Processional
Welcome:
To the friends, family, and friends who are chosen family to X & X gathered here, welcome. Today, we are invited to bear witness to love.
Through the families that raised them, their friends who have shaped and supported them, and through their own journeys of learning to love themselves – community has made X & X who they are: [descriptive characteristics]
And so today, in the company of God and those who know and cherish X & X, we have the joy of celebrating the covenant they make today in community. A covenant of dedication to the daily challenge of loving one another more fully, more freely, more deeply. In the midst of life’s struggles, these two have found in one another delight, companionship, mutual respect, and a desire to share this journey of being human together.
Giving away:
Who here has raised/supported X, nurtured them in their becoming, and celebrates their joining with X in making a new family of their own?
and
Who here has raised OTHERX, nurtured them in their becoming, and celebrates their joining with X in making a new family of their own?
Declaration of Intent:
X & X, take a moment to look at those who surround you.
These are your people. Everyone here is here for you. And everyone gathered makes a covenant with you, too. To support you individually and as a couple. To encourage your love for one another. To show up to in the tears and the celebrations, and in the moments ordinary and extravagant as your life unfolds together. It is a gift to all of us who get to behold this day with you.
So. Here we are.
Here you are.
Together.
I ask you in the company of your community, before God, and in your own heart, to declare your intention to enter into the union of marriage with one another.
X, do you intend to take X to be your beloved for the rest of your life? Do you promise to be their companion wherever life may lead you, to support them in sickness and in health, to encourage their passions, and to love and accept them in all that is easy, challenging, and perfect about them?
X: I do
OTHERX, do you intend to take X to be your beloved for the rest of your life? Do you promise to be their companion wherever life may lead you, to support them in sickness and in health, to encourage their passions, and to love and accept them in all that is easy, challenging, and perfect about them?
OTHERX: I do
Do you who are gathered here, promise to do everything in your power to uphold and care for X & X in their marriage? If you do, with affirmation and joy, respond “We do.”
We do!
(Couple sits)
Couple’s song choice
Scripture selection by the couple or:
Song of Solomon 8:6-7a:
Love is as strong as death,
passion as fierce as the grave.
Even its sparks are a raging fire,
a devouring flame.
Great seas cannot extinguish love,
no river can sweep it away.
Homily
Communion
Vows:
[In the name of]
I, x, take you, OTHERX, from this day forward,
to remain with you in joy and in sorrow,
in clarity and confusion,
in laughter and anger,
when things are easy and when they seem impossible.
I will love you all the days of my life,
and seek to be a faithful, nurturing, loving partner/spouse/companion
as we grow together in faith, life, and love.
You are my beloved.
I, OTHERX, take you, X, from this day forward,
to remain with you in joy and in sorrow,
in clarity and confusion,
in laughter and anger,
when things are easy and when they seem impossible.
I will love you all the days of my life,
and seek to be a faithful, nurturing, loving partner/spouse/companion
as we grow together in faith, life, and love.
You are my beloved.
Ring exchange:
Bless, O God, these rings, that they may be a visible sign of the internal bond of love which unites OTHERX and X today. May they always serve as a reminder of the Sacred gifts of choosing each other.
OTHERX, repeat after me:
X, I give you this ring,
As a sign of my vow,
and with all that I am,
and all that I have,
I choose you.
X repeat after me:
OTHERX, I give you this ring,
As a sign of my vow,
and with all that I am,
and all that I have,
I choose you.
custom ritual moment
Declaration
It is a joy, and honor, and delight to now pronounce you (wife and husband, wife and wife, partners, spouses, beloveds united in marriage” or “pronounce you a married couple” or “pronounced you united in marriage.”
You may kiss!