Rachel Robinson

INTRODUCTION AND ADDRESS

We are assembled here today to celebrate and support the marriage of Alex & Savanna. They are delighted that you are here and thank you for your participation on their special day.

Today is about promises that become permanent and friends that become family.

Marriage is the clasping of hands, the hearts, the union of two lives as one. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships. A husband and wife are each other’s best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and even critic… and we can do that, because in marriage we say not only, “I love you today,” but also, “I promise to love you tomorrow, the next day and always.” Marriage is also a place of freedom. Freedom to fully express who you are, knowing that you have someone there to catch you when you fall, encourage you when you are discouraged, and applaud you when you succeed.

These are essential parts of a good marriage, but there are also other important components – friendship, courage and even risk -because marriage is a risk – a great and glorious risk when you embark on the adventure in the same spirit. It is also a great responsibility. “We can’t choose our fate, but we can choose others… The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.”

Someone who has locks that fit our keys and keys to fit our locks. And we know that when we feel safe enough to open the locks, we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be.

Our other half makes us feel treasured, safe and loved beyond our wildest measures. We get the partner and lover and protector we always desired, and maybe even needed.

VOWS & RING EXCHANGE

Alex and Savanna, now, you are protected, in short, by your ability to love. As you make your wedding vows, remember this truth and honor it each day of your marriage.

Alex-

Do you promise to stand by Savanna always, have faith in her and encourage her,

to listen to her and laugh with her and to hold her,

to communicate fully and fearlessly with each other,

to value your differences as much as your common ground,

and to be her friend, lover, and partner for all the days of your lives as her husband?

[Alex: Always.]

Savanna-

Do you promise to stand by Alex always, have faith in him and encourage him,

to listen to him and laugh with him and to hold him,

to communicate fully and fearlessly with each other,

to value your differences as much as your common ground,

and to be his friend, lover, and partner for all the days of your lives as his wife?

[Savanna: Always.]

And now may I have the rings.

Alex, please repeat after me:

I solemnly swear, to love you today, tomorrow and always, I offer you all that I have, all that I am, and all that I will ever be, until the very end

Savanna, please repeat after me:

I solemnly swear, to love you today, tomorrow and always, I offer you all that I have, all that I am, and all that I will ever be, until the very end

Unity Candle

Alex and Savanna, together as you light this candle symbolize the flame of your own individual selves joining to ignite the partnership of marriage. You also bring the warmth, strength and wisdom of your family’s fire as kindling for your own. Your flames are separate, yet they feed the same fire. From this day onward, may you bask in the beauty of the light of your love, may its light shine bright and steady upon your path together and may its heat keep you warm through all the days of your lives and beyond.

BLESSING & PRONOUNCEMENT

As all of us here in attendance know, we only are as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Alex and Savanna have declared their love and commitment to each other, for each other and in front of us as witnesses to their bond. We all share in that commitment and will support it and then throughout that married life; it is with that strength and support that Alex and Savanna will look back at the end of their time on this earth and say in earnest: After all this time? Always.

It is with great honor and joy that I declare you bonded for life as husband and wife. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Buening! You may kiss the bride.