Misty Chantel Penigar

Dearly Beloved and Honored Guests,

We are gathered together here to join Jenny Lemire and Bryce Lewon in the legal and spiritual union and 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. Please remember that love, loyalty, and understanding are the foundations of a happy and enduring home.

OFFICIANT (to congregation): At this time, I would like to address you the guests. You see Jenny and Bryce Invited you for a reason. Love the force that brings us all here today. In fact, love is the force behind much of what we do every day. Whether making a meal for our family, taking time to teach our children, or lending a listening ear to a friend—even in the mundane, commonplace routines, love is always the reason.

Please remember love is the reason as friends we need to continue to support Jenny and Bryce. from this day on.

This is only the very beginning for them, marriage is not the end-all, so when I say support them, I do not just mean that we are here for a party, toss them gifts and disappear after. Yes, couples need alone time but do not forget they need you too.

There will be times when one or both will be upset with one another. They will need a friend to talk to and vent to just so they can talk it out and help cool their emotions. Every couple needs this, but as their sounding block how will we respond?

It is suggested that when someone comes to us to vent, we ask them if they want us to just listen, or provide thoughts. But please err on the side of caution if you do share your opinion. Please remember that at times of venting someone is always going to look bad, so we as friends do not see the full picture. Use caution, think about it if advice is requested. It is not recommended to offer your immediate opinion.

An example would be, what if you and a friend had a spat and needed to talk it out. How do the two of you look at that time when the listening ear likely does not have all the information?? Please always show love and support, but err on the side of caution when it comes to marital advice.

At this time I would like to ask you as family and friends to please stand:

(Family & Friend vows)

Do you as family and friends of Jenny and Bryce, vow to love and support this couple through difficult times and fun times, through happiness and sadness, not offering our own opinions but listening when they need to talk, and erring on the side of caution and love when advice is solicited? If so Please say We DO!

Pause

Thank You for your binding vow to support this couple, please remember this moment and please keep your vow.

Now Back to our couple:

Jenny, let Bryce represent love. And Bryce let Jenny represent love.

This mutual love stays strong as long as you both invest in and cherish it. This love is alive: it is active, dynamic, and powerful. Cling to it during good times and bad.

All marriages have ups and downs—if you will make a habit of returning to your “reason,” you will find the strength to choose each other in every moment, in every place, and at all times.

A strong and lasting marriage is built on love, trust, and respect. Like the love and respect, you have for one another this day at this moment.

Now, storybooks and romance novels talk of love at first sight and that’s all right, I suppose, but I much prefer the notion of “Love at each sighting”.

Each time you see one another, you feel the love that has been growing inside you from the very first time you lock eyes to the next and to the next and all the way up to right now.

And each new time you see one another that love grows stronger and stronger. It remembers the past, imagines the wonderful future that will be, and fills your heart with joy at each new encounter.

And from each day to the next you know that this is the one, you know this is the person that you belong with forever. You just know.

Jenny and Bryce, as we witness you gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes, it is obvious to everyone here that you know and have known for quite some time that this union is right, it is the one you have waited for it is eternal.

Reading from Shakespeare’s As You Like It – Act 5, Scene2)

I’d like to share a selection from Shakespeare’s As You Like It that sums up the steps that you have taken to lead them here today:

No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason, no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage.

Jenny Lemire and Bryce will now share their vows.

*(Vows)* Jenny Please repete after me

Do you Jenny Lemire take this man d 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, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for Confirmation)*

Do you d take this woman Jenny Lemire 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, keeping yourself unto her for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for Confirmation)*

Jenny Lemire and d will now exchange rings as a symbol of their love and commitment.

*(Ring Exchange)*

By the authority vested in me by American Marriage Ministries and the State of Wisconsin I now pronounce you wife and husband!