Jason A Landrum-Vetter

March 19, 2020: The Wedding of Madelynne Garrett and Chris Lericos

Introduction/Welcome Address

Good evening everybody. Welcome to Kansas City.

Welcome to the historic West Bottoms, and welcome to the wedding of Madelynne Garrett & Chris Lericos. My name is Jason Landrum-Vetter. I am an American Marriage Ministries Wedding Celebrant. It is my honor to be officiating this wedding.

“Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever you believe, and whomever you love, you are welcome here.”

Welcome Address

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to see Chris and

Madelynne tie the knot.

Today marks not the beginning - but the continuation - of your inspiring and exciting journey. The two of you came together over a love of creativity, friendship, and humor. Along the way, you found an unbreakable connection and fell deeply in love. You told me you have a saying. How’s it work? Let’s pretent I’m you and I say “I love you,” what happens next? (One says “like mad” and the other responds with “like crazy.”)

Today the two of you will make the ultimate commitment to each other, a commitment to share in all of life’s incredible moments, and to help assist in making each other’s dreams become realities. That sounds like an awful lot to take seriously, but there’s a good reason for it: you two have more fun together than you ever thought possible, and you’re smart people. Once you find somebody who makes every single day of your life better, who makes every single day more enjoyable, you had better hold on to that person – especially in the midst of a pandemic!

This love is what we will recognize and celebrate today. Today signifies not just a legal agreement. It’s much more: today signifies the covenant union of your two souls.

Declaration of Intent

Before you declare your vows to one another, I want to hear you confirm that it is indeed your intention to be married today.

Madelynne, do you come here freely & without reservation to give yourself to Chris in marriage? I do.

Chris, do you come here freely & without reservation to give yourself to Madelynne in marriage? I do.

Our Love Story

Chris and Madelynne, you met as interns in 2016, where you both secretly held passionate crushes on one another – fueled by your time spend working on several projects together. When Madelynne returned back to school, neither of you had confessed your feelings. You remained blissfully unaware of what your connection could become. Flash forwarding to 2017, and life (and ER Marketing) brought you two together again when Madelynne was hired on with the team after graduation. When you and Chris began working together again, it felt like everything had fallen into place and you said it felt like you had never left. From that moment forward, you have been inseparable — just two creative goof balls that love each other’s company and thrive when they are together. Madeline says you “truly are best friends” and Chris loves to say that as a duo, you are “always ‘teaming.’”

I asked you to describe the thinks about each other that made you respect and admire in one another. Madelynne, you told me you “most admire Chris for his selflessness, creative mind and his

patience. He truly is my best friend and we even joked that if we had had a “proper” wedding that we would’ve been each other’s maid of honor/best man. He makes every day better with his dad jokes, song parodies and his love for our fur babies.

He always keeps a positive outlook on life, which I very much admire.”

Surprise! You bet to be just that. In fact, I’d like you to had each other your rings right now. You’ll see why shortly.

Chris, you told me you most admire Madelynne’s “passion, caring heart, and silly energy. She makes me want to be a better person each and everyday, and in what I lack she makes up for. She helps me weather the storms in life and lifts me up for the highs. She’s my teammate through it all, thick and thin. She makes me laugh, makes me think, and makes me feel truly loved. I can’t imagine a greater goofball to spend my life with.”

Couple’s Promises

In the short amount of time we’ve spend getting to know each other, it’s been very apparent that your dynamic it nearly effortless – your personalities are extremely complementary and your respect for one another shines through in every decision you make. With this in mind, I believe you have a few personal promises you’ve prepared for each other. We will start with Madelynne.

• Madelynne’s Promises

• Chris’ Promises

Charge to the Bride & Groom:

Madelynne and Chris, today, you are also saying “I choose you as my partner…my soul’s companion…I trust you…I join my life with your life.”

Remember that these traits make up the foundation of your relationship, and that you are joining your lives with excitement and comfort, in anticipation of what you will share together. And continue to focus on communication, as it is key to the success of the relationship.

Hand in hand you will enter your marriage; hand in hand you will step out together in faith. The hand you freely and openly give to one another is both strong and tender, and in the years ahead you will need both. You will need strength for your commitment. And yet, you will need to be flexible as you go through change, never letting what is strong in you become rigid.

In addition to strength, you will need tenderness for the times when life is painful, for the times when words fail. In such times, your tender touch will both nurture and heal, and it will bind you ever closer together. Firm commitment and flexibility, strength and tenderness that profoundly weave two hearts together…of such is a marriage made, hand in hand.

Also, remember that you don’t walk this path alone. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others when together you face difficulty. Other hands are there: friends, faith, and family. To accept an outreached hand is not an admission of failure, but an act of faith and strength.

Now, I wanted to share a short reading on love:

Reading: To Love is Not To Possess (by James Kavanaugh)

To love is not to possess,

To own or imprison,

Nor to lose one’s self in another.

Love is to join and separate,

To walk alone and together,

To find a laughing freedom

That lonely isolation does not permit.

It is finally to be able

To be who we really are

No longer clinging in childish dependency

Nor docilely living separate lives in silence.

It is to be perfectly one’s self

And perfectly joined in permanent commitment

To another - and to one’s inner self.

Love only endures when it moves like waves,

Receding and returning gently or passionately,

Or moving lovingly like the tide

In the moon’s own predictable harmony,

Because finally, despite a child’s scars

Or an adult’s deepest wounds,

They are openly free to be

Who they really are - and always secretly were,

In the very core of their being,

Where true and lasting love can alone abide.

Sharing of Wedding Vows

Madelynne and Chris, having heard that it is your intention to be married to each other, I now ask you to declare your marriage vows. Please face each other and hold hands.

• Chris’s Vows

• Madelynne’s Vows

I, Chris/Madelynne, take you Madelynne/Chris, to be my lawfully wedded husband/wife. To have and to hold, to squeeze and to please, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for treat yo’self days and moments of giving, for home-cooked meals or tasty takeout, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ‘till death do us part. From this day forward, I pledge you my faithfulness, my honesty, and my love.

Giving of Wedding Rings

Remember those ring? These wedding rings are the outward and visible signs of the spiritual covenant of marriage that from this day forward unites your two lives. As you give these rings to one another, you are sealing your marriage vows. These rings are made of solid, sturdy material which is meant to survive years and years of hand-holding, washing dishes, designing and crafting, mouse-clicking, yardwork, back scratching, high-fiving and tender caresses. Couples wear their wedding rings every day as a symbol of their love.

Chris, you will go first. Please place Madelynne’s ring on her ring finger and repeat after me.

Madelynne/ I love you./ My love is in this ring./ I give you this ring/ as a symbol of my love./ I promise to be your faithful husband,/ to love you when the sun shines/ and when the rain falls,/ in sickness and in health./ When you look at this ring,/ think of me/ and remember that I love you always.

Madelynne, it’s your turn. Please place Chris’s ring on his ring finger and repeat after me.

Chris/ I love you./ My love is in this ring./ I give you this ring/ as a symbol of my love./ I promise to be your faithful wife,/ to love you when the sun shines/ and when the rain falls,/ in sickness and in health./ When you look at this ring,/ think of me/ and remember that I love you always.

Pronouncement/Kiss

Chris and Madelynne, you have made your covenants before these witnesses, and you have sealed your vows by the giving and receiving of rings. Remember, a lifetime marriage is composed of many individual days. Choose to just live each day well, and this love will last.

And now I get to say something you’ve been looking forward to hearing for a long time. By the powers vested in me by American Marriage Ministries, I now pronounce that you are husband and wife.

Chris, you may kiss your bride!

Introduction of Lericos’s

Gentlemen, I now joyfully introduce to you, Mr. and Mrs. Chris and Madelynne Lericos, husband and wife!