Nathan & Emma

Order of Service

Procession

Bride and Grooms Parent’s to be sitting already (Lisa & Steve / Paul & Brenda) (Reserved seat for Paula)

(Music fade out) Andrew to enter from the side

Welcome:

Please refrain from taking cellphone photos!

Welcome & Announcements

Nathan - Dancing by Elevation Worship

Jenna & Brendon

Kaylin & Noah

Will & Kyra (Best Man & Maid of Honour)

Flower Girls (Bexley & Willow) ·

Bride & Dad: Fall on Me (Needtobreathe)

Emma & Steve Caldwell (Lisa to stand and join at the front)

The Parental Blessing

Her mother and I

Nathan to go shake hands/hug (Steve/Lisa)

Encouragement - Preface our time together.

Statement of Intent

Vows

Ring Exchange

Registration Signing

For Communion w/ Parents

Prayer of blessing

Announcement

Family Photos right away

Snacks/Appy hour

The reception will begin in this room at _____

Pronouncement Kiss

Introduction of Couple

Mr. and Mrs. Nathan and Emma Renkema!

*NO RECEIVING LINE

Announcements:

“NO PHONES” We will have sanctioned phone time later in the service when you can snap the photos you want!

Procession

*Everyone gets situated*

Entry of the Bridal Party

“Please rise for the entrance of the bride!”

Welcome

*YOU MAY BE SEATED*

We’re all here to celebrate marriage, family and lives coming together.

Emma & Nathan have stated their intention to become husband and wife and today and we’re here to make that happen.

Welcome to your wedding day! And thanks for having us.

Today is a good day. God is good and his love endures forever. Today you two are celebrating and entering the gift of marriage that he has given for you. You did it. You’re here. All the planning has culminated in what is about to take place.

If I can speak for everyone here, you both are a gift to everyone present and more importantly, a gift to each other.

Parental Blessing

Obviously, a large part of who Emma & Nathan are, is because of the parents & family who have loved them, encouraged them, believed in them and stood by them in the challenges of life. Your fingerprints are deeply embedded upon their lives.  You stand here as teams who are passionately committed to your children yet in a very real way today, you release them to become their own family.  The Bible talks deeply about the importance of blessing our children … so I ask, “who gives their blessing, their love, their prayers to the marriage of their children today?” Her mother and I do.

Statement to the Guests

To the guests, by your presence here this afternoon, you are expressing your commitment to help this couple and to encourage them as they enter marriage.  I trust that you will support them, love them, pray for them, and stand with them as they spend their lives together.

It’s a blessing to have all these people here who represent so much to both of you and are supporting your marriage. My prayer for you both is that you will discover and experience a marriage that is amazing, that this day will honor your dreams and hopes and those your family have held in their hearts since the day you were born.  And that we will all, especially you two, understand the wondrous gift that God intended marriage to be for each of us.  Let’s pray together and ask God for His blessing on all that is said and experienced this day.

Encouragement

You have taken up a worthy adventure. A worthy and beautiful path that will ask everything of each other, and some days, without the promise reciprocation and I believe, that is what makes this day beautiful. That both of you, based on the knowledge, trust, faith, virtue and character of each other, are promising to love each other with all of your strength, for the rest of your days. We are encouraged, spurred on, hyped, and inspired by the promises you two are making to each other today.

Today it begs the question, why? Why do this when seemingly all the benefits, circumstances and outcomes of marriage are possible without marriage? In short, perhaps, that perhaps it’s not possible to have all of the benefits, circumstances and outcomes of marriage without marriage.

I believe the meaning of marriage is to give yourself for the sake and for the good of another based on a promise of love for the rest of your life, whatever may come, using the example of Jesus and his bride, the church.

You have taken up a worthy adventure.

Look to the cross. Here’s, practically, what the cross does for your marriage.

It gives you an example and it made possible to love each other with a love that it bigger and beyond yourselves.

On the hard days, what it does is it reminds you of what sacrificial, self-giving love looks like for the other. You love because you have been loved by Jesus first. So out of the security of being loved first, you can give all of yourself to one another.

There is deep security of the promise found in the other making it.

There’s a pastor that once said: It’s not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

Emma literally helps people to walk again through the creation of prosthetics. In the same way, you guys help each other live day to day through the way in which you love the other.

Nathan, you’re honest. In fact, I would say that you are honest even when it’s not convenient. That’s a virtue I believe to be crucial to this worthy promise that you are entering into. You say what’s in the room. And your life has been marked by experiences that has shaped you into a man that is ready to give yourself completely for your bride.

Emma you’re strong. Those who would underestimate your strength will come face to face with a strength that allows you to walk in divine gentleness to those around you. That’s true strength. You are a beautiful bride. And you’re strong. You help others walk.

So for you two today, my advice to you is:

Your best days of your marriage, will be shaped by the decisions you make when no one is watching. So on the days of great celebration and deep challenge, you will be prepared by the decisions and ways you walk in the day to day. No one has greater love than this: to lay down their life for their friends. And we are all here saying to you, we believe in you.

You have taken up a worthy adventure.

Statement of Intent

Emma & Nathan, you are about to enter a covenant saturated with intimacy, love, and self-sacrifice. Marriage is a deep commitment to another human being that is represented to us by Jesus and the church. You both made the decision to pursue your university degrees with a career in mind. That might change one day, you might enter a different job or calling. You decided to do this relationship long distance. And you didn’t take that decision lightly. You took it seriously because you realized that it would affect your present and your future. You prayed, thought, and asked others for insight. You followed passions and gifts that both of you have. My proposition to you, the decision to do what you are doing today has taken a deeper level of consideration, prayer, commitment, and teamwork. Today begins the fruition of your devotion to one another:

"Will you Emma, take Nathan, to be your husband, and will you be faithful to him, love him, honor him, live with him, and cherish him, according to the commandments of God in marriage?"

"Will you Nathan, take Emma to be your wife, and will you be faithful to her, love her, honor her, live with her and cherish her, according to the commandments of God in marriage?"

Exchange of Vows

Nathan’s Vows: I, _____, take you, _____, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and so I pledge myself to you.

Emma’s Vows:  I, _____, take you, _____, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and so I pledge myself to you.

Exchange of Rings

The rings you’re about to give to each other are not simply nice pieces of jewelry. They aren’t meant to simply indicate that you’re married.  They are visible symbols to the world – to each other – and most importantly to yourselves of the vows you just shared to one another.

Emma, As you place the ring on Nathan’s ring finger, please repeat after me:

“With this ring, I marry you Nathan and I will always love you with all of my heart.”

Nathan, As you place the ring on Emma’s ring finger, please repeat after me:

“With this ring, I marry you Emma and I will always love you with all of my heart.”

Registration signing

Let’s go sign your lives to one another!

Communion

1 Corinthians 11v23-26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Announcements

The bride and groom would like to take a big group picture immediately after the ceremony. If you all could stay standing in place, and turn around, we will get that picture when the couple walks back down the aisle.

Other housekeeping details... immediate family are asked to stick around for pictures right away after the ceremony. The facility is available all day, washrooms are located inside. There will be an appetizer of chips and salsa served at 5, and then dinner will be served at 6. You are welcome to stay as long or a little of the afternoon as you would like, while the bridal party goes off to take photos. Pop, water, teas and coffee will be served throughout the day starting around 3:30. There will be lawn games and table games outside. Please feel free to enjoy the afternoon however you wish. Cochrane is a great little town with some shops to explore as well. We want to enjoy one another as we begin to celebrate together the new marriage of..... Mr and Mrs Nathan and Emma Renkema

I know you are all keen to say hi and greet the happy couple, you will get your chance today do not worry, they need to get some photos taken so in place of a greeting line, during the reception Emma & Nathan will be available to say hi to they just need to get some family Photos (Immediate and extended family) Come to the altar after everyone has exited.

Pronouncement

Nathan, you asked Emma to marry you, she said yes and now you are here. (you were worried about not crying for the photos and may I say, it all turned out. Stating your intention to become husband and wife. Today you’ve finalized that commitment by sharing vows to one another and by the giving and receiving of rings to reflect those vows. With these words and rings, you do each other wed and become, today June 16, 2024 husband, and wife.

For as much as, Nathan Renkema and Emma Caldwell have committed themselves to each other in marriage, before God and in the presence of you, their family, and friends, having made vows and exchanged rings, I by the authority that is given to me by the God and the Church pronounce to you all that Emma & Nathan are husband and wife, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Those whom God has brought together, let no one separate.

Kiss

*Emma you may now kiss your husband

Introduction of Couple

It’s now my profound privilege to introduce to you all for the very first time, Mr. & Mrs. Nathan & Emma Renkema!