quotes and sayings for ceremonies

Love one another and you will be happy.  It's as simple and as difficult as that.  ~Michael Leunig


My heart to you is given:
Oh, do give yours to me;
We'll lock them up together,
And throw away the key.
~Frederick Saunders


A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.  ~Mignon McLaughlin


You are now taking into your care and keeping the happiness of the one person in all the world whom you love best. You are adding to your life not only the affection of each other, but also the companionship and blessing of a deep trust as well. You are agreeing to share strength, responsibilities and to share love.


Love is always patient and kind, it is never jealous, love is never boastful or conceited, it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offense, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasures in other people's sins but delights in the truth, it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.


(Name) and (Name) nothing is easier than saying words and nothing is harder than living them day after day after day. What you promise today, must be renewed and decided again tomorrow, and tomorrow after that and the tomorrow after that.


(Name) and (Name), you are about to make promises to one another. Today, these vows are beautiful words representing even more beautiful intentions. But you will find that as you 
live these vows over the years, investing your time an d your love and your commitment to one another, the happy times of your life will be twice as joyous, because there will be someone to share those joy with. And when life gets tough, it will only be half as bad, because there will be someone by your side to help carry the burden. For those times when life presents all of us with challenges, I would like to offer you the serenity prayer to remember: God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.


I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance,


A church filled with family and friends.


I asked him what kind of a wedding he wished for,


He said one that would make me his wife.


~Author Unknown


On our wedding day a new life has its start
We'll share in each other 
one love, one dream, one heart

From Graces by June Cotner

"May your love be firm,
and may your dream of life together
be a river between two shores --
by day bathed in sunlight, and by night
illuminated from within. May the heron
carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring
the sea's blue grace. May your twin thoughts spiral upward
like leafy vines, like fiddle strings in the wind,
and be as noble as the Douglas fir.
May you never find yourselves back to back
without love pulling you around
into each other's arms."

From the Beyond Words Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith

"They say they will love, comfort, honor each other to the end of their days. They say they will cherish each other and be faithful to each other always. They say they will do these things not just when they feel like it, but even -- for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health -- when they don’t feel like it at all. In other words, the vows they make could hardly be more extravagant. They give away their freedom. They take on themselves each other’s burdens. They bind their live s together... The question is, what do they get in return?

"They get each other in return... There will always be the other to talk to, to listen to... There is still someone to get through the night with, to wake into the new day beside. If they have children, they can give them, as well as each other, roots and wings. If they don’t have children, they each become the other’s child.

"They both still have their lives apart as well as a life together. They both still have their separate ways to find. But a marriage made in heaven is one where a man and a woman become more richly themselves together than the chances are either of them could ever have managed to become alone."

From The Awakened Heart

"There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it, but it is always awake. It is the human desire for love. Every person in this earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in this desire...

...love is the 'why' of life: why we are functioning at all, what we want to be efficient for... I am convinced it [love] is the fundamental energy of the human spirit, the fuel on which we run, the wellspring of our vitality. And grace, which is the flowing, creative activity of love itself, is what makes all goodness possible.

Love should come first; it should be the beginning of and the reason for everything."

From A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

"If the old fairy-tale ending "They lived happily ever after" is taken to mean "They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married," then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be "in love" need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense -- love as distinct from "being in love" -- is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be "in love" with someone else. "Being in love" first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it."

-- C. S. Lewis

A few of the funny ones:

• Love - a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.  ~Author Unknown
• Spouse:  someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you wouldn't have had if you'd stayed single.  ~Author Unknown