The ceremony

Mary & Chris’s Wedding

Margo:

Greetings friends and family, and welcome to this day of celebration.  We are united to witness the marriage of Mary Elizabeth Helen van Reyk and Christopher John Frape.  They ask your blessing on this joyful occasion.

Mary and Chris's understanding of the true meaning of marriage has resulted from many influences; their families, their friends, and their own beliefs.  We are here not only strengthen the binds of Chris and Mary's love for each other, but also to bring family and friends together to celebrate these same said bonds that hold us all together.

What defines Mary and Chris’s love today will change, and grow to new depth in the future.  This ceremony is the celebration of a single stage in a much larger process that is the love between 2 people.  The promises made today, and the ties that are bound here, greatly strengthen your union.

Today we are celebrating with a binding ceremony: each cord placed on their joined hands represents a promise that Mary and Chris are making to each other.  At the end of the ceremony I will tie the cords together and bind the couple.

We shall now begin:

Will you share each other's pain and seek to ease it?

M & C: Yes.

Margo: And so the binding is made.  Join your hands.

[The first cord is draped across Mary and Chris’s hands.]

Will both of you look for the brightness in life and the positive in each other?

M & C: Yes.

Margo: And so the binding is made.

[The second cord is draped across Mary and Chris’s hands.]

Will you share the burdens of each so that you both may grow in this union?

M & C: Yes.

Margo: And so the binding is made.

[The third cord is draped across Mary and Chris’s hands.]

Will you dream together and support each other’s separate dreams?

M & C: Yes.

Margo: And so the binding is made.

[The fourth cord is draped across Mary and Chris’s hands.]

Will you take the heat of anger and use it to temper the strength of this union?

M & C: We will.

Margo: And so the binding is made.

[The fifth cord is draped across Mary and Chris’s hands.]

Will you honour each other, and these promises you have made today?

M & C: We will.

Margo: And so the binding is made.

[The sixth cord is draped across Mary and Chris’s hands.]

The knots of this binding are not formed by these cords but instead by your vows.  Either of you may drop
the cords, for always you will hold in your own hands the making or breaking of this union.

[once the cords are tied together, they are removed.]

May all of Mary and Chris’ loved ones here today continue to witness and be part of this union because it is this love and support that has guided them here today.

May Mary and Chris know great love together, and may they live in the desire to always support each other in positive and uplifting ways.  May they strengthen one another in sorrow, share with one another in gladness, and be companions to each other in times of silence.  May their home be a haven, and wherever they are plagued by changing fortune, may they be united not in word and outward form alone, but by the presence in the hearts of each, of the deepening love they share.

You are husband and wife.

Celebrate with a kiss.