Linsey Strolberg Stoppelman

GREETING

Welcome! Good afternoon family & friends. We have come here today to celebrate the wedding of Joel Lorenz and Jamie Ellington. Joel & Jamie are so thankful that all of you are present today. By being here, you celebrate with them the love they have discovered in each other, and you support their decision to commit themselves to a lifelong relationship. Marriage is a bond to be entered only after considerable thought and reflection. By making this commitment today, Joel and Jamie’s relationship will become stronger and deeper.

Family and love ones let us pray together… God, for the joy of this occasion we thank you. For the significance of this wedding day we thank you. For this important moment in an ever-growing relationship we thank you. For your presence here during the ceremony and for your presence always we thank you. In Your Name we pray, Amen.

MARRIAGE ADDRESS

Marriage is the promise between two people who love each other, and who trust in that love, who honor each other as individuals, and who choose to spend the rest of their lives together. Our hope for you two 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 make a 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 family who have come here today to support you.

MARRIAGE STATEMENT OF INTENT/CONSENT

Joel and Jamie, do you present yourselves willingly and of your own accord to be joined in marriage? If so, answer in unison, we do.

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? If so, answer in unison, we do.

We do.

Please turn towards each other and share your vows. (You can hold hands if you want to during vows).

VOWS

Joel, you shall promise your vows first.

Today I promise you/that though the world may change/

and though we may change with it/

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

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

Jamie, now it’s your turn.

Today I promise you/that though the world may change/

and though we may change with it/

I will always love you/always to 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 & BLESSING

Bernie & Rebecca, please give me the rings… This is the point where we usually talk about wedding bands being a perfect circle, where there’s no beginning & no end, but we all know that these rings do have a beginning. Rock is dug up from the earth, metal is liquefied at thousands of degrees, molded, cooled, & painstakingly polished. Something beautiful is made from these raw elements. Love is like that. It comes from humble beginnings, made by imperfect beings. It’s the process of making something beautiful where there was once nothing at all.

Let us pray… Lord, bless these rings to be signs of the vows by which Joel and Jamie have promised themselves to each other. Amen.

Joel, take Jamie’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.

Jamie, take Joel’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

Joel and Jamie, 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. It is my honor and delight to declare you two be husband and wife.

You may seal your marriage with a kiss.

Everyone rise… I present to you… Mr. & Mrs. Lorenz!