Simple Wedding Ceremony Complete Script for Everyone
Here are words for a simple, romantic wedding! This wedding ceremony wording is completely nondemoninational, and can work for people of all faiths as well as people who are non-religious.
Friends, we have come here today to celebrate love. We see it in the faces of ______________ and ____________ who stand before us, but we experience it in our own hearts as well. This love is powerful enough to untie the strong entangled knot of life. It is a love which is spoken of in all religions, which kindles our souls and which is our true home, our true meeting place.
___________ and __________ have opened their hearts to one another, and today in just a few moments will share their vows of marriage together. We are deeply grateful to them for opening their hearts to us as well, inviting us to witness and share in this precious moment. To this day they bring the fullness of their being as a treasure to share with one another. Their marriage is being entered into reverently, with the recognition of a true union which has been discovered. For what greater joy is there for two human souls than to join together to strengthen each other in all their endeavors, to support each other through all sorrow, and to share with each other in all gladness?
We hope that the words and spirit of our gathering may be filled with a truth that will deepen with the passing years. We hope, too, that the meaning of the vows that ______ and _______ are about to share with one another will deepen as well, as they discover the endless possibilities of this life together. This is a love which need not be tarnished by common events, but which can flower both in deepest adversity and in greatest joy.
As the years go by, you will find more and more in one another a loveliness which neither comes nor goes, which neither flowers nor fades, no longer even taking the form of face or hand or words or knowing. Everything in your marriage can partake of this mysterious beauty beyond beauty, until wherever you turn you see reflections of this loveliness.
We ask that the vision you have of one another be always informed by that radiant power which first brought you together. Love is stronger than your conflicts, bigger than life’s changes, the miracle always inviting you to learn, to blossom, to expand. It is to love that you must always return.
Reading: (Alternative Readings also available in section further below) The Prophet: True love gives nothing but itself, and takes nothing but from itself, for love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself, to awake at dawn and give thanks for another day of loving, to rest at noon and meditate love’s ecstasy, to return home at eventide with gratitude, then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart, and a song of praise upon your lips.
Vows: (Alternative Vows also available in section further below) ______________, do you take _______________ to be your husband, to love him, to cherish him, and to continually bestow upon him your heart’s deepest devotion? {I do.} And ______________, do you take _________________ to be your wife, to love her, to cherish her, and to continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion? {I do.}
Please join hands, face one another and repeat after me: __________, you are my beloved, to love and to cherish, and to have and to hold, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, in sadness and in joy, to share our lives together, from this day forward. (Both bride and groom repeat these vows individually).
Rings: (Alternative Rings also available in section further below) What tokens of your love and devotion do you have to offer one another? {These Rings/This Ring}
May these rings be blessed as a symbol of this affectionate unity. Your two lives are being joined today in one unbroken circle. Wherever you go, may you always return to one another in your togetherness. May you find in one another the love for which all men and women yearn. May you grow in understanding and compassion. May the home which you establish together be such a place of sanctuary that all who are here today and others through the years will find there true friends. May these rings, soon to be on your fingers, symbolize the touch of the spirit of love that is in both your hearts. ______, in placing the ring on ______’s left hand, please repeat after me: __, I give you this ring as a pledge of my love, and as a symbol of our unity.
Optional Additions (Unity Candles, Roses, To the Children etc.) also available in section further below
Declaration of Marriage: ________ and ____________, you have consented together to marriage before this company, pledged your faith and declared your unity by each giving and receiving a ring, and, as you are now joined together in mutual esteem and devotion, it is my privilege as an ordained minister to pronounce that you are married, and to offer you this Benediction of the Apaches:
“Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness for you, but there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, to enter into the days of your togetherness, and may your days be good, and long upon, the earth.”
Congratulations, you may now kiss the bride!
Alternative: Congratulations, you may now kiss one another. (Optional🙂 Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mr. and Mrs. (or first names of bride and groom)_______________________________.
Option #2 Contemporary Christian Option #3 Traditional Christian Option #4 Simplified Catholic