A Very Simple Ceremony

Use this very basic ceremony as a starting point:

The step which you are about to take is the most important into which human beings can come. It is a union of two people founded upon mutual respect and affection. Your lives will change, your responsibilities will increase, but your joy will be multiplied if you are sincere and earnest with your pledge to one another.

Groom, will you have this woman to be your wedded wife, to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, and forsaking all others, keep you only unto her, for so long as you both shall live?

Bride, will you have this man to be your wedded husband, to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, and forsaking all others, keep you only unto him, so long as you both shall live?

Take hands and repeat after me: I, groom, take you, bride, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, to love and to cherish, from this day forward.

I, bride, take you, groom, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, to love and to cherish, from this day forward.

Do you have a ring for the bride? Please place the ring on the bride's finger and say: With this ring, I thee wed.

Is there a ring for the groom? Please place the ring on the groom's finger and say: With this ring I thee wed.

Let these rings be given and received as a token of your affection, sincerity and fidelity to one another.

In as much as groom and bride have consented together in wedlock and have witnessed the same before this company, and pledged their vows to each other, by the authority vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce you husband and wife. (You may now kiss .)

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Loving Quote:

"Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner."
~ Amy Bloom