We are gathered here in the presence of witness, as friends and extended family, for the purpose of uniting in matrimony Jeremy Yoches and Melissa Watson and to share with them in the celebration of their union in marriage. There are no vows as meaningful as those you, Melissa and Jeremy, are now making. There is no agreement on earth so fulfilling as the unity of being you are forming. There are no ties so sweet and tender as those you are assuming with love.
True marriage is the holiest of all earthly experiences. I know you enter into it reverently, thoughtfully and with full understanding of its sacredness.
Marriage can be a great adventure when it is the outward expression of a great love. Such a love is characterized by openness, understanding and courage. It makes you able to see through to your partner’s essence; willing to be in total support of your partner’s well being, goals, purpose and spirit; desirous for your partner to be all he or she can be spiritually, mentally and physically. Such a love requires that you be totally honest with yourself and your mate; that you ask for what you want, take action even though you may hesitate, share your feelings and your needs; each making requests (not demands) of the other, listening deeply and carefully, yet leaving your partner free, always seeking to make life more wonderful.
Marriage is a form in which you have chosen to express and live your love relationship. To serve its purpose, your marriage must change as you change. But your unchanging commitment to love and to live will allow you both to experience and share a magnificence unknown to you before.
Marriage, to be complete, must first be spiritual. From this inner state of conscious unity in thought, purpose, plan and action, there comes the outer state corresponding to it, making the outer like the inner: joyous, dynamic and harmonious. For this cause came man and woman into the world: to love one another; for creativity and joy; but not to make a bond of love. Love possesses not, nor can it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love, alone.
The state of matrimony is true marriage when based upon a spiritual communion of two souls who find completion in each other. True marriage is the creation of a relationship wherein each of you can continue to grow and develop in every way and share that, each with the other. Real love is the spiritual foundation upon which a happy and joyous love affirms the godliness of each other. Real love affirms the creative spirit in each other. It joins you together in a bond of mutual truth, mutual understanding and total acceptance of one another.
Marriage is the uniting of two souls already attuned to and united with each other. We are testifying now before these friends of the existence of such a spiritual union. In Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet,” it is said, “You were born together and together you shall be forever, but let there be spaces in your togetherness. Let the sea of love move between the shores of your souls. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music. And stand together, yet not too near together, for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”
So now, today, in this beauteous place, before these dear friends and the Divine, your separate lives with each of your dreams, hopes and memories are merged into one life.
Will you two bring to this new life, each for the sake and fulfillment of the other, the best that you have?
Jeremy & Melissa: “I will.”
Please join your hands and face one another.
To Jeremy:
True marriage is the holiest of all earthly experiences. I know you enter into it reverently, thoughtfully and with full understanding of its sacredness.
Marriage can be a great adventure when it is the outward expression of a great love. Such a love is characterized by openness, understanding and courage. It makes you able to see through to your partner’s essence; willing to be in total support of your partner’s well being, goals, purpose and spirit; desirous for your partner to be all he or she can be spiritually, mentally and physically. Such a love requires that you be totally honest with yourself and your mate; that you ask for what you want, take action even though you may hesitate, share your feelings and your needs; each making requests (not demands) of the other, listening deeply and carefully, yet leaving your partner free, always seeking to make life more wonderful.
Marriage is a form in which you have chosen to express and live your love relationship. To serve its purpose, your marriage must change as you change. But your unchanging commitment to love and to live will allow you both to experience and share a magnificence unknown to you before.
Marriage, to be complete, must first be spiritual. From this inner state of conscious unity in thought, purpose, plan and action, there comes the outer state corresponding to it, making the outer like the inner: joyous, dynamic and harmonious. For this cause came man and woman into the world: to love one another; for creativity and joy; but not to make a bond of love. Love possesses not, nor can it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love, alone.
The state of matrimony is true marriage when based upon a spiritual communion of two souls who find completion in each other. True marriage is the creation of a relationship wherein each of you can continue to grow and develop in every way and share that, each with the other. Real love is the spiritual foundation upon which a happy and joyous love affirms the godliness of each other. Real love affirms the creative spirit in each other. It joins you together in a bond of mutual truth, mutual understanding and total acceptance of one another.
Marriage is the uniting of two souls already attuned to and united with each other. We are testifying now before these friends of the existence of such a spiritual union. In Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet,” it is said, “You were born together and together you shall be forever, but let there be spaces in your togetherness. Let the sea of love move between the shores of your souls. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music. And stand together, yet not too near together, for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”
So now, today, in this beauteous place, before these dear friends and the Divine, your separate lives with each of your dreams, hopes and memories are merged into one life.
Will you two bring to this new life, each for the sake and fulfillment of the other, the best that you have?
Jeremy & Melissa: “I will.”
Please join your hands and face one another.
To Jeremy:
Jeremy, will you take this woman, Melissa, whose hands you hold, choosing her from all the world, to be your lawful wedded wife? Will you live with her in a state of true marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor her at all times, to the fullest extent of your god-awareness?
Jeremy: “I will.”
To Melissa:
Melissa, will you take this man, Jeremy, whose hands you hold, choosing him from all the world, to be your lawful wedded husband? Will you live with him in a state of true marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor him at all times, to the fullest extent of your god-awareness?
Melissa: "I will.”
Repeat after me:
To Jeremy:
To Jeremy:
I, Jeremy, take you, Melissa, to be my wife, to share with you, to enjoy you and to love you physically, mentally and spiritually, unconditionally, from this day forward.
To Melissa:
I, Melissa, take you, Jeremy, to be my husband, to share with you, to enjoy you and to love you physically, mentally and spiritually, unconditionally, from this day forward.
RING CEREMONY
To Jeremy:
This ring is a symbol of the unbroken unity of the ideal married life. As such, will you place it upon Melissa’s finger and repeat after me:
With this ring, Melissa, I thee wed. Let it be a symbol of our love. As a token of our unity, I place it now upon your hand.
Melissa (repeating after Tom):
I love and support you, Jeremy, for being all that you are, and all that you are not, and all that you can be. As a token of our unity, I give it a place upon my hand.
To Melissa:
This ring is a symbol of the unbroken unity of the ideal married life. As such, will you place it upon Jeremy’s finger and repeat after me,
With this ring, Jeremy, I thee wed. Let it be a symbol of our love. As a token of our unity, I place it now upon your hand.
Jeremy (repeating after Tom):
I love and support you, Melissa, for being all that you are, and all that you are not, and all that you can be. As a token of our unity, I give it a place upon my hand.
Jeremy and Melissa have selected this Native American Reading as a Blessing for their Marriage
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
For now you are husband and wife,
May your days be good and long upon the earth.
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
For now you are husband and wife,
May your days be good and long upon the earth.
PRAYER
Friends, at this time, may we each in our own way, in silence, offer our highest and best thoughts and prayers for Melissa and Jeremy in their new life together.
[Pause for a minute of silence]
Amen, so let it be.
ROSE CEREMONY
I would like to present a rose to each of you.
A rose is a symbol of love. It is appropriate at this time that we consider the message of love that this beautiful flower gives to the world. The rose blooms (just like each of us) because of an inner truth, beauty and goodness that must be expressed; but it does not need the admiration or love of others in order to show its beauty. It only knows to be beautiful. Even if resentment is directed towards it, it can only continue to express the beauty that comes from within its own inner knowing.
Melissa and Jeremy, please exchange your roses with each other. In this exchange, you are giving to each other your first gift as husband and wife. Let this be a symbol of the giving of unconditional love from the innermost part of your being.
It would be my hope that wherever you make your home, there will be a specially appointed place in it for red roses, and that on each succeeding anniversary of this occasion, you celebrate it, at least in part, by each of you bringing to that appointed place a red rose, as a restatement of your love, and your commitment to the vows which you have made this day. In every marriage, it is occasionally difficult to find words to resolve certain issues, which may arise. If and when such issues might come into your marriage, if either of you will remember and bring to the appointed place a red rose, the other will see it and understand it as a statement of love and accept it, because love makes everything all right.
Inasmuch as you, Jeremy, and you, Melissa, have pledged your love to each other, and witnessed the same before man, by the power vested in me as a commissioner of civil marriages of the State of California, and for the County of Alameda, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife.
You may kiss each other.
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Jeremy and Melissa Yoches.
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