Municipal Court Wedding Vow # 4

MARRIAGE CEREMONY #4

To the family and friends of _______________ and _______________ .

We are gathered here to witness and to celebrate the marriage of _______________and ________________.

The purpose of a wedding is to publicly declare the decisions and to exchange vows that have already been made by the two people standing before you here today. You have been invited to participate in this ceremony. You are their family and friends. It is natural that they should want you to share in their great joy and heartfelt decisions.

You have been invited as more than mere spectators. A wedding is an intensely private and yet a fundamentally public affair. Just as is the product of a wedding a family; the most private of institutions, the family is also a fundamental unit of a community. It is the family’s obligation not only to itself but also to the society to which it belongs. Society in turn has its obligation to the families that comprise it. Therefore your presence here acknowledges the beginning of a relationship of everlasting unity for

 ______________ and ________________. And you are hereby acknowledging their roles in the community.

Marriage is the deepest and most complete commitment that two individuals can make. It is a promise to share forever in one another’s dreams for the future, in the joys or sorrows of the present and to accept each others past. It is a firm and unshakable vow to live life together as long as life persists.

_____________________ and _______________________, as you know no minister, priest, rabbi or public official can marry you. While a third party performs the ceremony the commitment of marriage involves only the two of you. By a mutual commitment to love each other, to work toward creating an atmosphere of care, consideration and respect, by the willingness to face the tensions and anxieties that underlie human life do you make the symbolism of wedded life come alive.

While marriage brings happiness, joy, satisfaction and privileges it also entails many fears, anxieties and responsibilities. The more these can be mutually shared with each other, the more patient, sympathetic, and considerate each is with the other, the happier and more satisfactory the mutual relationship becomes.

Marriage is a relationship not to be entered into lightly or thoughtlessly but reverently, soberly, with deep purpose and in the spirit of enduring love. Much is required of you both. Knowing this does each of you wish to proceed with this marriage?

Please face each other and join your hands.

________________________ do you now take this woman whose hands you hold to be your lawfully wedded wife? Hereby promising to love, cherish and protect her, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse and to forsake all other women as long as you both shall live?

________________________do you now take this man whose hands you hold to be your lawful wedded husband?

Hereby promising to love, cherish and protect him, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse and to forsake all other men as long as you both shall live?

_____________please repeat after me. I _____________take you ______________to be my wife, To live with you from this day forward. To love and to cherish you, so long as we both shall live.

____________ please repeat after me. I ____________ take you _____________to be my husband. To live with you from this day forward. To love and to cherish you, so long as we both shall live.

You have stated that you wish to exchange rings as a symbol of your union together. The giving and acceptance of rings is a symbolic declaration that as the ring has no end nor does your love for each other. Just as the ring, made of gold will not tarnish neither will your love, your beliefs or your commitments.

_____________ take the ring that you have brought, place it on ____________'s third finger of her left hand and repeat after me. With this ring I forever join my life with yours.

_____________ take the ring that you have brought, place it on ____________'s third finger of his left hand and repeat after me. With this ring I forever join my life with yours.

_____________and_____________ you have declared in the presence of these witnesses that you take one another as husband and wife. You have symbolized your declarations by the joining of hands, and the exchange of rings.

Today, as you join yourselves in marriage, there is a vast and unknown future stretching out before you. The possibilities and potentials of your married life are great, and now falls upon your shoulders the task of choosing values and making real the moral dreams other men and women have striven and died for. In this way, you will create the meaning of your life. If your love is vital it will make the choosing and implementing easier for you both.

So now, in the presence of these witnesses, and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the State of Wisconsin, as Municipal Judge for the Town of Salem, I hereby do declare that you are now husband and wife.

Congratulations, and my best wishes to you both.

You may kiss the bride.