Robert Patrick Smith

Welcome Statement

Officiant (to congregation):

Please be seated… Thank you

Welcome Friends, Family and loves ones! We are here today to witness the culmination of Steve and Michelle’s love story as they commit to a lifetime together as husband and wife. They met with open hearts and open minds, stepping foot on unchartered territory to find the love of their lives. It didn’t take long for them to find each other, bonding over things such as banana shakes, Reese’s cookies, horses, and sarcasm. So when they found one another, not only did they find a partner to love, they found someone who saw the best in them. Someone who not only accepted them for their flaws but loved them for it. And perhaps most importantly they found someone who refused to give up on them. Thank you for joining us as we celebrate and watch Steven and Michelle join hands in marriage. We’re here to laugh with them, some of you are here to cry (you may have already started), but most of all, we’re here to wish them well as they begin their new life together. I’d like to say on behalf of Steven and Michelle, thank you all very much for being here. I know it means a lot to them.

They would like to say a special “Thank you” to their single mothers who raised them to be the people they are today. <bride and groom present gifts to mothers>

Speech

To start our ceremony off today, Steven and Michelle have chosen a poem to be read here at the beginning that symbolizes their relationship.

Love is a temporary madness,

It erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.

And when it subsides you have to make a decision.

You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together

That it is inconceivable that you should ever part.

Because that it what love is.

Love is not breathlessness,

It is not excitement,

It is not the promulgation of eternal passion.

That is just being “in love” which any fool can do.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,

And this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground,

And when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches,

They find that they are one tree and not two.

Ladies and gentleman, that is what we’re here to witness, the entangled roots of these two individuals that are about to join together as one united tree, reaching for the stars together, weathering the same storms, growing together, year after year – some rings thick and healthy, some rings thinner – reminders of the years where things didn’t go as planned, or the years that fires hit the reset button all around them. When Steven proposed to Michelle he said “I love you to the fishes in the sky”. This was in reference to a movie they had just watched where they called the stars in the sky fish. May we all wish them well as their entangled roots reach for the fishes in the sky.

Real love is sharing a life together. Like the poet said, any fool can fall in love. Real love is what comes next. After the fall is over.

Steve, Michelle, we all stand here with you today and hold you up in happiness, but in a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months, maybe even a couple of years, real life is going to have to creep back in. We all know you have had your share of real life already before you met and since you have been together and we have all seen you come through the other side. You will need each other as partners. As equals, fiercely honest with one another and fiercely committed to one another. You have to be both. Honest and committed, because real love demands both, and a successful marriage demands a foundation of real love.

Steve and Michelle, I want to urge you to hold to that vision of your love for one another, because even though all of us here are behind you and we’re rooting for you, we are all here to wish you the best that life has to offer you both as you move forward as one united tree together!

Unity

This wedding ceremony symbolizes the inseparable union of Steve and Michelle into a new, beautiful and eternal marital relationship. They are also including their children in the ceremony because not only is it an inseparable relationship between the two of them, but it is a bringing together of a family as a whole. Steve and Michelle have chosen to represent them joining as a complete family with a glass ceremony. Would their children all come up and stand in front of their respective colors. Everyone has chosen different colors of crushed glass crystals that represent aspects of each of them, individually. Before each of you is a container of glass crystals, each represents your separate lives and you as an individual. I will ask that you each pour the contests within your own vase into the middle vase together. As the glass from each individual vase is blended together it symbolizes the joining of your separate lives into one union, the beginning of your journey as a family. I will ask that Steve and Michelle go first, symbolizing the joining as husband and wife and the joint foundation of the family then the children will join in.

<MUSIC>

Today is special; today Steve and Michelle become husband and wife and create a new, beautiful combination of colors with their family. The combined glass will be taken to an artist and blown into a beautiful vase, never to be separated again, so may your marriage be. Glass hearts will also be made from this creation and given to each member of this family here so they may know that this newly bonded family has a great new foundation and that it may be strong and never be separated.

Marriage and this beautiful vase are alike. Both are examples of what can happen when raw, unfinished elements come together. They can be two separate entities, fluid and independent of each other and can have an exquisiteness of their own, but joining them together and the result can be stunning in its beauty, inspiring in its strength, humbling in its function. Continual flow… no beginning and no end. As with your marriage and this family… this vase requires great care. Cherish it, polish it, protect it from any harm. Keep from it that which can break It or chip away at it, and it will remain a thing of beauty!

Thank you

<music while everyone goes back to place and table put away>

Declaration of Intent

Officiant (to couple):

Knowing this, it is time to declare yourselves to one another.

Steven Lee will you take Michelle Renee’ to be your lawfully wedding wife from this day forward – through whatever challenges and triumps life brings you; will you love her, honor her, and cherish her and no other – for the rest of your life?

Steve: _________

Michelle Renee’ will you take Steven Lee to be your lawfully wedded husband from this day forward – through whatever challenges and triumphs life brings you; will you love him, honor him, and cherish him and no other – for the rest of your life?

Michelle: __________

Vow/Ring Exchange

Officiant (to couple): <Receives rings from ring bearers>

Steve, Michelle, it’s now time to say your vows.

As you say your vows to one another please place the ring on their finger.

Steve, please repeat after me: Michelle, I give you this ring as a symbol of my promise to love you forever. With it, I promise that I will honor you, cherish you, and love you the rest of my days, regardless of what challenges or triumphs we face together.

Michelle, please repeat after me: Steve, I give you this ring as a symbol of my promise to love you forever. With it, I promise that I will honor you, cherish you, and love you the rest of my days, regardless of what challenges or triumphs we face together.

Pronouncement

Steve, Michelle, having proclaimed love and commitment to one another in the sight of these witnesses and myself, I am so happy to pronounce you, by the power vested in me by _________________ husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride!

Officiant (to guests):

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to present to you Mr and Mrs Clark!