Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of K and A. You have come here to share in this formal commitment they make to one another, to offer your love and support to this union, and to allow K and A to start their married life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them.


    So welcome to one and all, who have traveled far to be here. K and A thank you for your presence here today, and now ask for your blessing, encouragement, and lifelong support, for their decision to be married.  We also pause for a moment to feel the love coming to us from around the globe from friends and family who could not travel here on this day.


    To the Parents: Who K and A have become as persons is determined by many factors, but none more significant than their relationship with those who loved them into life, nurtured them, and taught them by their words and example. Although we outgrow the homes of our childhood, we never outgrow the love and support of our parents and families. In many ways you have taught them how to love.

    For this they are forever grateful.


    Parents, will you please stand?

    Will you D, B, B, and M, encourage K and A in their marriage?

    Parents: We Will

    Officiant: Do you celebrate with them the decision they have made to choose each other, and will you continue to stand beside them with each passing year?

    Parents: We will

    Officiant: Thank you. You can please be seated.

    Definition of Marriage

    Officiant: Marriage 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; through dedication and perseverance; through talking and listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through tenderness 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. What this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you make to stand together as lifemates and partners.


    Declaration of Intent

    Officiant: Will you, K, take this woman to be your wedded wife?


    Groom: I will


    Officiant: Will you, A, take this man to be your wedded husband?


    Bride: I will


    Love Story - Written and Told by Officiant (bride’s sister)



    Readings

    Officiant: A and K would now like to invite K’s sister, B, to read Love by Roy Croft.


    Officiant: And now, A and K invite K’s sister, L, to read The Art of a Good Marriage by Wilferd Arlan Peterson


    Support of Community

    Officiant:  Two people in love do not live in isolation. Their love is a source of strength with which they may nourish not only each other but also the world around them. And in turn, we, their community of friends and family, have a responsibility to this couple. By our steadfast care, respect, and love, we can support their marriage and the new family they are creating today.


    Will everyone please rise.


    Officiant: Will you who are present here today, surround K and A in love, offering them the joys of your friendship, and supporting them in their marriage?  If so, answer We Will.


    All: We will


    Officiant: You may be seated.


    Officiant: Parents, as we near the end of the ceremony, I ask you now to please pass the rings to one another, hold them for a moment, warm them with your love, and make a silent wish for this couple, and their future together.


    I’ve heard that wedding ceremonies can be a bit of a blur to the bride and groom.  I’d like to ask you, K and A, to please take a moment to look at your friends and family who are with you today.  With the months of preparation that went into planning this beautiful day, please take some time to pause, take a deep breath, and make a memory that is not created from a photograph you see later.


    I’d now like to read Union by Robert Fulghum

    Wedding Vows

    Officiant: We've come to the point of your ceremony where you're going to say your vows to one another. But before you do that, I ask you to remember that love – which is rooted in faith, trust, and acceptance - will be the foundation of an abiding and deepening relationship. No other ties are more tender, no other vows more sacred than those you now assume. If you are able to keep the vows you take here today, not because of any religious or civic law, but out of a desire to love and be loved by another person fully, without limitation, then your life will have joy and the home you establish will be a place in which you both will find the direction of your growth, your freedom, and your responsibility.


    Bride and Groom

    I, A, take you, K, to be my husband, I, K, take you, A, to be my wife, my constant friend and partner, and my love.


    I will work to create a bond of honesty, respect, and trust; one that withstands the tides of time and change, and grows along with us.


    I vow to honor and respect you for all that you are and will become, taking pride in who we are, both separately and together.


    I promise to challenge you, and to accept challenges from you.


    I will join with you and our community and try to create and maintain a world we all want to live in.


    Our home will be a sanctuary and a respite for us and for those whom we cherish.


    Together: Above all, I will give you my love freely and unconditionally.


    Together: I pledge this to you from the bottom of my heart, for all the days of our lives.



    Officiant: May I have the rings?  Please place these rings on each others’ fingers and repeat after me: I give you this ring, as a daily reminder of my love for you.



    Officiant: Pelo poder e compromisso do seu amor e pelo poder em mim investido, eu os declaro companheiros por toda a vida.

    By the power of your love and commitment, and the power vested in me, I now pronounce you partners in life! You may kiss each other!


  • @adk19 this was beautiful to read. thank you for sharing :)
    Daisypath Wedding tickers
  • @adk19 this was beautiful to read. thank you for sharing :)
    Thanks.  It was my sister's wedding ceremony, which I helped her write.  I stole a ceremony from a website and made it a shared google document, and we both made changes to it.  She added things that sounded like her and her husband, I changed things to make them sound like something I would say (I was the officiant.)  I enjoy writing, so I made things sound flowery and wedding-y.  
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