Melinda Lindsey

Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We are gathered here today, to

celebrate the wedding of Heather and TJ. You have come here from nearby and from far away to share in this commitment they now make to one another, to offer your love and support to their union, and to allow Heather and TJ to start their married life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them.

Heather and TJ thank you for your presence here today. They ask for your blessing, encouragement, and lifelong support, for their decision to be married. They also remember other loved ones who cannot be here to share this moment with them today. Those people too, they hold dear in their hearts.

Timothy and Heather, marriage is the promise between two people who love each other, who trust that love, who honor one another as individuals in that togetherness, and who wish to spend the rest of their lives together. It enables the two separate souls to share their desires, longings, dreams, and memories, their joys and sorrows, and to help each other through all uncertainties of life. A strong marriage also nurtures each of you as separate individuals and allows you to maintain your unique identity and grow in your own way through the years ahead. It is a safe haven for each of you to become your best self while together you become better than ever could be alone.

You are adding to your life not only the affection of each other, but also the companionship and blessing of a deep trust. You are agreeing to share strength, responsibilities and love. To make this relationship work, therefore, takes more than love. It takes trust, to know in your hearts that you want only the best for each other. It takes dedication, to stay open to one another, to learn and grow, even when it is difficult to do so. And it takes faith, to go forward together without knowing what the future holds for you both.

Timothy and Heather, please join hands, look at one another now and remember this moment in time.

Timothy Ray Hickman, Jr, please take Heather’s hand and repeat after me.

Heather, I take you as you are/ loving who you are now and who you are yet to become/ I promise from this day forward/ To be grateful for our love and our life/ To be generous with my time, my energy and my affection/ To be patient with you and with myself/ To fill our life with adventure and our home with laughter/ To encourage you to grow as an individual, and inspire you to do so/ To be faithful to you and our family/ To love you completely/ These things I pledge before you, our friends and our family/

Heather Nicole Lindsey, please take Timothy’s hand and repeat after me.

Timothy, I take you as you are,/ loving who you are now and who you are yet to become./ I promise from this day forward/ To be grateful for our love and our life/ To be generous with my time, my energy and my affection/ To be patient with you and with myself/ To fill our life with adventure and our home with laughter/ To encourage you to grow as an individual, and inspire you to do so/ To be faithful to you and our family/ To love you completely/ These things I pledge before you, our friends and our family/

Timothy, do you take Heather to be your wife? (TJ - I do)

Heather, do you take Timothy to be your husband? (Heather: I do)

Me: Please present the rings

Your wedding ring is a symbol of your promise to one another. The ring, an unbroken, never ending circle, is a symbol of committed, unending love.

Timothy, as you place this ring on Heather‘s finger, repeat these words after me: This ring symbolizes my love for you/ and the commitments we made today

Heather, as you place this ring on Timothy‘s finger, repeat these words after me: This ring symbolizes my love for you/ and the commitments we made today.

Heather and Timothy, you have come here today of your own free will and in the presence of family and friends, have declared your love and commitment to each other. You have given and received a ring as a symbol of your promises. By the power of your love and commitment to each other, and by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now share your first kiss as husband and wife. Congratulations. Friends and family, I now present to you the newly married couple.