Opening Words

“Welcome everyone! It is such a wonderful feeling to be here with Victoria and Daniel to celebrate the beginnings of what we know will be an extraordinary marriage. Although they were legally married on New Years Day of this year, I say that we are here to celebrate their marriage because marriage is a journey not a destination. It is more than any one single event or promise is a way of life and a series of decisions that have been made and will continue to be made over and over again that shows two peoples care and concern for the one whom they love most in the world.

Yet marriage in the larger sense has always been about family and community. Unlike a marriage, a wedding is an event. It is the place where two families meet and come together as one. Victoria and Daniel when you spoke your promises of love and faithfulness to one another, that moment spoke of the most intimate of human relationships. Yet those words had a power that was more far-reaching than just the two of you and your life together. Because as you spoke those words they formally and legally joined everyone who loves you as one family.

Today is not about all the pomp and circumstance that a wedding traditionally inspires. It is a gathering of all the people who have a lifetime of emotional investment in the two and in your happiness. It is a chance for family to meet family! It is also the day that everyone here gets to see the look in your eye as you once again make your promises of forever.

Victoria and Daniel, to choose marriage is to accept a challenge, the challenge that Love itself provides when it wants to grow. This means that things won’t always be easy. But you share a commitment to putting your best selves forward in both difficult and wonderful times, emerging stronger with each experience you share. It means that although either of you will always be perfect, you will never lose sight of the fact that you are perfect for one another.

Although you have been married in your hearts since your first ceremony, marriage in the larger sense has always been about family and community. There is something very important about publicly making your promises to one another, in front of all of everyone here, who has a lifetime of emotional investment in the two of you and in your happiness. Marriage is a promise to ever one here, that the person they love will always be well cared for.”

Welcoming of the Guests

“It is not often enough in today’s world that we have the opportunity to gather all those who mean the most to us together in one place. Therefore, Victoria and Daniel would like to thank you all for taking the time and making the journey and for all the preparations that were made on their behalf to ensure that they were surrounded by the love of family and friends as they made their marriage vows. There are no words of appreciation and gratitude great enough to match the feelings that this inspires in them as they stand here now and see all of you gathered here for no other reason than to show them how much you love them. You are their friends and family, the people who are ever present in all of their favorite memories, and those whom they love most in this world. It is such a physical representation of how truly blessed they are, that is both humbling and inspiring. It is the one thing that was missing from their first ceremony. Victoria and Daniel thank you for your presence here today, and for being there for them through all the days that it has taken to make this one a reality.”

From “Corelli’s Mandolin”

by Louis de Bernieres

‘Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being ‘in love’ which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.’

The Rings

“Victoria and Daniel first exchanged their rings a little less than a year ago. The rings were exchanged with the promise of forever and in the wearing of them they found the strength of two joined together to become one. Victoria and Daniel believe that the vows they make this day do not replace their original vows, in fact they enhance them. And so they have chosen not to remove their rings, but to simply hold hands as they now re-exchange their marriage vows.”

~ Ring Vows ~

“Daniel, do you take Victoria to be your lawfully wedded wife? Do you vow to love her and care for her for as long as you both shall live? Do you accept her, with all of her faults and strengths, and offer yourself to her with all of your own faults and strengths? Do you promise to help her when she needs help, and to turn to her when you need help? Do you promise to be a faithful and loving companion and to always put the promises you make this day above all else?”

Daniel: “I do.”

“Please look into your beloved’s eyes and repeat after me.”

“I Daniel, take you Victoria, to be my wife. I will love you, and honor you, respect and cherish you, for all the days of my life.”

“Victoria, do you take Daniel to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you vow to love him and care for him for as long as you both shall live? Do you accept him, with all of his faults and strengths, and offer yourself to him with all of your own faults and strengths? Do you promise to help him when he needs help, and to turn to him when you need help? Do you promise to be a faithful and loving companion and to always put the promises you make this day above all else?”

Victoria: “I do.”

“Please look into your beloved’s eyes and repeat after me.”

“I Victoria, take you Daniel, to be my husband. I will love you, and honor you, respect and cherish you, for all the days of my life.”

Pronouncement of Marriage

“Victoria and Daniel have chosen to conclude their ceremony with a short reading entitled “All I Want”.

All I want is to love you for the rest of my life…. To wake up every morning with you by my side, knowing that no matter what happens I’ll be able to come home to your loving arms. All I want is to share everything with you….To talk to you about our ideas, our dreams, the little everyday things that make us laugh, and the not-so-little things that we can’t help worrying about. All I want is to give you my love…. As a place you can always come to for acceptance, or the simple comfort that silence brings when things left unspoken can still be understood. All I want is to grow old with you…To watch our life unfold, our dreams, one by one, come true. All I want is to love you forever.

Having witnessed your marriage vows with all who are assembled here, it is with great joy, that I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may seal your promises with a kiss!”

Bride and Groom kiss and exit to greet their guests!