Traditional Parents Give Away and Groom CEREMONY #1 Traditional Parents Give away Bride and Groom

We are here to participate in a . By this act we unite ______and ______as husband and wife. What we do today is done in conformity to the laws of the state of

Wisconsin and in the tradition of men and women of all places and times. Marriage is not to be entered into lightly, but with certainty, mutual respect, and with a sense of reverence, beauty, humor, and joy.

Who stands with this woman to symbolize the traditions and family out of which she comes?

Bride’s Parents: We do

Who stands with this man to symbolize the traditions and family out of which he comes?

Groom’s Parents: We do

______and ______, your marriage is intended to join you for life. In a relationship so intimate and personal that it will change your whole being. It offers you the hope, and indeed the promise, of a love that is true and mature. To attain such a love you will have to commit yourselves to each other freely and gladly for the sake of a richer and deeper life together. Let God be your guide and helper.

______and ______, you have made it known that you want to be joined in marriage, and no one has shown any valid reason why you may not. If either you know any lawful impediment why you should not be married you are to declare it.

Love can be one of the highest experiences that come to humankind. At its best it reduces our selfishness, deepens our personalities, and makes life far more meaningful. The day-to- day companionship, the pleasure in doing things together, or in doing separate things but in delighting to exchange experiences is a continuous and central part of what a man and a woman who love each other can share.

All significant experiences are of concern to our fellow men and women. Two people in love do not live in isolation from the wider embraces of humanity; for love is a way of being with the world. So it is that the institution of marriage is ordained as a public recognition of the private experience of love and as a sanctifying of both parties of its greatest purposes.

Matrimony symbolizes the ultimate intimacy between a man and a woman; yet this closeness should not diminish but strengthen the individuality of each partner. It is said that a marriage that lasts is one that always has a little more to grow. It is out of the resonance between individuality and union that love, whose incredible strength is equal to its incredible fragility, is born and reborn.

Today’s celebration of human affection is therefore the outward sign of a sacred and inward commitment, which societies may consecrate and states may legalize, but which neither can create nor annul. Such union can only be created by loving purpose, be maintained by will power and be renewed by human feelings and intentions. In this spirit these two persons stand before us.

Sister of the Bride: (______)

Sing and dance together and be joyous,

But let each one of you be alone

Even the strings of a lute are alone

Though they quiver with the same music

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet, not too near together,

For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the

Cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

Song “______” sung by ______

Sister of the Bride: (______):

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you so what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant down not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the

Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another. John

15:11-17

Best Man (______):

I want to be your friend forever and ever without break or decay

When the hills are all flat and the rivers are all dry

When it lightnings and thunders in Winter

When it rains and snows in Summer

When Heaven and Earth mingle

Not till then will I part with you

“Oaths of Friendship” Chinese, 1st century

Maid of Honor (______):

“Choices”

Did I choose you?

Did you choose me?

And what difference does it make?

All that really matters is that we chose together.

Groomsman (______):

“I would like to have engraved inside ever wedding band,

“Be kind to one another”

This is the Golden Rule of marriage

And the secret of making it through the years.”

Randolf Ray

Bridesmaid (______): “Two such as you with such a master speed

Cannot be parted nor swept away

From one another once you are agreed

That life is only life forevermore together,

Wing to wing and oar to oar.”

Robert Frost

Groomsman (______):

“In marriage do thou be wise;

Prefer the person before money

Virtue before beauty,

The mind before the body;

Then thou hast a wife,

A friend, a companion

A second self.”

William Penn

Bridesmaid (______):

“In the consciousness of belonging together,

In the sense of constancy, resides the sanctity,

The beauty of matrimony,

Which helps us to endure pain more easily,

To enjoy happiness doubly,

And to give rise to the fullest and finest development of our nature.”

Fanny Lewald

(To the Bride) ______, will you have this man to be your husband to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?

Bride: I will (To the Groom) ______, will you have this woman to be your wife to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?

Groom: I will

(To the Groom) Take ______by the right hand and say to her:

______, I take you to be my wife;

To laugh with you in joy;

To grieve with you in sorrow;

To grow with you in love;

Serving mankind in peace and hope;

As long as we both shall live.

(To the Bride) Take _____ by the right hand and say to him:

______, I take you to be my husband;

To laugh with you in joy;

To grieve with you in sorrow;

To grow with you in love;

Serving mankind in peace and hope;

As long as we both shall live.

Groom to the Bride: ______, I give you this ring that you may wear it as a symbol of our marriage.

Bride to the Groom: ______, I give you this ring that you may wear it as a symbol of our marriage.

Song “______” while the is lit.

For one human to love another, that is perhaps the hardest of all out tasks, the ultimate test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation….love….is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become….a world to himself for another’s sake….human love consists in this, that two solitudes protest and touch and greet each other.

May these two people, now married, fulfill this covenant, which they have made. May they openly give and take from each other, encouraging each other in whatever trials that may befall them, sharing in each other’s joys, helping each other, as each occasion requires.

Having grown to trust themselves and each other, may they be unafraid to trust and welcome life.

For as much as ______and ______have contented together in wedlock and have witnessed the same before this company and the site of God, and thereto have given and pledged their truth to each other and have declared the same by giving and receiving a ring and by joining hands, I now pronounce that they are husband and wife.

Go into the world and fulfill your lives. Hold fast your ideals. Give to one another new experiences of joy. Challenge one another that you may grow.

May the love you hold for each other, now sealed in marriage, continue to mature, that your life together may be a source of strength and inspiration to the community of your family and to the wider circle of the world.

You may kiss the Bride.