Jennifer Jo Bates

(Pictures)Before we get started, if you would like to take a few photos...now is the time!

(Welcome)

While they do that, can I get a quick show of hands of how many here are from Oklahoma? Wow ok, more than I thought actually. I have high expectations of all of you to extend the warmest hospitality to all of our guests here to Oklahoma!

Please be seated!

Good Evening! Welcome to the Rolling Hills of Osage County! Congradulations! You Made It!

I am just the neighbor and it has been a journey for me. I can't imagine coming 1500 miles!

(Michael and Justine to Guests)

On behalf of Michael and Justine I want to extend the warmest welcome, thanks and gratitude for you coming to witness their special moment. They recognize how much effort it took to be here.

Though this moment is theirs, all of that...the food, music and drinks are really for you! To show their thanks and gratitude for all your efforts to witness and celebrate this moment with them!

(Guests to Michael and Justine)

To Michael and Justine...we are all here to be supportive of you. To Hope with you and to dream with you! Does that about cover it? BIG Yes from congregation!

(My Testimony of Michael and Justine's Relationship)

Now I have over here a simple ceremony script...but I believe Michael and Justine deserve more than that.

At home, I have a stack of notes and ideas I have been collecting since they asked me to officiate over a year ago. It hit me about 3 weeks ago... Though I thought they deserved more than a simple script...you didnt want to hear all of THAT!

I concluded the best thing I could do is tell you about Michael and Justine as I see them

Many of you have watched Justine and Michaels early beginnings. Especially those of you from Jersey.

As the neighbor for over the last 3 years..I stand in a unique position of watching them and their relationship..

For starters they are both really good human beings!! Let me tell ya...I had it in for whoever moved into that house next door. I did! I didn't know what I was going to do but I was going to do something! And the second I met them I fell in love with them! I fell in love with them both. It is no surprise to me they fell in love with each other!

Look at 'em! Who could be mad at them!

Now, you don't have to have ceremony to have a marriage and you don't have to have a marriage to be committed! They are already committed. I've seen it! Not just in big moments --

like a young couple move into their first house, both get promotions, get engaged and then here.

I watched hundreds of little moments - like -

Michael having to come home from work to get a big scary bug!

I saw how giddy Michael got when he was going home to Jersey to get the engagement ring from his mother! The truth is Michael gets giddy anytime he has done something he thinks Justine will like!

and Justine well she lets Michael do his man things!!! Then she will say things like awww...I think Michael will like this thing or that thing.

Justine is soft, real soft but she doesn't want anyone to know it...AND SHE IS SOFT ON MICHAEL!

We are here today to make this commitment official as a Marriage...so why a ceremony?

Because Justine and Michael recognize this is one of the most important and critical things they will ever do in their lives. So they have asked you here to witness and celebrate. They know one day 30 years from now they will look back on these photo's and say "Wow Babe, Look at us and all our friends when we were young!". For some of us younger if not young!

So now I'm going to go down here and they are going to exchange vows and declare their intent to be together for the rest of this lifetime!

(Declaration of Intent/Vows)

(Bride/Groom)

Do you Vow to keep (Michael/Justine) as your favorite person? Do you vow to go on adventures and to laugh with (her/him)? Do you vow to be supportive during hard times and celebrate together during the good?

And Just as importantly - Do you Vow to work at being the best person you can be? Not just for yourself, for (Justine/Michael) and your marriage!...loving (him/her) fiercely for the rest of this lifetime?

(Bride/Groom). I DO!

to Seal these Vows... Justine - you may kiss your husband! Michael - you may kiss your bride!

(Ring Exchange)

As customary Michael and Justine have chosen to exchange rings. Now this is the part where we usually hear the analogy of a ring having no beginning and no end...and I like that but I've heard it a bunch of times and still don't remember it exactly. I don't need my notes here for this because this is fact and numbers...don't worry just a few numbers!

The simplest of stones takes 100s of millions of years to form.

Diamonds 1 to 3.3 billion years

Gold is formed instantaneously in a supernova..gathered here at the beginning of this big spinning rock. Long before any of our ancestors.

Where it worked its way close enough to the surface...and some lucky somebody...dug it up!

All that before craftsmen mold, form and polish it. It's amazing any of us can buy a piece of jewelry... but we can! It has a price tag! and it wont be until just a minute when they exchange them.. these rings will become priceless!

I hope it is these things they reflect on as they exchange rings and when they look at them in the future. Let these truths represent the magnitude of the committment they make here today!

(Bride/Groom)

This ring repesents my love for you and the vows we made here today!

By The Power Vested in me by ...first Michael and Justine, then American Marriage Ministries, then the State of Oklahoma it is my Honor to introduce for the first time (( Mr. and Mrs. McGovern ))!

Let the Celebration begin!!!

Everyone Exits the way they came in!