Groom and Bride: Today you are surrounded by your friends and family, all of whom are gathered to witness your marriage and to share in the joy of this occasion which can be one of the most memorable and happy days of your lives. As you know, no minister, no priest, no rabbi, no public official can marry you. Only you can marry yourselves. By a mutual commitment to love each other, to work toward creating an atmosphere of care and consideration and respect, by a willingness to face the tensions and anxieties that underlie human life, you can make your wedded life come alive.

Friends, welcome to this happy occasion! Groom and Bride: you are entering into that holy estate which is the deepest mystery of experience, the greatest experience of love. Kahlil Gibran has written in The Prophet: "Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; for love is sufficient unto love. When you love you should not say 'God is in my heart,' but rather, 'I am in the heart of God.' And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Friends, welcome to Groom and Bride’s wedding! They have asked me to tell you how very precious you are to them and how very much they appreciate your willingness to be here, coming, as many of you have, great distances. They are also profoundly moved by your expressed and, sometimes, unspoken support of them as they embark on this new adventure together.

Please join with me for a moment of prayer.We thank Thee, Father-Mother-God, for the perfect outworking of a loving harmonious partnership between _______and_______. We trust Thy love to lead them together in wisdom and harmony now and forevermore. Amen.

Marriage is the form in which you chose _______ years ago to express and live your love relationship. To serve its purpose your marriage has changed as you have changed, but your unchanging commitment to love and to life has allowed you both to experience and share a magnificence unknown to you before. Today you are here to renew that commitment and to share with us the celebration of your love.

Friends, welcome to the wedding of Groom and Bride.  Robert Browning has written these loving lines:

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made.
Our times are in His hands
Who said, "A Whole I planned;
Youth shows but half."
Trust God, see all, nor be afraid.

Dear friends, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the face of this goodly company to join together this man and this woman in marriage. It is an ancient and honorable relationship, ordained of God and urged by the very nature of our being. The marital estate is designed to establish human welfare and happiness, and therefore it is not by anyone to be entered into lightly -- but reverently, discreetly and soberly. Into this holy relationship these two persons come now to be joined. If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace.