Wedding of Click here to enter text. Date and Time:Click here to enter text. Venue and Address:Click here to enter text. Reverend Betty Davis, Officiant; Riversong Weddings (Please click to select items you wish to include and enter any text. Save the doc in your name and send to me at riversongcc@gmail.com) ☐ Entry of Guests If there are witnesses or guests, they gather round near the Officiant ☐Entry of Bride and Groom Bride and groom enter together and come before the Officiant. Or other: ☐Gathering Words We have come together in this special place to celebrate the love bride and groom have for each other. They have discovered something so precious, they want to claim it for a lifetime and declare it to the world by entering into marriage. They are fully aware that this commitment is not being entered into lightly but is one of the most important decisions of their lives. (Personal information – how you met or something special about your relationship or other gathering words: Click here to enter text. 1 ☐Opening Prayer Beloved God, we welcome your presence in our midst today as we witness and bless the union of bride and groom . We ask your blessing on their love and commitment as they begin their journey together as husband and wife. Bless them with unconditional loving, faithfulness, and respectful giving one to another. Bless their families who are also united as one. May they honor and care for each other as they support this couple. May this couple commit their lives to allowing your Spirit to guide and strengthen them to love unselfishly and unconditionally now and always. Amen. ☐Remembrance At this time we would like to remember some special people who are present in Spirit though absent from this gathering. We remember Click here to enter text. They surely add their blessing to this union today. ☐Declaration of Support When a man and a woman join in marriage, their families as well as their friends are joined into a larger circle of caring. All those you love are not present today but are an important part of the fabric of your lives and therefore of your marriage Tend to those you love well and allow them to help you keep your marriage strong. ☐Readings 2 Reading: Click here to enter text. Read by: Click here to enter text. ☐Scripture like: I Cor 13: The love passage Read by: Click here to enter text. Select which marriage address or write your own: ☐Marriage Address 1(New Orleans theme) You’ve chosen New Orleans for your wedding for reasons special to both of you. So much about this city represents what is also best in a relationship; it’s the Big Easy and your love should be an easy love - natural and free – custom made in heaven. The Quarter is inspiring with all the beautiful French architecture – so the structure of your marriage is beautiful. It is based on the strengths and best qualities of each of you. Like New Orleans with its music and feasting and endless celebrations, marriage should be a playground of wild abandon. In the security of being loved and wanted, you are free to be yourself and enjoy the endless pleasures of just being together. Like the locals do, live large in your marriage, be creative in your loving, and allow the simple things of life to fill you up to overflowing. When the storms come, and they do come, your love and commitment will endure because you remember all that you have and you stay determined to keep it. or ☐ Marriage Address 2 A true marriage is the ultimate relationship because it offers the opportunity of limitless intimacy between 3 two people. It is a great and challenging adventure into the best that human caring, affection, trust, and understanding have to offer. Life with a marriage partner is sometimes playful and effortless, sometimes frustrating and difficult. Your relationship will continue to strengthen if you face challenges and setbacks with the confidence and courage that together you can find a way through. Love deepens through unselfish nurturing, open and honest communication of feelings and fears hopes and dreams. Love lightens burdens because you divide them. Love intensifies joys because you share them. Love inspires faithfulness and requires trust. Bring out the best in each other and work hard not to change each other but to become your best selves for each other. The love you share is the greatest treasure life offers. Two individuals joining in marriage become like two separate streams merging into a life giving river, deepening and enriching each other and those around you. May your union can lead the way for others to witness the heights and depths and happiness of committed love. or ☒ Other Marriage Address Click here to enter text. Wedding Vows (Turning toward each other and holding hands) The words you are about to speak are some of the most preciou 4 and important words you will ever speak. Looking deeply into the eyes of your chosen love, declare your vows with true conv ☐Write our own vows: Groom’s Vows: Click here to enter text. Bride’s Vows: Click here to enter text. To Groom: “Having professed your love and declared your vows, do you take bride to be your wife?” Groom: “I do.” To Bride: “Having professed your love and declared your vows, do you take groom to be your husband? Groom: “I do.” ☐Use the traditional vows: I, groom , receive you bride To be my wedded wife / To have and to hold/ From this day forward. For better, for worse/ For richer, for poorer/ In sickness and health/ To love and to cherish Til death do us part. I, bride , receive you groom To be my wedded husband / To have and to hold/ From this day forward. For better, for worse/ For richer, for poorer/ In sickness and health/ To love and to cherish Til death do us part. 5 To Groom: “Having professed your love and declared your vows, do you take bride to be your wife?” Groom: “I do.” To Bride: “Having professed your love and declared your vows, do you take groom to be your husband? Groom: “I do.” This bond is a true miracle and a blessing from God. Treasure it and carefully tend it each day. May it grow deeper and sweeter with each passing year. May it be abundant enough to share with others who also care about you. May your marriage show the heights and depths and joy of committed love. Ring Exchange: Would the ring bearer present the rings? (Bride gives bouquet to someone) It is traditional to seal the vows with the exchange of rings. Before we exchange rings, let’s think about what it means to “give your hand” in marriage and the significance of these hands we place rings on to symbolize your love. ☐ Option 1 (before the exchange of rings) Look at these hands as the gift they are to you. These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and vibrant with love. These are the hands that offer to uphold your life, to work alongside yours to build a 6 future and realize your dreams together. These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years. These hands will hold you up during life’s challenges. They will wipe away your tears and clap with pride at your achievements. These are the hands that will guide you as you search to be your best self. Always be thankful that you have the hand of your partner to hold through life’s fascinating journey. ☐ Option 2: (use before the ring exchange) Ribbon or Handfasting ceremony (see a sample on my website). Please present the rings ☐ Symbolism of the rings These rings symbolize in the purity of the metal, the strength and purity of your love. As circles they represent your hope for an everlasting commitment. To Groom: “Groom, place To Bride: “Bride, place the ring on bride’s finger the ring on groom’s and repeat after me:” finger and repeat after me:” Bride, I give you this ring/ Groom, I give you this ring/ As a symbol of my love for As a symbol of my love you/ for you/ And as a pledge of my And as a pledge of my commitment to you/ commitment to you/ 7 With this ring, I thee wed With this ring, I thee wed (Push ring onto his finger) (Push ring onto her finger) ☐ Alternative words for the rings: Click here to enter text. ☐Unity Ceremony (see my website for samples) ☐ Unity Candle ☐ Sand Ceremony ☐ Traditional Cultural Ceremony Click here to enter text. ☐ Other ☐Final Blessing "Let us pray: Holy God, creator of love, through your Spirit deepen in the minds and hearts of this couple the sacred and binding power of their vows. Bless their commitment and strengthen them in the fulfillment of their vows for one another. Through Your Spirit may they be a blessing to each other, to their children, their families and their friends. May their love deepen and grow stronger through life’s challenges. May their life together and their home honor you and be a witness to 8 the joy and fulfillment found in unconditional committed love to another. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen." May God bless the joining of your lives and may you live in love always. ☐Pronouncement Now, because you have chosen one another And pledged to love each other For all the days of your lives Before God and this gathering of family and friends By the power vested in me as a minister of the gospel And the state of Louisiana I now pronounce you husband and wife! Marriage KISS: ☐”You may kiss the bride.” ☐Share your first kiss as husband and wife. PRESENTATION: It is my great honor and privilege to present as husband and wife Enter here how you wish to be presented Signing of Documents (remember to bring them along with the original envelope) 9