Elizabeth M. Gutierrez

Dearly Beloved and Honored Guests,

We are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the union of Gerson and Leslie. In the years that they have been together, their love for each other has grown, turning them into the couple you see before you. Now, they are ready to spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife. A true marriage begins well before the wedding day, and the efforts of marriage continue well beyond the ceremony. A brief moment in time and the stroke of the pen are all that is required to create the legal bond of marriage, but it takes a lifetime of love, commitment, and compromise to make a marriage durable and everlasting. Today you declare your commitment to each other before family and friends.

Lord, please bless these rings that Gerson and Leslie are about to exchange. May these rings forever remind them of their covenant with one another, as well as the circle of love they have publicly created here today. May their compassion and kindness for one another always be like these rings, with no beginning and no end. May the precious metal remind them of their precious commitment, and if either begins to tarnish, may they joyfully undertake the sacred duty to make it shine brightly again. May their relationship always be like these rings, separate but close, simple but beautiful. May these rings always belong to their hands, and their love always belongs in each others hearts.

Amen.

Gerson Pacheco and Leslie Gutierrez will now share their vows.

*(Vows)*

Do you Gerson Pacheco take this woman Leslie Gutierrez to be your lawfully wedded partner, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for Confirmation)*

Do you Leslie Gutierrez take this man Gerson Pacheco to be your lawfully wedded partner, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto her for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for Confirmation)*

Gerson Pacheco and Leslie Gutierrez will now exchange rings as a symbol of their love and commitment.

*(Ring Exchange)*

In as much as and have truly and openly chosen each other, declared their love and purpose before family, friends, and have made their pledge to each other, symbolized by the giving and receiving of rings.

By the authority vested in me by American Marriage Ministries and the State of California I now pronounce you husband and wife!