Wedding Service Randy and Margie

Dear friends, ___Randy____ and ____Margie____ have come to offer themselves to God and each other in the holy bond of marriage.

God has established marriage for our welfare and enjoyment. Marriage makes sacred the union between man and woman and offers to each the opportunity to grow together in more complete manhood and womanhood.

Our Lord has declared that a man shall leave his parents and shall unite with his wife. He has commanded through his apostles that husbands and wives love and cherish each other throughout their lives and that they shall give each other strength and compassionate understanding and together share their joys and pains.

These two who have heretofore traveled separate ways come now to be made one.

Let us pray:

Father of love, who hast brought these two together to be made one in holy marriage, all thy servants here assembled now pray thee to bless them with every good and perfect blessing. May their love never cease to grow in character and fullness; may they have the strength to share each other’s joys and sorrows, continually bearing one another’s burdens. May their temptations be few and may they always be ready to forgive each other, even as thou through Christ dost forgive them. We ask in the name of Jesus Christ, who has taught us to pray: Our Father…

Then the minister says to the man:

___Randy___, will you have this woman to be your wedded wife, to live together in the holy estate of marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others keep you only to her, so long as you both shall live?

The man answers: I will.

Then the minister says to the woman:

____Margie____, will you have this man to be your wedded husband, to live together in the holy estate of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others keep you only to him so long as you both shall live?

The woman answers: I will.

The minister then joins the right hands of the man and the woman. The man, instructed by the minister, says to the woman:

I, ____Randy____, take you, ____Margie____ to be my wife. I promise before God and these friends to be your loving and faithful husband, to share with you in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, and to join with you so that together we may serve God and others, as long as we both shall live.

While the hands are still joined, the woman, instructed by the minister, says to the man:

I, ____Margie____, take you, ____Randy____ to be my husband. I promise before God and these friends to be your loving and faithful wife, to share with you in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, and to join with you so that together we may serve God and others, as long as we both shall live.

They loose their hands and the minister asks for the ring(s) with these words:

Then the minister is given the ring(s) and says:

This ring (these rings) is (are) the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual bond which unites this man and woman in endless love.

The minister gives the ring to the man who places it upon the fourth finger of the woman’s left hand. In the same way the woman may give a ring to the man. Then the man (followed by the woman, if there are two rings) repeats after the minister:

I give this ring to you as a token of the covenant made between us this day and as a pledge of our mutual love: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Then the minister says to the congregation:

Since ____Randy____ and ____Margie____ have consented to join together in marriage, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and have pledged their mutual love to each other, and have declared the same by the giving and receiving of a ring (rings), and by joining hands, I declare that they are husband and wife.

The God of all love has joined you as husband and wife. Go now in peace, trusting that the love which you now know will forever make you one.

The couple may then kneel, as the minister says:

Let us pray:

Father of love and mercy, show your compassion on this couple who have come before you in the presence of their friends to pledge themselves to live together in the holy estate of marriage. Grant them the strength and patience, the affection and understanding, the courage and love to abide together in peace and mutual growth according to thy will for them both; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What, therefore, God has joined together, let no one put asunder.

You may now kiss the bride.