Sheri Meehan

Welcome, loved ones. We gather on this joyful occasion to celebrate love, laughter and light on Zach and Samantha’s wedding day.

Each of you here represents a piece of Zach and Samantha’s lives. Your presence here is a gift to them. Thank you for being here.

Zach and Samantha, today your lives blend seamlessly together and you’re about to embark on the greatest of adventures. A new path is ahead of you, and to navigate it well, there are skills to be learned and practiced daily.

Wilfred Peterson’s “The Art of Good Marriage” reminds us that a good marriage doesn’t just happen, one must be created. In marriage, the little things are the big things: like never being too old to hold hands – and remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day. It also takes patience, kindness and fighting the urge to snarkily respond when it’s best to keep your mouth zipped.

On that note a good marriage sometimes takes a really good sense of humor-as the following reading reminds us:

Marriage is about giving and taking

And forging and forsaking

Kissing and loving and pushing and shoving

Caring and Sharing and screaming and swearing

About being together whatever the weather

About being driven to the end of your tether

About Sweetness and kindness

And wisdom and blindness

It’s about being strong when you’re feeling quite weak

It’s about saying nothing when you’re dying to speak

It’s about being wrong when you know you are right

It’s about giving in, before there’s a fight

It’s about you two living as cheaply as one

(you can give us a call if you know how that’s done!)

Never heeding advice that was always well meant

Never counting the cost until it’s all spent

And for you two today it’s about to begin

And for all that the two of you had to put in

Some days filled with joy, and some days with sadness

Too late you’ll discover that marriage is madness

RING WARMING

Before you pledge your vows to one another, let’s pause for a moment and take in the beauty that surrounds us here as we warm Zach and Samantha’s wedding rings. Please hold these rings and make a wish for the happy couple and pass them on. These rings will not only be a gift from one to another, but will be given with the love, support and wisdom of their loved ones.

Take a look at your guests and feel their love for you as well as the love you have for each other.

Please look in to each other’s eyes as you share your promises to each other.

Zach repeat after me:

I promise to share the covers, leave the toilet seat down

And to not throw my dirty socks everywhere

Most of all, I vow to never stop playing with you

To Love you as my best friend, lover and partner in life

Samantha repeat after me:

I promise not to tell you how to drive, to cherish you,

but not obey because that’s creepy

Most of all, I vow to never stop playing with you

To Love you as my best friend, lover and partner in life

Zachary Arthur Slort do you welcome Samantha Marie Beauchamp to be your wife and your cherished best friend?

Samantha Marie Beauchamp do you welcome Zachary Arthur Slort to be your husband and your cherished best friend?

Zach, please place the ring on Samantha’s finger and repeat after me:

This ring is a token of my love for you

Let it remind you that you’re always in my heart

Samantha, please place the ring on Zach’s finger and repeat after me:

This ring is a token of my love for you

Let it remind you that you’re always in my heart

Zach and Samantha by the love that has brought you here today, by the vows and rings you have exchanged in the presence of your loved ones, it is my absolute delight and honor to pronounce you husband and wife!

You may seal your marriage with a kiss!

Everyone, it is my pleasure to present to you for the first time as newlyweds, Mr. & Mrs. Zach Slort and Samantha Beauchamp!