Page 13 - The Essential Wedding Ceremony Idea Book

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Blessing for a Marriage by James Dillet Freeman

May your marriage bring you all the excitement marriage should bring, and may life grant you patience and
understanding. May you always need one another - not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know

your fullness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you embrace one another, but not out
encircle each other. May you succeed in all important ways, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for

things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you

apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the
mystery which is one another's presence - both physical and spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side,

and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may
you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

Union by Robert Fulghum

You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point,
you decided to marry. From that moment of yes to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making promises

and agreements in an informal way. All those conversations that were held riding in a car or over a meal or

during long walks — all those sentences that began with “When we’re married” and continued with “I will” and
“you will” and “we will” — those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” — and

all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real
process of a wedding. The vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all

those things we’ve promised and hoped and dreamed — well, I meant it all, every word.”

Additional paragraph (can be read before or after the vows, with slight modification)
Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one

another — acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned
much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold

of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world,
this is my husband, this is my wife.

Another brief word on Love by Robert Fulghum

We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with
ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love

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