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| Home > Ceremonies > Sample Wedding Vows, Blessings, and Ceremonies |
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Sample Wedding Vows, Blessings, and Ceremonies Ethical Culture wedding ceremonies incorporate readings, blessings, and rituals borrowed from the world's commitment traditions. Couples can together decide how to blend these components to create a truly unique celebration for themselves, their families, and their friends. Here are some examples:
Vows:I, [name], choose you [name] to be my [husband/wife], to respect you in your successes and in your failures, to care for you in sickness and in health, to nurture you, and to grow with you throughout the seasons of life. Exchange of Rings: Officiant: Marriage is a state in which two people come together and create a union that is greater than the mere sum of two individuals. It is difficult to express in words the profound relationship that is love. What emblems do you have of your love and regard for one another? [Rings are handed to officiant.] From time immemorial, the circlet of metal has been an emblem of the sincerity and permanence of a couple's love and regard for one another and their union. As the precious metal turns again upon itself, so does a good marriage turn upon itself for its refreshment and renewal. Take these rings and exchange them in the spirit of love. Couple: I give you this ring as token that I shall love you, in all times, in all places, and in all ways, forever. 
Blessing (from an Apache text):Now you will feel no rain, for each will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each will be warmth for 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 place to enter the days of your life together, And may your days be good and long upon this earth. Ceremony of the Wine Cup The years of our lives are as a cup of wine poured out for us to drink. The cup of life contains within it the sweet wine of happiness, joy, hope, and delight. This same cup, at times, holds the bitter wine of sorrow, grief, and despair. Those who drink deeply of life invite the full range of experiences into their being. As you drink from this cup, you acknowledge to one another that your lives, until this moment separate, have become one vessel into which all your sorrows and joys, all your hopes and fears, will be poured, and from which you will receive mutual sustenance. Many days you will sit at the same table and eat and drink together. Drink now, and may the cup of your lives be full to running over. |
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