Rachel Ann Eberschlag

INTRODUCTION

Welcome, family and friends. We come together today on the shores of Lake Erie to celebrate the joining of Adam and Amanda in the bonds of marriage. They thank you for coming to witness their declaration of love for each other with this life-long commitment.

In marriage, two lives are intimately shared; and the blending of the two must not make either any less. But rather, marriage serves to enhance the individuality of each partner.

This ceremony is a symbol of how far you have come and of the promise that you are making to continue to grow together and be sources of comfort, support and love to one another.

DECLARATION OF INTENT

Do you, Adam, freely and without reservation, take Amanda to be your lawfully wedded wife, to live together in matrimony, to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live?

I do.

Do you, Amanda, freely and without reservation, take Adam to be your lawfully wedded husband, to live together in matrimony, to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live?

I do.

Please join hands. Adam and Amanda will now exchange vows.

EXCHANGE OF VOWS

I promise to laugh with you, cry with you, and grow with you. I will love you when we are together and when we are apart. I promise to support your dreams and to respect our differences, and to love you and be by your side through all the days and nights of our lives.

EXCHANGING OF RINGS

It is said that wedding rings are a perfect symbol of unending love, an infinite circle which has no beginning and no end, but these rings did indeed have a beginning. Rock is dug up from the earth, metals are liquefied in a furnace at thousands of degrees, and that hot metal is then forged, cooled, and painstakingly polished. Something beautiful made from raw elements.

Love is like that. It comes from humble beginnings, made by imperfect beings. It is the process of making something beautiful where there was once nothing at all.

Adam, as you place this ring on Amanda’s finger, please repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed, and pledge to you my love, now and forever.

Amanda, as you place this ring on Adam’s finger, please repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed, and pledge to you my love, now and forever.

PRONOUNCEMENT

My wish for you on this day is that your lifetime together as a team, is one of complete happiness and joy; full of those moments that you wish would never end, and that you continue to make one another smile and laugh, for the rest of your lives.

Having proclaimed your love and commitment to one another, and with the power vested in me by the American Marriage Ministries, and the state of Ohio, it is my great honor and privilege to pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.