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Welcome Everyone to Lloyd and Mark’s special day!!! We come together not to mark the start of a relationship, but to recognize a bond that already exists. This marriage is one expression of the many varieties of love. Love is one, though its expressions are infinite.

I’d like to share with you a very special poem called Friendship by Judy Bielicky

“It is often said that it is love that makes the world go round.
However, without doubt, it is friendship which keeps our spinning existence on an even keel.
True friendship provides so many of the essentials for a happy life –it is the foundation on which to build an enduring relationship,
it is the mortar which bonds us together in harmony, and it is the calm, warm protection we sometimes need when the world outside seems cold and chaotic.
True friendship holds a mirror to our foibles and failings, without destroying our sense of worthiness.
True friendship nurtures our hopes, supports us in our disappointments, and encourages us to grow to our best potential.
This couple came together as friends, they pledge to each other not only their love but also the strength, warmth and, most importantly, the fun of true friendship”

Lloyd & Mark would like to share with you a special observance today called the Sand Ceremony in celebration of their love. And what that is this:

Today you join your separate lives together. The two separate bottles of sand symbolize each of your separate lives and separate families. They represent all that you are and all that you’ll ever be as an individual. They also represent your lives before this day. As these two vials of sand are poured into the unity vial, your individual lives will no longer exist, but will be joined together as one. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated again as they were, so will your marriage be.

Here are some things to consider:
This whole process began for each of you on the day that you were born.
A breath that one of you takes is a breath that both of you share.
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
There’s no malady more magnificent than that with which you have been afflicted, nor is there any known cure other than more of the same.
Communicate constantly, listen relentlessly.
Practice, practice, practice.
And finally, without fail, continue to fall in love with one another every single day for the rest of your lives.

JP:
Lloyd & Mark, in presenting yourselves here today to be joined in this marriage, you perform an act of faith. This faith can grow and develop and last, but only if you both decide to make it so.

A lasting and growing love is not guaranteed by any ritual. If you would have the foundation of your marriage be the devotion you have for one another, not just at this moment, but for all the days to come, then treasure the hopes and dreams that you bring here today.

Dedication, love, and joy can grow only when you nourish them together. Stand fast in that hope and confidence, having faith in your shared destiny just as strongly as you have faith in yourselves and in one another today. Only with this spirit can you forge a union that will strengthen and endure all the days of your lives.

And now…as a symbol of your love and trust to each other we shall recite your vows….please repeat after me…starting with Paul.

Lloyd
I, Lloyd, take you, Mark, as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and tranquility, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not know yet, in all the ways that life may find us.

Lloyd places the ring on Mark’s finger and says:
Mark, I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow to you, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you.. With this ring, I marry you, join my life with yours and pledge to share myself openly with you.

Mark
I, Mark, take you, Lloyd, as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and tranquility, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not know yet, in all the ways that life may find us.

Mark places the ring upon Lloyd’s finger and says:
Lloyd , I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow to you, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you.. With this ring, I marry you, join my life with yours and pledge to share myself openly with you.

JP
With this statement made of love and trust and in accordance with the law of CT and by the virtue of the authority vested in me by the state of CT I do hereby pronounce you, partners in this marriage.

You may now seal your marriage with a kiss.

It is my pleasure and honor be the first to acknowledge you, Lloyd and Mark, partners in life…for life. Happy Wedding Day Gentleman.

Let the celebration begin!