Ammie M Gaylor

Today is a celebration: a celebration of love, of commitment, of friendship, of family and of two people who are in love and in it forever. Marriage symbolizes the intimate sharing of two lives. You do not shed your individuality for that is what brought you together in the first place. Marriage is the loving declaration that you should be no other than yourself. The relationship as well as each individual are continually growing and developing. Your understanding of each other deepens and evolves. It is not this ceremony or the state of being married that will truly join and hold you together, but your ongoing commitment to your relationship and to the kind of life you wish to make together. In this way, your marriage will not be just a symbol; it will be more than that. It will be an action, something you work actively on every day.

So you stand here together, today, to be joined in marriage. You met and fell in love by chance, but you commit to one another today because you are making a choice. You both are choosing each other. You have chosen to be with someone who enhances you, who make you think, smile, laugh and makes every day brighter.

We are thankful for this glorious day, this wonderful family and this beautiful couple: we are grateful for our health and safety as we come together on this joyful day, and we ask that these two are blessed as they begin this journey known as their love story.

Readings

I. The Art Of A Good Marriage

by Wilferd Arlan Peterson

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.

A good marriage must be created. In marriage the little things are the big things.

It is never being too old to hold hands.

It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.

It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.

It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.

It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old.

It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.

It is not only marrying the right partner; it is being the right partner.

 

Vows

Gunnar, do you take Chandler to be your lawfully wedded wife: to have and to hold, from this day forward, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as you both will live? [I Do]

Chandler, do you take Gunnar to be your lawfully wedded husband: to have and to hold, from this day forward, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as you both will live? [I Do]

Ring Exchange

This is the point in the ceremony where we usually talk about the wedding bands being a perfect circle, with no beginning and no end. But we all know that these rings do have a beginning. Rock is dug up from the earth. Metal is liquefied in a furnace at a thousand degrees, then molded, cooled and painstakingly polished. Something beautiful is made from raw elements. Love is like that. It comes from humble beginnings, made by imperfect beings. It’s the process of making something beautiful where there was once nothing at all.

Gunnar, as you place the ring on Chandler’s finger, please repeat after me: Chandler, this ring is my promise to love you forever.

Chandler, as you place the ring on Gunnar’s finger please repeat after me: Gunnar, this ring is my promise to love you forever.

Blessing

Chandler and Gunnar: May all your days be blessed with love and friendship. May each day and night of your lives be a new beginning. May your home be filled with laughter and the warm embrace of a summer’s day. May you find peacefulness and beauty, challenge and satisfaction, humor and insight, healing and renewal, love and wisdom, as in a quiet heart and may you always feel that what you have is enough.

Today you have expressed your love for one another through the commitment and promises you just made. You have kissed each other a thousand times, but now it will be different: better – as you embrace each other as a beautiful married couple.

Now only one step remains:

I now pronounce you husband and wife – you may now kiss the bride!

It is my honor to present

Mr. Gunnar Barron and Mrs. Chandler Barron