Welcome ladies and gentlemen, family and friends. bride and groom have chosen you,
those special and dear to them, to witness and celebrate the beginning of their life together.
We are gathered here today to join them in marriage, an estate rooted in the far dawn of
human history, yet forever new with each couple who so pledge themselves freely to one
another. This celebration is the outward sign of an inward union of two hearts.
[Addressed to bride and groom] You have come together this day to accept one another
in faith and in love, and to accept the changes that time will inevitably bring to each of you
and your lives together. By this ceremony you will become husband and wife, but the soul of
your marriage will depend on the constant renewal of the choices and promises you make here
today. We are each still and always growing, and when we marry, we promise not only our
own growth, but also our willingness to witness and withstand the ongoing growth of another
human being. In marrying we promise to love not only as we feel at this very moment, but also
as we intend to feel.
Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of all human relationships.
Marriage is an affirmation of life; a spiritual, emotional and intellectual bond between two
people; the holiest of all earthly unions. It is created from the purest of friendship, respect
and affection. The institution of marriage is not to be entered into lightly but reverently,
consciously and with full understanding of its significance.
The efforts of marriage continue well beyond the ceremony’s end. A brief moment in time
and the stroke of a pen are all that is required to create the legal bond of marriage. However
marriage is a work-in-progress that will hereafter consume your attention, and yet never be
completed. It requires a lifetime of commitment, dedication and hard work. But it is a joyous
labor whose fruits are the very richest.
Marriage allows you to see through your partner’s essence. Such a love requires that you be
completely honest with yourself and your partner, that you ask for what you want, take action
even when you might be afraid, express your feelings and listen attentively, but leave your
partner free to be who they really are. Love and embrace your partner for who they uniquely
are, not for who you think they should be.
When you love someone, you do not love them all the time in exactly the same way, from
moment to moment. Such is an impossibility. And yet this is exactly what many of us demand.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the
flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on
permanency, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is growth and
fluidity. bride and groom, it is a great tribute to your faith in one another that, together,
you will successfully face the fears and uncertainty that underlie human life.
In the years ahead, life together will sometimes be easy and effortless, sometimes difficult
and challenging. No matter what however, always regard each other with the deepest
respect. Inspire, encourage and support each other’s dreams and goals. Be ever mindful of
the many positive qualities that the other offers you and let not the passage of time dull your
appreciation for one another. Do not take each other for granted. Remind yourselves often of
what brought you together.
When frustration and difficulty assail your relationship, as they do all relationships at one
time or another, focus on what is right between you, not just the part that seems wrong. Be
slow to anger and quick to forgive. Practice flexibility, patience and understanding. Maintain
the open lines of communication that enable you to share your innermost thoughts, feelings
and experiences. Be kind and sensitive to each other’s needs so that you may attain mutual
spiritual, mental and physical fulfillment within yourselves and your marriage. If each of you
takes responsibility for the quality of your marriage, your life together will be marked by
abundance and happiness.
The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom
one’s relationship has an unparalleled depth and beauty. There are no ties on earth so sweet,
none so tender as those you are about to assume. There are no vows so precious as those
you are about to make. The true home is not only the place in which you live, but is also the
dwelling place where each lives in the heart and mind of the other.
Please join hands as you prepare to make your vows to one another.
Do you bride take groom to be your lawfully wedded husband, your life companion and
your one true love? On this special day, in the presence of all those in attendance, do you
pledge to stay by his side in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow,
to comfort him and to cherish him for as long as you both shall live?
Do you groom take bride to be your lawfully wedded wife, your life companion and your
one true love? On this special day, in the presence of all those in attendance, do you pledge to
stay by her side in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, to comfort
her and to cherish her for as long as you both shall live?
For thousands of years couples have exchanged rings as a token of their vows. The ring forms
a perfect circle, without a beginning or an end, and is thereby a symbol of eternity and signifies
the duration of the commitment you are making.
Place the ring on groom’s finger and repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed. / Take it as a
sign of my everlasting affection and fidelity / with all that I am and all that I have / from this day
forward as your wife.
Place the ring on bride’s finger and repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed. / Take it as a
sign of my everlasting affection and fidelity / with all that I am and all that I have / from this day
forward as your husband.
We as your friends and family gathered here today hope that, at the end of your lives on this
planet, you will look into each other’s eyes and be able to say: “Because you have loved me,
you have given me a faith in myself, and because I have faith in myself, I have loved my fellow
man. Because of you my life on this Earth has been made complete.”
May you continue to laugh often and enjoy each other every day, steadfast in hope and in
confidence, believing in yourselves and believing in each other. May your love be a sanctuary
and source from which you draw strength to live your lives with enthusiasm and imagination.
May the people whose paths you cross and whose lives you touch throughout your lifetime
know how much you care for one another.
Bless these two as they go their way. Even as they have chosen each other from the world’s
multitudes, may the days and the years, now veiled by this moment, deepen the wisdom
of that choice. Having chosen each other in love and in freedom and having declared their
purpose before this gathering, by the authority vested in me by the State of Louisiana, I now
pronounce them husband and wife. [To groom] You may now kiss the bride.
