Sample Wedding II

This is a wedding that I did on 3 hours notice!  The couple called at about 11:00 am.  They had just decided to get married and were leaving on vacation the next day.  They had been together for several years and wanted something short and meaningful…

 

The Wedding of Ray and Loretta

July 17, 2002

Garden of the Gods

Colorado Springs, Colorado


LOVE

"Love is the greatest bow on life's dark cloud. 

It is the morning and the evening star.

It shines upon the babe' and sheds its radiance on the quiet tomb.

It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet, patriot and philosopher.

It is the air and light of every heart -- builder of every home, kindlier of every fire on every hearth.

It was the first to dream of immortality.

It fills the world with melody -- for music is the voice of love.

Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy,

And makes right royal kings and queens of common clay.

It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion,

That divine swoon, we are less than beasts;

but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods."

Robert G Ingersoll


Singing of “Unchained Melody”



It is love that brings us together today. Love that brings us

to marriage and this wedding between Ray and Loretta. 

Marriage is a supreme sharing of experience and an adventure in the most

intimate of human relationships. It is the joyous uniting of a man and a

woman whose comradeship and mutual understanding have flowered

 into romance.

          Today Loretta and Ray have chosen to proclaim their love to the

world, and we who are gathered rejoice with them and for them

 in their  joining. Marriage is a cooperative venture, in every

 sense.   It is a relationship based on love, respect, and a

 determination on the part of both wife and husband to adjust to

 each other’s temperaments and moods – health or sickness, joy

 or sadness, ease or hardship.

Ray, will you have Loretta to be your wife, to share your life with her, and do you pledge that you will love, honor and tenderly care for her in all the varying circumstances of your life?

Ray…I Will

Loretta,  will you have Ray to be your husband, to share your life with him, and do you pledge that you will love, honor and tenderly care for him in all the varying circumstances of your life?

Loretta… I Will


Words to each other


From The Prophet

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love;

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

Kahil Gibran


Drinking of water from the marriage vase

Music Interlude


From a Native American ceremony

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.

Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now there is no more loneliness.

Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life together.

And may your days be good, and long upon the earth.


In as much as Ray and Loretta have come to this day and have declared themselves to each other; I pronounce them husband and wife; and will to each that the braid they have woven together be strong and enduring.  

 

Congratulations