What did your officiant say for your ceremony?

Question

About marriage etc.

I would like a talk about marriage being a partnership and am just looking to pull some ideas from you experiences!

Any nice poems or readings to suggest?

Answer 1

Some of my fave readings -

From "The Prophet"

by Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

"Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you with hold the "aye." And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

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From "Union"

by Robert Fulghum

"You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making promises and agreements in an informal way. All those conversations that were held riding in a car or over a meal or during long walks - all those sentences that began with “When we’re married” and continued with “I will and you will and we will”- those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe”- and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding. The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “ You know all those things we’ve promised and hoped and dreamed- well, I meant it all, every word.” Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another- acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this- is my husband, this- is my wife."

Answer 2

I don't get married until December but at my friends' wedding the officiant talked about divorce and how rampant it was in our society. Everyone in the congregation's jaws dropped at the inappropriateness of it!

Answer 3

My officiant ended the ceremony with this Native American wedding blessing.

    

     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 one life before you.

     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.