Wyatt & Marrissa
Officiated by Rev. Stacey K. Miles
03-17-2012 Marcus Whitman
The Ceremony:
“Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We are gathered here today to celebrate the wedding of Wyatt and Marissa. The promises Wyatt and Marissa will make to another are promises of commitment and devotion. Their commitments to each other are not only for a lifetime partner, they are commitments of a companion and friend, a friend with whom they will share hopes, dreams, ambitions, successes, and sometimes disappointments and sorrows that are part of life.
And we, their friends and family, will support them as they build their future together as husband and wife. Wyatt and Marissa, this sharing of your lives is not to be at the expense of your individuality; rather, the uniqueness of each you brings to this marriage will be enhanced by the strength of the bond you share.
So I ask now, Wyatt, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?
Marissa, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?
Marriage is a celebration of love. Matrimony symbolizes the ultimate intimacy between a man and a woman. A marriage that lasts is one that always has a little more to grow. Happiness in marriage doesn’t just happen. A good marriage must be created, cared for, and worked at. In marriage, little things are big things;
Never being too old to hold hands. Remembering to say, “I love you.” Not taking each other for granted. A hug sent over the phone lines when you’re apart.
Your courtship shouldn’t end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years you spend together. A solid marriage is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives; standing together facing the world and all it offers.
Forming a circle of love around you that gathers in family and friends. Marriage is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in a spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It’s a continuously open dialog. There are also things marriage is not. Marriage is not looking for perfection in the other. You need to cultivate flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. Nor is marriage a winner take all argument.
Share in all things. Have the capacity to forgive and forget. Give one another an atmosphere in which to grow, and find room for things of the spirit. Search for the good and beautiful as well as the meaningful.
Establish a relationship in which the independence is equal, the dependence is mutual, and the obligations are reciprocal. Perhaps most importantly, remember marriage is not simply marrying the right partner; it is being the right partner.
This ceremony is the outward sign of a sacred and inward commitment. If each of you can be part of a union created with loving purpose, and continually renew with human feelings and intentions, I ask you to repeat your vows to one another after me:
Marissa, today I become your husband and you become my wife. I will strive to give you the best of myself, while accepting you the way you are. I promise to respect you as a whole person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you in to my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change, keeping our relationship alive and exciting. And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all that I am, in the only way I know how, completely and forever.
Marissa, please repeat after me: Wyatt, today I become your wife and you become my husband. I will strive to give you the best of myself, while accepting you the way you are. I promise to respect you as a whole person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you in to my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change, keeping our relationship alive and exciting. And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all that I am, in the only way I know how, completely and forever.
Wyatt do you have a ring for your bride? Please slide this ring onto Marissa’s finger and repeat after me, “You are my life, my love, my best friend, may this be a reminder of my love and commitment we have made here today. With this ring I thee wed.”
Marissa, do you have a ring for your groom? Please slide this ring onto Wyatt’s finger and repeat after me, “You are my life, my love, my best friend, may this be a reminder of my love and commitment we have made here today. With this ring I thee wed.”
These rings symbolize your union. An unbroken circle of love to be worn all the days so long as you both shall love. May the spirit of love bless these rings and may they be a true symbol of the love of the one who gives it, and the one who wears it.
Marissa and Wyatt, now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter for 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 persons, but there is only one life before you. Go now to enter into the days of your life together. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
With the powers vested in me by the state of Washington, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now seal your marriage with a kiss!
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Sonny & Whitney
Officiated by rev. stacey miles
The Ceremony:
“Dearly Beloved,
We are gathered here today to join together Sonny and Whitney in holy matrimony. This occasion marks the celebration of love and commitment with which Sonny and Whitney begin their life together.
Marriage is the union of two persons in heart, body and mind. It is intended for their mutual joy and friendship in prosperity and adversity. But more importantly, it is a means through which a stable and loving environment may be attained. By gathering together all the wishes of happiness and our fondest hopes for Sonny and Whitney, we assure them that our hearts are in tune with theirs.
This moment is meaningful to all of us, for “what greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together, to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness?”
Sonny and Whitney, you stand together in a circle of rose petals. Scattered on the ground, these petals encircle you with beauty and love, with no beginning and no end. Just as the commitment you are about to make to one another shall be never ending, if you are true and sincere in your pledge to one another today.
You have freely entered this circle together with intent to face your disappointments, embrace your dreams, realize your hopes and accept each other’s failures throughout your lives together, through mutual understanding, openness, and sensitivity to each other.
If it is your promise to forever be joined together in one unbroken circle, in one of the holiest bonds, before God, your friends and family, I ask each of you now,
Sonny, do you take Whitney to be your wife, to live together after God’s ordinance, in the holy estate of matrimony?
Do you Whitney take Sonny to be your husband, to live together after God’s ordinance, in the holy estate of matrimony?
Today is a beginning and a continuation of your growth as individuals. With mutual care, respect, responsibility and knowledge comes the affirmation of each one’s own life happiness, growth and freedom. With respect for individual boundaries comes the freedom to love unconditionally. Within the emotional safety of a loving relationship, the knowledge self-offered one another becomes the fertile soil for continued growth.
Sonny, if you are ready for this life, please say your vow of care and responsibility to Whitney after me,
Whitney, I will love, comfort, honor and keep you In sickness and in health for richer, for poorer, for better or worse, In sadness and in joy. I will cherish you, and continually bestow upon you my heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keeping myself only unto you, for so long as we both shall live.
Sonny, do you have a ring for your bride? Please place this ring on Whitney’s finger, and repeat after me: I give you this ring as the pledge of my love and as the symbol of our unity. With this ring, I thee wed.
Whitney, if you are ready for this life, please say your vow of care and responsibility to Sonny after me,
Sonny, I will love, comfort, honor and keep you In sickness and in health for richer, for poorer, for better or worse, In sadness and in joy. I will cherish you, and continually bestow upon you my heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keeping myself only unto you, for so long as we both shall live. Whitney, do you have a ring for your groom? Please place this ring on Sonny’s finger, and repeat after me: I give you this ring as the pledge of my love and as the symbol of our unity. With this ring, I thee wed.
May these rings be blessed as the symbol of this affectionate unity. Your lives are now joined in one unbroken circle. Wherever you go, may you always return to one another. May you find in each other the love for which all men and women yearn. May you grow in understanding and in compassion. May the home which you establish together be such a place that many will find there a friend. May these rings symbolize the touch of the spirit of love in your hearts. You have chosen to have a Love Letter & Wine Box ceremony.
This box contains a bottle of wine and two glasses. You have each written a love letter to the other. The letters are sealed in individual envelopes and you have not seen what the other has written. Keep the box in a place of honor prominently displayed in your home as a constant reminder of your commitment to each other. Agree on an anniversary to open the box, or if there comes a time of hardship in your marriage, and share the wine and read each other’s letters, and allow yourselves to remember all the love and happiness you feel on this day. If you will each put your letters in the box and seal it.
If may all bow our heads and close with a blessing for this union,
“Our hearts are filled with great happiness on this the wedding day of Sonny & Whitney. They have come before you, pledging their lives and their hearts to one another. Grant that they may be ever true and loving, living together in a way that shall ever nurture the soul of their marriage. Temper their hearts with kindness and help them to be sweethearts, helpmates, friend and guide, So that together, may they meet the cares and problems of life more bravely. May their home truly be a place of love and harmony where your Spirit is ever present. Bless their wedding day, we pray, and walk beside them, through all their life together. Amen”
Sonny and Whitney, you have now consented to enter the Estate of Matrimony, and have given and pledged your faith to each other in the presence of God, your family and friends. It is with great honor and by the virtue of the authority vested in me to pronounce you husband and wife and best friends for life! Sonny, you may now kiss your bride! Friends & family, I present to you Mr. & Mrs. Sonny… !
Trevor & Nelly
officiated by rev stacey miles
Photos by Daisy Digital Photography
The Ceremony:
Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We are gathered here today to celebrate the wedding of Trevor and Nelly. The promises Trevor and Nelly will make to another are promises of commitment and devotion. Their commitments to each other are not only for a lifetime partner, they are commitments of a companion and friend, a friend with whom they will share hopes, dreams, ambitions, successes, and sometimes disappointments and sorrows that are part of life.
And we, their friends and family, will support them as they build their future together as husband and wife.
Trevor and Nelly, this sharing of your lives is not to be at the expense of your individuality; rather, the uniqueness of each you brings to this marriage will be enhanced by the strength of the bond you share.
So I ask now, Trevor, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?
Nelly, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?
May we have the lasso? Trevor, Nelly, with full awareness, know that with the draping of the Lasso across both of your hearts, you are showing your own free will to be bound together before your friends and family. The lasso signifies that your souls are becoming one and your love will be everlasting.
Marriage is a celebration of love. Matrimony symbolizes the ultimate intimacy between a man and a woman. A marriage that lasts is one that always has a little more to grow. Happiness in marriage doesn’t just happen. A good marriage must be created, cared for, and worked at.
In marriage, little things are big things; Never being too old to hold hands. Remembering to say, “I love you.” Not taking each other for granted. A hug sent over the phone lines when you’re apart. Your courtship shouldn’t end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years you spend together. A solid marriage is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives; standing together facing the world and all it offers.
Forming a circle of love around you that gathers in family and friends. Marriage is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in a spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It’s a continuously open dialog.
There are also things marriage is not. Marriage is not looking for perfection in the other. You need to cultivate flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. Nor is marriage a winner take all argument. Share in all things. Have the capacity to forgive and forget. Give one another an atmosphere in which to grow, and find room for things of the spirit. Search for the good and beautiful as well as the meaningful. Establish a relationship in which the independence is equal, the dependence is mutual, and the obligations are reciprocal.
Perhaps most importantly, remember marriage is not simply marrying the right partner; it is being the right partner.
This ceremony is the outward sign of a sacred and inward commitment. If each of you can be part of a union created with loving purpose, and continually renew with human feelings and intentions, I ask you to repeat your vows to one another after me:
Nelly, today I become your husband and you become my wife. I will strive to give you the best of myself, while accepting you the way you are. I promise to respect you as a whole person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own. I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you in to my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change, keeping our relationship alive and exciting. And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all that I am, in the only way I know how, completely and forever.
Nelly, please repeat after me: Trevor, today I become your wife and you become my husband. I will strive to give you the best of myself, while accepting you the way you are. I promise to respect you as a whole person with your own interests, desires, and needs, and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own. I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you in to my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change, keeping our relationship alive and exciting. And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all that I am, in the only way I know how, completely and forever.
Trevor do you have a ring for your bride? Please slide this ring onto Nelly’s finger and repeat after me, ” You are my life, my love, my best friend, may this be a reminder of my love and commitment we have made here today with this ring I thee wed.
Nelly, do you have a ring for your groom? Please slide this ring onto Trevor’s finger and repeat after me, “You are my life, my love, my best friend, may this be a reminder of my love and commitment we have made here today with this ring I thee wed. These rings symbolize your union. An unbroken circle of love to be worn all the days so long as you both shall love. May the spirit of love bless these rings and may they be a true symbol of the love of the one who gives it, and the one who wears it.
Please remove the lasso. Trevor, Nelly, you have chosen to affirm your love by the lighting of a unity candle. If you will please move to stand before the candles.
It is said, ‘From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls are destined for each other and find each other, their streams of light flow together and a single, brighter light goes forth from their united being.’ (by Baal Shem Tov)
If you will please take your individual candles and together light the center candle symbolizing the unity of your hearts and souls.
Nelly and Trevor, now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter for 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 persons, but there is only one life before you. Go now to enter into the days of your life together. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
With the powers vested in me by the state of Washington, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now seal your marriage with a kiss. Friends and family, I present to you, Mr. & Mrs…!
Joe & Samantha
Officiated by rev. stacey k miles
Photo by Emerald Photography
The Ceremony: We are gathered here today to witness Joe and Samantha join their lives as husband and wife. We celebrate their love and commitment and give our support to their married life together. By gathering together all the wishes of happiness and our fondest hopes for Joe and Samantha, we assure them that our hearts are in tune with theirs. Marriage joins two persons in heart, body and mind. It supports in time of prosperity and adversity, provides a stable and loving environment, provides a future of stability, allows for dreams of goals, and furthers the bonds never before shared so deeply. Joe and Samantha, you stand together with beauty and love in your hearts, ready to commitment a lifetime of love, caring and support to one another. You have freely come with intent to face your disappointments, embrace your uniqueness, realize your hopes, and accept each other’s failures throughout your lives together.
If it is your promise to joined together by the love that exists between you, I ask each of you now, Joe, do you take Samantha to be your wife?
Do you Samantha take Joe to be your husband?
Reading by a friend: “Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”
Joe, Samantha, your roots indeed have entwined, and today each of you is stands stronger for the love you share. You will continue your growth as individuals, and with mutual care, respect, responsibility and knowledge will come the affirmation of each one’s own life happiness, growth and freedom. With respect for individual boundaries comes the freedom to love unconditionally. Within the emotional safety of a loving relationship, the knowledge self-offered one another becomes the fertile soil for continued growth.
Joe, Samantha may have been a bit oblivious the first few times you tried to ask her to marry you, but the timing was finally right, and she said she would become your wife. If you are truly ready to become her husband, her partner, her fortunate accident, please say your vow to Samantha after me, I Joe, take you, Samantha to be my wife and my constant friend. I will work to create a bond of honesty, respect, and trust that grows along with us. I vow to honor and respect you for all that you are and will become, taking pride in who we are, both separately and together. I promise to challenge you, and to accept challenges from you. I will join with you and our community to create a better world, where love and friendship will be recognized and celebrated in all their many forms. Above all, I will give you my love. I pledge this to you from the bottom of my heart, from this day forward. Joe, do you have a ring for your bride? Please place this ring on Samantha’s finger, and repeat after me: I give you this ring as the pledge of my love and as the symbol of our unity. With this ring, I thee wed.
Samantha, you and Joe have discussed married life together, experienced the true meaning of commitment, and vowed to work through problems instead of running away. If you are truly ready to become his wife, his partner, his fortunate accident, please say your vow to Joe after me, I Samantha, take you, Joe to be my husband and my constant friend. I will work to create a bond of honesty, respect, and trust that grows along with us. I vow to honor and respect you for all that you are and will become, taking pride in who we are, both separately and together. I promise to challenge you, and to accept challenges from you. I will join with you and our community to create a better world, where love and friendship will be recognized and celebrated in all their many forms. Above all, I will give you my love. I pledge this to you from the bottom of my heart, from this day forward. Samantha, do you have a ring for your groom? Please place this ring on Joe’s finger, and repeat after me: I give you this ring as the pledge of my love and as the symbol of our unity. With this ring, I thee wed.
Joe and Samantha, I would like to explain the width of your love, but there isn’t a unit of measure to be found, and the only experiment I could use to measure your love for one another is called life, and you have that in front of you. I could say you will love one another until the end of the universe, and I know we would all like to see that, but it is beyond even love to take you there. I can’t promise you the moon and the stars in your marriage, for they are not mine to give. But you can still enjoy their presence, and their beauty and what else the universe offers. This wonderful, spectacular universe where stars explode, matter is mostly empty space, life develops spontaneously, and where you had the luck to meet one another. Your marriage will be an act of metamorphosis, a profound mystery of creation and rebirth. It is a process in which each of you will be challenged to discover new possibilities.
The lives the two of you have lived up until this moment are, in some sense, completed. Together you now will live within the creation of something wholly new and transcendent, something which has never existed before, a precious, sacred, and truly unique bond of marriage. Through rising suns, and darkening stars, through peaceful times, and troubled days, through smiles and through sadness you will go into your future as husband and wife, committed to one another. And so, it is with great honor and by the authority vested in me to pronounce you husband and wife and best friends for life! Joe, you may now kiss your bride!
Friends & family, I present to you Mr. & Mrs…! 
Chris & Jessie
Officiated by Rev. stacey k miles
Elegant Gardens, Kennewick, WA
Lindsay M. Giberson Photography
The Ceremony:
Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We are gathered here today to celebrate the wedding of Jessi and Chris. We share in this formal commitment they make to one another, offer our love and support, so they may start their married life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them. Chris and Jessi thank you for your presence today and ask for your blessing, encouragement and lifelong support.
~ Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure. It must be built from love and patience, dedication and perseverance, talking and listening. Helping, supporting and believing in each other. Through tenderness and laughter, learning to forgive and to appreciate differences. By learning to make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest.
No ceremony can create a marriage. What a ceremony can do is witness and affirm the choice to stand together as life mates and partners. So, I ask now, Chris, will you take this woman to be your wedded wife? Jessi, will you take this man to be your wedded husband?
~ Two people in love do not live in isolation. Their love is a source of strength which may nourish not only each other, but the world around them. And in turn, we, their community of friends and family, have a responsibility to Jessi and Chris. By our steadfast care, respect and love, we must support their marriage and the new family they are creating today. We must surround Chris and Jessi in love, offer them the joys of our friendship and support them in their marriage.
~ Jessi, Chris, your love, rooted in faith, trust and acceptance, will be the foundation of an abiding and deepening relationship. No other ties are more tender, no other vows more sacred than those you now assume. Your life will have joy and the home you establish will be a place in which you both will find the direction or your growth, your freedom and your responsibility. If you are able to keep the vows you take here today, not because of any religious or civic law, but out of desire to love and be loved without limitation, I ask you both to repeat after me:
“My best friend, I give myself to you.” [repeat] “I give you my heart, my soul, [repeat] my tears, my laughter.” [repeat] ---- “My best friend, I promise you.” [repeat] “I promise to be with you in good times, [repeat] when life is easy, [repeat] when our love is simple.” [repeat] I promise to comfort you in bad times, [repeat] when life is hard, [repeat] when our love is challenged.” [repeat] ---- “My best friend, I cherish you.” [repeat] “I will hold you in the highest regard, [repeat] I will support and encourage you. [repeat] I respect you, adore you [repeat] and I believe in you.” [repeat] --- “My best friend, I love you.” [repeat] “You are beautiful, compassionate, [repeat] warm and loving. [repeat] Today and all the days of our life, [repeat] I will love you.” [repeat] ~ Chris, do you have a ring for your bride? [“I Do”] Chris, place this ring on Jessi’s finger and repeat after me. “I give you this ring, as a daily reminder of my love.” [Repeats] Jessi, do you have a ring for your groom? [“I Do”] Jessi, place this ring on Chris’s finger and repeat after me. “I give you this ring, as a daily reminder of my love.” [Repeats]
By the power of your love and commitment and the authority vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife! Chris, you may kiss your bride. Family and friends, may I introduce, Mr. & Mrs.