Alice and Dave's Wedding

Music

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Welcome! Family and friends, we are gathered here to witness the marriage of Alice and David.

This day is both joyful, as we share their happiness, and solemn, as we bear witness to the committment they are about to make with each other.

Their marriage today will transcend their love for each other from beyond the physical domestic arrangement, the emotional heartfulness, and the mental sharing and into the spiritual. Something intangible that is beyond this world will be forged today, linking these two people in this world, and beyond.

Throughout their marriage, Alice and David will continue to grow as individuals, and help each other grow as well. We have gathered here to support them as they begin the first step together in their new family, which we hope children will one day enter.

One of the foundations of marriage is friendship, and friendship is one of life's greatest gifts.

Greg motions to Jason to come forward.

Jason:

From Cicero, On Friendship:

In friendship there is nothing false, nothing pretended, what there is is genuine and comes from the heart. For friendship is nothing other than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual goodwill and affection, and with the exception of wisdom, no better thing has been given to man by the immortal gods.

What is sweeter than to have someone with whom you dare discuss anything as if you were communing with yourself? How could your enjoyment in times of prosperity be so great if you did not have someone whose joy in them would be equal to your own? Adveristy would indeed be hard to bear, without him to whom the burden would be heavier even than to yourself.

Friendship embraces innumerable ends; turn where you will it is ever at your side; no barrier shuts it out; it is never untimely and never in the way. For friendship adds a brighter radiance to prosperity and lessens the burden of adveristy.

Jason sits back down.

Greg:

Love can be said to be comprised of five elements: caring, sharing, accepting, respecting, and trusting. We care for others' feelings and needs beyond ourselves; we share our thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams. We must accept the differences that separate ourselves from others, and having accepted them, we must strive to understand the difference, so that we may respect the diversity of our lives. And lastly, we must trust: trust that we will find the strength, compassion, lucidity, and morality to overcome the dark shadows that cross our paths. We must trust in ourselves and each other: that together, we will find the way.

And so to you, Alice and David, I remind you of these things, that together, you will help each other as you help yourselves and the world about you: let all the elements of love be strong in your marriage.

Between members of a family, between friends, and between two people who would join in marriage, there is love.

Greg motions to Albert to come forward.

Albert:

From the first letter from Paul to the Corinthians:

Even if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and even if I have all faith so that I could move mountains, if I do not have love, I am nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not easily provoked and thinks no evil; it does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Albert sits back down.

Greg:

Yet marriage is more than a celebration of love and friendship; it is also an affirmation of committment. As Alice and David join in marriage, they make a committment to their union as the beginning of a new family. They make a committment to each other, to themselves, and to their loved ones.

Greg holds up the rings.

May these rings be a reminder to us all of the sanctity of the marriage of Alice and David; may they serve to bear witness to the world of the solemnity of their vows they are about to take.

Greg prompts dave:

I, David, take you Alice, to be my wedded wife, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, to love and to cherish, from this day forward.

Greg prompts alyse:

I, Alice, take you David, to be my wedded husband, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, to love and to cherish, from this day forward.

dave and alyse get to smooch.

Greg:

We give thanks for the moment that brings Alice and David together in marriage. We recognize with thanksgiving the journeys that have brought them to this time, and we celebrate with them the hopes they hold for their life together. We ask your blessing upon them, to sustain them through the difficult and uncertain times that come to every relationship. We hope that they may continue to find in each other resources which will nurture their marriage. May they continue to grow together and may their love for one another deepen with the passing of time.

We give thanks for the nurture and support of family and friends. Let us, who share the circle of celebration today, be renewed in our own commitments to one another, that we may be participants in a healed and healing society.

May the love you hold for each other, now sealed in marriage, continue to mature, that your life together may be a source of strength and inspiration to the community of your family and to the wider circle of the world.

May the peace of the Light be with you always.