OFFICIANT (to congregation):

Welcome and please be seated.

When it comes to finding that special person in your life, sometimes you just know. And as we witness _________ and _________ gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes, it is obvious to everyone here that they know and have known for quite some time.

Now, storybooks and romance novels talk of love at first sight and that’s all right, I suppose, but I much prefer the notion of “Love at each sighting”. Each time you see one another, you feel the love that has been growing inside you from the very first time you lock eyes to the next and to the next and all the way up to right now.

And each new time you see one another that love grows stronger. It remembers the past, imagines the wonderful future that will be and fills your heart with joy at each new encounter.

And from each day to the next you know that this is the one, you know this is the person that you belong with forever. You just know.

Reading from Shakespeare’s As You Like It – Act V, Scene ii)

I’d like to share a selection from Shakespeare’s As You Like It that sums up the steps _________ and _________ have taken to lead them here today:

No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason, no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage.

OFFICIANT (to congregation):

And so, _________ and _________ have ascended those stairs and have arrived here, at this moment, ready to declare their love and commitment to each other and in front of the world.

OFFICIANT (to _________):

_________, do you take _________, to be the one. The one you hold above all others, the one you hold in the highest regard, the one you hold when he/she/they needs to be held and the one you hold first and foremost in your heart and soul?

OFFICIANT (to _________):

_________, do you take _________, to be the one. The one you hold above all others, the one you hold in the highest regard, the one you hold when he/she/they needs to be held and the one you hold first and foremost in your heart and soul?

OFFICIANT (to congregation):

May I please have the wedding rings?

These rings have been around for all of time. They are made of the same atoms that existed at the very start of everything, just as the atoms that made you were. They are infinite and eternal, they are forever. Just as your love is, just as you both are.

OFFICIANT (to _________):

_________, please repeat after me:

_________, each time I see you, it’s better than the time before, which I thought impossible as each last time was near perfection. I am so lucky, happy and honored to be yours forever. With this ring, I thee wed.

OFFICIANT (to _________):

_________, please repeat after me:

_________, each time I see you, it’s better than the time before, which I thought impossible as each last time was near perfection. I am so lucky, happy and honored to be yours forever. With this ring, I thee wed.

OFFICIANT (to congregation):

Many people say that love is the backbone of a marriage—and they are right, but they might not fully understand all of what “love” entails.

OFFICIANT (to couple):

You see, love is not static. Like everything else in life, it is subject to change. The love you feel today is very likely different than the love you felt when you first met. The love you feel today will be different than the love you feel when you celebrate your 1-year anniversary and then your 10th, then 50th – and beyond.

Love is more than the feeling you get when someone makes your heart happy, love is your heart remembering the history you share with one another during times that are tough. And somehow getting through those tough times makes the good times all the more lovely.

Love each other each and every day and live every day with full hearts and your bond will grow ever stronger with time.

OFFICIANT (to congregation):

They knew it – they knew they were meant to be together. Now I want you all to know this: By the power vested in me by the Universal Life Church I hereby pronounce you husband/wife/partner and husband/wife/partner.

I invite you now to kiss your first kiss as a married couple. May there be many more to come.