John Keith Samuels IV

*INVOCATION*

Dearly Beloved,

*We are gathered together here today to get through this thing called "life". Electric word, life; it means forever and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here to tell you there's something else: Dillon and Ania's love. A world of never ending happiness, you can always see the sun, day or night.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the love of Dillon Francis Washington and Ania Parks as they join together in holy matrimony. 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.

When I was speaking with Dillon and Ania about their ceremony, I asked if they had any poems or verses they wanted read prior to their declaration of intent. They mentioned Rumi, Neruda, Prince, but eventually agreed that they'd prefer I write something original. No pressure. This poem is called Love Is (for Dillon and Ania).

Love is

Love is not a poem,

It does not flow sonorous and intentional,

A perfect version of itself at every reading.

Love is not a rose,

Too red and too lush to be real,

Preserved only in its severance.

Love is not a song,

It has neither meter nor key

No form to guide, no punctuating cadence.

Love is not a precious stone,

Its faults are many, its smoothness lacking,

Its sheen much more discrete.

Love is the toil,

It is the hours spent on wrong lines

Until you find the right one.

It is the calibration of the beats

From hearts, to time spent building synchrony

Love is the soil,

It is the nourishment that sanctions growth,

The erosion that rounds the edges,

What takes in the harshness of the world

And filters out the toxins

Love is not the finished product, but the work

And the work is never done.

*DECLARATION OF INTENT*

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 marriage durable and everlasting.

Today you declare your commitment to each other before family and friends.

Do you Ania Parks take this man Dillon Francis Washington 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, in darkness and uplighting, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for Confirmation)*

Do you Dillon Francis Washington take this woman Ania Parks 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, in tune and off key, keeping yourself unto her for as long as you both shall live?

Is word bond?

*(Wait for Confirmation)*

*EXCHANGE OF VOWS AND RINGS*

Dillon and Ania will now share their vows.

*(Vows)*

Dillon and Ania will now exchange rings as a symbol of their love and commitment.

*(Ring Exchange)*

For anyone who knows Dillon, he is very good at breaking glass, but we’re going to have him break one more for good luck, on purpose this time.

*PRONOUNCEMENT*

By the authority vested in me by American Marriage Ministries, the State of New York, and the *county in Scotland*, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss!

Honored guests, please rise for the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Washington!!