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| Maid of Honor reads: |
| Bride’s name, please face Groom’s name, and hold his hands, palms up, so you may see the gift that they are to you. (Bride and groom should be facing each other, the groom’s upturned hands resting in the brides’.) |
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| These are the hands, young and strong and vibrant with love, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as he promises to love you all the days of his life. |
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| These are the hands you will place with expectant joy against your stomach, until he too, feels his child stir within your womb. |
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| These are the hands that look so large and clumsy, yet will be so gentle as he holds your baby for the first time. |
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| These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness. |
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| These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes: tears of sorrow and tears of joy. |
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| These are the hands that will tenderly lift your chin and brush your cheek as they raise your face to look into his eyes: eyes that are filled completely with his overwhelming love and desire for you. |
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| Best Man reads: |
| Groom’s name, please hold Bride’s name’s hands, palms up, where you may see the gift that they are to you. (Bride should now place her upturned hands in the Groom’s hands.) |
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| These are the hands, smooth, young, and carefree, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as she pledges her love and commitment to you all the days of her life. |
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| These are the hands that will hold each child in tender love, soothing them through illness and hurts, supporting and encouraging them along the way, and knowing when it’s time to let go. |
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| These are the hands that will massage tension from your neck and back in the evenings, after you’ve both had a long hard day. |
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| These are the hands that will hold you tight as you struggle through difficult times. |
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| They are the hands that will comfort you when you are sick or console you when you are grieving. These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness. |
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| These are the hands that will hold you in joy and excitement and hope, each time she tells you that you are to have another child; that together you have created a new life. |
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| Perhaps these are the hands that will comfort you when you are told you cannot have a child, and will convince you that together you will create new life in other ways. |
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| These are the hands that will give you support as she encourages you to chase down your dreams. Together, as a team, everything you wish for can be realized. |
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| Clergy reads: |
| Dear Father, bless the hands that you see before you this day. May they always be held by one another. Give them the strength to hold on during the storms of stress and the dark of disillusionment. Keep them tender and gentle as they nurture each other in their love. |
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| Help these hands to continue building a relationship founded in your grace, rich in caring, and devoted to reaching for your perfection. May Bride’s name and Groom’s name see their four hands as healer, protector, shelter, and guide. |
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| We ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you now and forever. Amen. |
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Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other. |
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Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other. |
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Now you are two bodies,
But there is only one life before you. |
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Go now to your dwelling place
To enter into the days of your togetherness
And may your days be good and long upon the earth. |
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You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of heavens dance between you. |
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Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
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. |
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Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
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. |
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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
---- So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
---- So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. |
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Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever fixe'd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring barque,
Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken.
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
---- If this be error and upon me proved,
---- I never writ, nor no man ever loved |
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My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red.
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
I grant I never saw a goddess go:
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
---- And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
---- As any she belied with false compare. |
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Love is
being happy for the other person
when they are happy
being sad for the other person when they are sad
being together in good times
and being together in bad times
Love is the source of strength |
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Love is
being honest with yourself at all times
being honest with the other person at all times
telling, listening, respecting the truth
and never pretending
Love is the source of reality |
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Love is
an understanding that is so complete that
you feel as if you are a part of the other person
accepting the other person just the way they are
and not trying to change them to be something else
Love is the source of unity |
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Love is
the freedom to pursue your own desires
while sharing your experience with the other person
the growth of one individual along side of
and together with the growth of another individual
Love is the source of success |
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Love is
the excitement of planning things together
the excitement of doing things together
Love is the source of the future |
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Love is
the fury of the storm
the calm of the rainbow
Love is the source of passion |
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Love is
giving and taking in a daily situation
being patient with each other's needs and desires
Love is the source of sharing |
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Love is
knowing that the other person
will always be with you regardless of what happens
missing the other person when they are away
but remaining near in heart at al times
Love is the source of security |
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Love is
the source of life |
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Two doves meeting in the sky
Two loves hand in hand eye to eye
Two parts of a loving whole
Two hearts and a single soul |
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Two stars shining big and bright
Two fires bringing warmth and light
Two songs played in perfect tune
Two flowers growing into bloom |
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Two Doves gliding in the air
Two loves free without a care
Two parts of a loving whole
Two hearts and a single soul |
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Click here for a list of
MA Officiants.
Visit The Wedding Outlet for wedding accessories for the ceremony including:
wedding programs, ring bearer pillows, flower girl baskets, unity candles. |
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