Lydia E R Medina

Welcome

Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of Amanda and Esequiel. 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 Lydia and Angel 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 from near and far. Let’s now take a moment to remember those beloved family and friends who are missed today, and whose love is still felt strongly in your hearts. Those that we love don’t go away, they walk besides us everyday. Unseen, unheard but always near. Still loved, still missed and very dear.

Definition of Marriage

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.

Reading: The Way of Love

In the spirit of the importance of strong friendships to a marriage, Amanda and Esequiel have asked to have the selected Bible verse to be read to everyone: First Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse 1 through 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not loved, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not loved, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not loved, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Support of Community

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 you who are present here today, surround Amanda and Esequiel, in love, offering them the joys of your friendship, and supporting them in their marriage?

Witnesses: We will

The Lighting of the Unity Candle

At this time we will have the lighting of the unity candle.

Before Amanda and Esequiel come forward to light their wedding candle, allow me to explain the symbolism behind these candles.

The two outside candles have been lit to symbolize the union of these two lovely people and the families from which they come.

Amanda and Esequiel will light the center candle from the other two. The three candles will remain lit.

One candle for each of them, one candle for the unity of their new family, and as symbols of their commitment to each other and to a lasting and loving marriage.

Amanda and Esequiel, please light your candle.

Wedding Vows

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 civil 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.

The Vows

Dearly beloved and honored guests:

We are gathered together here to join Amanda and Esequiel in the union of marriage.

This contract is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously, and with a deep realization of its obligations and responsibilities.

The couple have prepared vows that they will repeat now.

Esequiel repeat after me:

God has given us a second chance at love, 19 years later.

I come today to give you my heart

and my hope for our future together.

I promise to bring you joy,

to be at home with your spirit

and to learn to love you more each day,

through all the days of our lives.

My love for you is endless and eternal.

I choose you to be no other than yourself,

loving everything I know of you

that makes you, you.

And trusting who you will become with God’s grace and mercy.

I promise to have your back,

to support and encourage you.

I will respect and honor you,

whether you are near or far.

Always and in all ways.

With you, I pledge to repair one small piece of the world.

I take you to be my spouse to have and to hold,

in tears and in laughter,

in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish,

from this day forward in this world and the next.

Amanda repeat after me:

I agree that God has given us a second chance at love 19 years later.

I come today to give you my heart

and my hope for our future together.

I promise to bring you joy,

to be at home with your spirit

and to learn to love you more each day,

through all the days of our lives.

My love for you is endless and eternal.

I choose you to be no other than yourself,

loving everything I know of you

that makes you, you.

And trusting who you will become with God’s grace and mercy.

I promise to have your back,

to support and encourage you.

I will respect and honor you,

whether you are near or far.

Always and in all ways.

With you, I pledge to repair one small piece of the world.

I take you to be my spouse to have and to hold,

in tears and in laughter,

in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish,

from this day forward in this world and the next.

Exchanging of vows

And now, Amanda, do you take Esequiel to be your husband?

Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect him, forsaking all others, and holding only unto him forevermore?

[“I do.”]

Esequiel, do you take Amanda to be your wife?

Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect her, forsaking all others, and holding only unto her forevermore?

[“I do.”]

The Rings

Amanda and Esequiel will now exchange rings as a symbol of love and commitment to each other.

Rings are a precious metal; they are also made precious by you wearing them.

Your wedding rings are special; they enhance who you are.

They mark the beginning of your long journey together.

Your wedding ring is a circle—a symbol of love never ending. It is the seal of the vows you have just taken to love each other without end.

Esequiel, please place the ring on Amanda’s left hand and repeat after me:

As a sign of my love

[“As a sign of my love”]

That I have chosen you

[That I have chosen you”]

Above all else

[“Above all else”]

With this ring, I thee wed.

[“With this ring, I thee wed.”]

And Amanda, please place the ring on Esequiel’s left hand and repeat after me:

As a sign of my love

[“As a sign of my love”]

That I have chosen you

[That I have chosen you”]

Above all else

[“Above all else”]

With this ring, I thee wed.

[“With this ring, I thee wed.”]

The Good Wishes

To make your relationship work will take love. Continue to date each other. Take time to show each other that your love and marriage grows stronger with time.

It will take trust to know that in your hearts, you truly want what is best for each other.

It will take dedication to stay open to one another—and to learn and grow together.

It will take loyalty to go forward together, without knowing exactly what the future brings.

And it will take commitment to hold true to the journey you have both pledged today.

The Declaration of Marriage / The Kiss

And now by the power vested in me by the state of New Jersey, it is my honor and delight to declare you married. Go forth and live each day to the fullest. You may seal this declaration with a kiss.

[Kiss]

I am so pleased to present the newlyweds, Mr and Mrs. Esequiel and Amanda Santiago Lopez!