Welcome everyone to Shelly & Craig’s special day…their wedding day!
A wonderful occasion, filled with hopes, dreams, and excitement. We are here today to celebrate the love that Shelly and Craig have for each other, and to recognize and witness their decision to journey forward in their lives as marriage partners.
Shelly and Craig, by entering into the covenant of marriage today you are declaring your faith in each other. You have indeed earned this faith and trust by creating a sound foundation for this marriage.
Your task now is to build on this solid base. Fill your loving partnership with the caring, trust, vulnerability, and kindness that are the essential to a healthy marriage relationship. In dedicating yourselves to these values you will create a marriage that is a source of joy, in which you may both grow in love and find fulfillment.
Know that you will be tested by the routines of daily life, by chance and circumstance, and by the full cycle of the seasons of life. Know that together you must encounter life’s sorrow no less than it’s sweetness, its frustration along with its grace and ease, its disappointments along with its fulfillment.
Enter your marriage confident in the love and trust you have already created between you. As you go forward in your journey together as husband and wife, devote yourselves to living according to the vows you share today. Keep your love alive with your openness to each other and your enthusiasm for each other. Let this be a marriage that enhances your individuality and allows you to know the greatest gift that God has given us is the ability to love one another and to be loved.
May your love create a safe haven for you both on the journey that lies ahead of you. Lead with your hearts and take the time to do the simple things that will nurture your love. Deeply listen to each other- to your dreams and to your frustrations. Be helpmates. Be playful at finding ways to give your love anew to each other every day. Let your love be an inspiration to others to reach for what is good within us all. May your love be so abundant that you have plenty to share with the rest of us as well. It is your love that has brought us together here today. May it grow deeper and sweeter with each passing year.
At this time Shelly & Craig would like to share with you a special poem called
On My Love
When I think of you
I think of love and
What a great big world this is
Your generous smile
That special twinkle in your eyes
That you hold and give to me
I see your light from with in
Your love that simply flows
The laughter the erupts so quickly
I see myself the way I want to be
When I am with you
And the way you make me feel
When I’m with you I strive to be better
To make the world a better place
To do for those
Something about you makes me want to give
To you, to everyone, to the world
You inspire me to live life to the fullest
And what makes me laugh?
When I tire your out
When you look at me pleading for a reprieve
But I know you enjoy it still
Because you never lose that mischievous glint
That keeps me there… so I continue on
As you know… marriage comes from an agreement between friends… which then becomes your life long commitment to each other…and that agreement starts here starting with Shelly, will you please repeat after me…
I, Shelly/ Craig, receive you, Shelly/Craig, as my Husband/Wife.
May we love one another constantly, live joyously, laugh freely, and support our marriage through the trials and triumphs to come.
I will strive to be fair and honest, wise and true.
Join me in making our hopes and dreams come true today and forever.
Please help the same with the rings as well.
As a sign of my love and my knowledge that in marrying you, I am becoming much more than I am.
I give you this ring with the promise that I will love you all the days of my life.
Shelly and Craig on behalf of your loved ones, who are here with you today, I would like to mention some of the things we wish for you:
First we wish for you a love that is rich, deep, and powerful enough to inspire others and to support you both in bringing forth the best that is within you.
May you love one another and love being loved by one another today, tomorrow, and always.
Second, we wish for you the kind of home that will be a sanctuary for you both, a place of peace, freedom, vitality, growth, and humor.
And in this home, we hope that you are blessed with a healthy and happy family.
Finally, we wish that at the end of your lives you will be able to look back and smile upon the life that you have shared together, pleases, satisfied, and fulfilled beyond your wildest dreams. And now, by the power vested in me by the State of Conn. it is my great pleasure to pronounce you husband and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Craig Mills you may now kiss as husband and wife for the first time. Congratulations and God bless you!