Pete "Aloha" Tingstrom

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Welcome! Good evening and Aloha Mike & Diana. We have come here today to celebrate your wedding. By my presence, I am celebrating with you the love you have discovered in each other, and I support your decision to commit yourselves to a lifelong relationship.

Marriage is a bond to be entered into only after considerable thought and reflection. By making this commitment today, your relationship will become stronger, better, and deeper.

Today, you demonstrate your devotion to each other by dedicating yourselves to a life together and you show your respect for each other. By setting forth to honor the vows you have created today, your lives, which began on separate paths, will be joined as one.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF FAMILY & FRIENDS

Today represents not only the joining of the two of you, but also the joining of your families and friends.

Although not present, we would like to recognize your parents on this occasion. I know you offer your profound gratitude for all the love and care your parents showed in raising you. The unconditional gifts of love and support that they have continually offered have inspired you to become who you are today. Without them, this day would not be possible.

MARRIAGE ADDRESS

Deep abiding affection, the magical and compelling shared impulse that makes us seek each others’ company, is among the greatest gifts of the human experience.

Any of us who has been fortunate enough to find and express the kind of loving devotion that we are celebrating here today knows that it is an awesome and beautiful thing.

At this time, I would like to share 3 suggestions with the both of you:

My first suggestion is this:

Be constantly grateful for this precious person who has chosen to make a life with you.

My second suggestion is this:

Be generous with compliments. Be attentive and helpful. The world can be a tough place

and any of us can be subject to rough handling. Each of you can, by your tenderness toward each other,

kind words and thoughtful actions, make your marriage and your home an uplifting refuge.

Last, but perhaps most importantly:

Make truth the unfailing bedrock of your lives together. A happy, loving marriage is built on trust and respect. That trust and respect can only be sustained if you are both deeply committed to always being open and truthful in every exchange no matter how small.

My hope for you is this:

That you have many long years to delight in each other’s company, to feel gratitude for your great fortune in having found each other.

To a make home together that is at once sheltering and welcoming, to each do meaningful, productive work at home and in the world and to love and be loved by the friends and family who have come here today to support you

MARRIAGE STATEMENT OF INTENT/CONSENT

Mike and Diana, do you, present yourselves willingly and of your own accord to be joined in marriage?

We do.

Will you promise to care for each other in the joys and sorrows of life, come what may, and to share the responsibility for growth and enrichment of your life together?

We do.

Then please turn to each other and share your vows.

VOWS

Mike - repeat after me...Today I promise you/that though the world may change/

and though we may change with it/

I will always love you/always treasure you/and will share all that I am with you/

I am proud, from this day forward/to be called your husband

Diana - repeat after me...Today I promise you/that though the world may change/

and though we may change with it/

I will always love you/always treasure you/and will share all that I am with you/

I am proud, from this day forward/to be called your wife

RING EXCHANGE

For thousands of years, men and women have exchanged rings as a token of their vows.

Let these rings be a sign that your love has a past, a present, and a future.

Mike, take Diana’s ring and place it on her finger and repeat after me:

I give you this ring/as a sign that I choose you/

To be my wife/my partner/and my best friend/to the end of my days.

Diana, take Mike’s ring and place it on his finger and repeat after me:

I give you this ring/as a sign that I choose you/

To be my husband/my partner/and my best friend/to the end of my days.

The love already shared by your hearts has been strengthened by the vows you have taken and the rings you have now exchanged.

PRONOUNCEMENT

Mike and Diana, we have heard your promise to share your lives in marriage. In the honesty and sincerity of what you have said and done here today, and in accordance with the laws of the state of Hawaii, it is my honor and delight to declare you henceforth to be husband and wife.

You may seal your vows with a kiss.