Weddings - The Present [00's]

Great Weddings of the Present

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The Wedding of Samir and Nevresa
July 29, 2001
Lakewood, Ohio
Dr. Rick Rickards officiating

Dr. Rickards: Good day and welcome to everyone! Today we are here to celebrate the wedding of Samir and Nevresa. Ten years from now, twenty years from now, and we hope, many more, you will always remember the significance of this day.

When a man and a woman love one another and decide that they wish to get married, they have made a big decision. They obtain a license and they ask a qualified person to officiate at their wedding. My name is Dr. Rick Rickards and I am a Humanist Minister. I have been licensed in Ohio to perform marriages since the early 1960’s.

All marriages have certain features in common. The man asks the woman to be his wife. The woman asks the man to be her husband. Consent is obtained. In most marriages, rings are exchanged and the couple vows to respect, honor, and care for each other for as long as they live. The officiant then pronounces them husband and wife, and they form their new household.

One of the most remarkable features of the United States is that it brings people of many different backgrounds together on equal footing. Samir and Nevresa are from Bosnia. I myself came from England. In the last few years, I have married people from Iran, the former Soviet Union, India, Germany, Syria, Lebanon, the Philippines, Mexico, France, Italy, Australia and Guatemala, and, of course, many from Ohio and the United States.

Vows

Dr. Rickards: (to the couple): Samir and Nevresa, are you ready to take your vows?

Samir and Nevresa: We are!

Dr. Rickards (to Samir): Do you, Samir, take Nevresa to be your wife?

Samir: I do!

Dr. Rickards (to Nevresa): Do you, Nevresa, take Samir to be your husband?

Nemesa: I do!

Dr. Rickards: May we have the rings, please? (Rings are produced)

Samir, please repeat after me:

Dr. Rickards: Nevresa, please repeat after me:

Dr. Rickards: I will now recite from the Native American Wedding Ceremony:

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 each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
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 this earth.

Dr. Rickards: Samir and Nevresa, may this marriage deepen your love for each other, and for your families and friends.

We wish you a happy and peaceful home - an island of serenity and happiness - a place for beginnings, a source of memories. May all that is good and true abide with you forever.

With the authority vested in me by the State of Ohio, I now pronounce you husband and wife. May you live long and prosper.

This is the time to kiss the bride! (KISS!!)

Ladies and gentlemen…the NEWLYWEDS!

WEDDING OF MICHAEL AND HOLLY
Saturday, June 16, 2001
Tanglewood Country Club
Dr. Rick Rickards, Humanist Minister, officiating

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Rickards: Good evening and welcome everyone. We are gathered to witness the wedding of Holly ****and Michael **** Michael and Holly have invited us here tonight to share in their joy and celebrate their wedding. They have created a companionship based on love and wish to unite their lives in marriage.

Marriage is an intertwining of the lives of two people, socially, physically, materially and emotionally. Marriage is now and always has been a serious undertaking, not to be regarded lightly. Those who enter in this relationship should hold mutual esteem and love for each other. They should be ready to bear each other's weaknesses, comfort each other in sickness, in trouble and in sorrow and to encourage each other in the trials of life.

Marriage is not just a ritual; it is an ongoing commitment founded on love and loyalty. During today's ceremony we will witness this couple’s statement of love and long-lasting commitment to each other.

What is Love? We talk a lot about "Love" but what do we really mean? Love is a pure and genuine emotion that is sensed and felt but is often difficult to express in words. Here are some words on love and marriage through the ages.

The American inventor and Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin said:
"Those who love deeply never grow old, they may die of old age but they die young"

On the other hand, to quote the great Greek playwright, Sophocles:
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is Love"

To give you another example, "In love, one and one are one"
These were the words of the French existentialist author, Jean-Paul Sartre.

"Love never claims, it ever gives" to quote Mahatma Gandhi, India's non-violent revolutionary:

Leo Tolstoy, the Russian author, once remarked:
"When you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, not as you would like them to be."

An unknown author left us this famous remark:
"You don't marry someone you can live with, you marry the person whom you can not live without"

And, finally, a word from the Groom,
"When love is great there is no need for words, for even in the silences love is heard."

With these compelling words on love, let us now turn our attention to the bride and groom. Holly and Michael, are you ready to make your vows? (The couple may say out loud "We are!")

VOWS

Dr. Rickards: Michael, please repeat after me:

Dr. Rickards: Holly, please repeat after me:

RINGS

Dr. Rickards: May we have the rings please? These rings symbolize the harmony and unity in which your two lives will be joined together. (Rickards gives ring to Michael) Michael, please repeat after me:

"Will you take this ring |
as a symbol of my eternal love? |
Holly, will you be my wife?" |

Holly: I will. (Michael places ring on Holly's finger)

Dr. Rickards: (Rickards gives ring to Holly) Holly, please repeat after me:

"Will you take this ring |
as a symbol of my eternal love? |
Michael, will you be my husband?" |

Michael: I will. (Holly places ring on Michael's finger)

Dr. Rickards: As a symbol of joining your eternal love for each other, Michael and Holly, you will now light the unity candle.

Dr. Rickards: By the authority vested in me by the state of Ohio, and with the love and presence of your family and friends, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I now present to you for the first time The Newlyweds!

Before the wedding party leaves and after you pronounce us husband and wife, please announce the butterfly release. I think a count down would be good so that they may all be released at the same time. We are having each guest hold butterflies to be released upon our exit. Then, after we have left on our golf cart, please announce to the guests about the reception location which will be immediately post-ceremony upstairs in the reception hall.

THE WEDDING OF MICHAEL AND PALLA
Saturday, January 6, 2001
Dr. Rick Rickards, Humanist Minister
VFW Post 2133, Cleveland, Ohio

Opening Words

Dr. Rickards: Welcome everybody! We are here to witness the marriage of Palla ***** and Michael ***** and to celebrate the blending of their children Patrick and Ryan, with Alexandra, Erika, Diana and John, from two families into one!

I would like to remind you all of the words from one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine. Over 200 years ago he said: "Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good." Great words for all time.

Dr. Rickards: Palla and Michael, please assume the ancient position of handfasting. This, as you know, is the symbol of infinity. It used to be the prerequisite of all marriages in olden days.

This wedding celebrates the joy and beauty of life. Humanism sees a person as an active and inseparable unity of body and personality. Reason is the guide, but reason is never separate from the emotions and strivings of the whole person; so that emotion and intellect functioning together provide the firmest foundation for married love.

Marriage is a supreme sharing of experience and an adventure in the most intimate of human relationships. It is the joyous uniting of a man and a woman whose friendship and mutual understanding have flowered into romance. Today, Palla and Michael proclaim their love to the world and we rejoice with them and for them in the new life they now undertake together.

Your marriage will require "love," which is a word often used with vagueness and sentimentality. We mean something very real, when we bind ourselves in love. It can mean sweet freedom and fulfillment. When we are in love we see things other people do not see. We see beneath the surface and observe qualities which make our beloved different from and dearer than all others. To see with loving eyes is to know inner beauty and to be loved is to be seen and known as we are known to no other.

Such love means security. Each of us would like to have an absolute security. This we cannot have, but we come close to it when we are loved - when another human being wants us, wants to share life with us, accepts us, without qualification or reservation, not as perfect, but as human, with strengths and weaknesses.

The love of which we speak is not static. It is a growing and dynamic relationship. We dream that tomorrow we will grow and fulfill our possibilities. It is wonderful when someone believes in our dream of ourselves and wants to live with us and help make our dreams and aspirations come true.

Love of this sort can grow. It is not fleeting, remaining only a memory of something which cannot be recovered. It can grow because it has something to grow upon and grow with. It does not become stale. Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not just each other.

True love breeds unlimited courage and confidence. Such courage and confidence we know are yours as you continue your lives together under the ever embracing bond of marriage. In addition to the affection and thoughtful consideration which you have for one another, you will need a capacity for patience. This is no light adventure which you are about to embark on. The art of married life is in mutual enrichment, mental, physical, and spiritual. It is the interaction between two people, a mingling of two minds which depletes neither, but enables each.

Marriage is dedication. You give yourself, your life and love, into the hands of the one you love. You do so trustingly and generously. By the same token, each of you receives a gift - the life and love of the other. You receive this gift not only from the one you love, but also from the parents who brought you into the world and reared you and from the personal world of friends and family who are joined in friendship and faith in your marriage.

Both Palla and Michael believe that there should be equality between men and women in every relevant way and that it is especially important for this principle to be recognized in the marriage relationship. Marriage must be a cooperative venture in every sense. It is a relationship based on love, respect and a determination on the part of both wife and husband to adjust to each other's temperaments and moods - in health or sickness, joy or sadness, ease or hardship.

Today we are here to share your joy and hope and to speed you along the path which, from this day forward, you will tread together. May it be the path bright with the fragrant flowers of prosperity and conquest; a path of deepening and widening love that you shall travel arm in arm throughout your lives.

Statement Of Intention

Dr. Rickards: Palla and Michael, the vows you are about to exchange represent the love you pledge to each other. Are you both ready to stand before us and pledge your vows openly and without reservation?

Palla and Michael: We are!

Vows

Dr. Rickards: Michael, do you, Michael, want Palla, to be your wife?

Michael: I do!

Dr. Rickards: Palla, do you, Palla, want Michael to be your husband?

Palla: I do!

The Ceremony of the Rings

Traditionally, the passage to the status of husband and wife is marked by the exchange of rings. These rings are a symbol of the unbroken circle of love. Love freely given has no beginning and no end. Love freely given has no giver and no receiver - for each is the giver and each is the receiver. May these rings remind you always of the vows you have taken here today.

Dr. Rickards: Do you, Michael, promise by all you hold to be true, that you will love Palla and always treat her with dignity and respect?

Michael: I do!

Dr. Rickards: Do you, Palla, promise by all you hold to be true, that you will love Michael and always treat him with dignity and respect?

Palla: I do!

Dr. Rickards: May we have the rings, please? Michael, please repeat after me:

Michael: (Cued) This ring symbolizes my desire | for you to be my wife | from this day forward. (Places ring on Palla’s finger.)

Dr. Rickards: Palla, please repeat after me:

Palla: (Cued) This ring symbolizes my desire || that you be my husband || from this day forward. (Places ring on Michael’s finger.)

Conclusion:

Dr. Rickards: Palla and Michael have exchanged marriage vows and rings. With your friends and family as witnesses and by the power vested in me as a Humanist minister by the State of Ohio, I call upon all to recognize that you are now husband and wife!

Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Take responsibility for making the other one feel safe, and give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your marriage deserves. If, and when, adversity enters your relationship , remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part that seems wrong. Then you can ride out the times when clouds drift across the sun in your lives, remembering that, just because you may lose sight of it for a moment, does not mean the sun has disappeared. If each of you take total responsibility for the quality of your lives together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.

Palla and Michael, why don’t you seal your vows with a kiss?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present to you, THE NEWLYWEDS PALLA and MICHAEL!

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