SEDONA WEDDING CEREMONY
Your Sedona wedding ceremony is what makes your day unforgettable, the words spoken, the promises made, the bond you create.
Nothing expresses more beautifully the nature of your love than the way you are present with each other in your ceremony. You become an inspiration for everyone present, simply by the way you look at each other, by the way you smile, gesture, speak and attend to each other. There’s nothing you need do, except Be.
In preparing for your ceremony we work together in a friendly and collaborative way to assure that your ceremony mirrors and celebrates the unique love you have for one another. We make it personal and romantic, incorporating elements from your experience and history as a couple, along with those values, beliefs and traditions that inspire and guide you.
In the rehearsal, which usually takes place the day before your wedding, we do a complete walk-through so that you and your wedding party (if you have one) know exactly what to do. Also we have you practice your vows (if you’re comfortable in doing so before the actual ceremony).
You can plan on your ceremony taking between 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the content you wish included. This gives you sufficient time to relax in Sedona’s natural beauty and become fully present to each other for the sharing of your vows.
The following template is meant to give you an idea of a ceremony’s structure. Your actual ceremony will have its own structure and content based on your unique background and tastes.
Introduction:
Let us take a moment of silence to open our hearts to the presence of Love revealed in the natural beauty around us, in the earth and sky, in the trees, the breeze, the sounds of the stream, the song of the birds. Also let us be aware of that same presence of love as it stirs within us, expressing itself through our emotions of joy and happiness, but most especially, as it reveals itself in the radiant love of
_____ & _____
Welcoming:
_____ & _____, family and friends, welcome to this lovely location in the red rock mountains of Sedona. We’re gathered here together to celebrate the coming together of your two separate lives, to share with you in this wonderful moment of joining your hearts, minds and souls into one through marriage.
Journey:
Simply allow your hearts to become peaceful and quiet now, like a placid pond in the early morning, and relax in the love that has brought you here today. Like the current of this mountain stream that brings life and beauty to wherever it flows, so the current of God’s love, the current that “knows the way,” has brought you to life and beauty both in and through your relationship with each other.
It’s been said that, “Our real journey in life is interior; it is a matter of growth, deepening and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace within our hearts.” And this is your journey, _____ & _____, as husband and wife, namely learning to bow before the love in your hearts which you have for each other as this love guides you into the future.
By marrying today the two of you choose to travel as one to that home which is not a place, but rather an experience, an experience carried within you on every breath, an experience born of deep love that takes you each day closer to the one love that you are, to a loving of each other simply by ‘being’ who you are.
“The moment I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” — Rumi
Opening Prayer:
In gratitude for this beautiful gift of love that’s been given to you let us pray…
God of love, you are the power that awakens and draws lovers out of their separateness into a whole new life, into a whole new adventure of oneness and wholeness. We give you thanks for _____ & _____, for the confidence, trust and happiness that they’ve brought into each other’s lives. We give you thanks for their open hearts, willing spirits, and for the example of love which they embody for all those who know and love them. We ask that you bless and empower them at this moment and always as they join their lives into one.
Reading:
“Because you are my love, I know the joy that comes from feeling closer to someone then I’ve ever felt before.
Because you are my love, I know the passion of wanting to share everything I have, everything I am with you and only you.
Because you are my friend, I know that I can count on you to hold my hand through the rough times and to be there to share the good times too.
Because you are my friend, I’ll always have someone to make me smile just when I need it most, and to encourage me when I’m feeling confused and doubtful.
And I know that I must be one of the luckiest people in the world to have someone like you
The perfect love
The prefect friend” – Kaity Larkin
Reflection:
_____ & _____, all of us here today celebrate with you. We celebrate the gift that you are to each other, the way your love for each other has touched and transformed your lives, bringing to light all the inner beauty and goodness that lies within you…
Intentions:
_____ & _____ you have found in each other that which compliments your life. You stand here as two independent whole people, each bringing your gifts and love to this marriage.
Sharing of Wedding Vows:
So I ask you to join your hands and share your vows to each other before God and this community of family and friends joined together with you today.
Please repeat after me
_____ / _____, I bring myself to you this day to share my life with you. You can trust my love for it is real. I promise to be a faithful husband / wife and to always share and support your hopes, dreams and goals. I vow to be there for you always. When you fall I will catch you; when you cry I will comfort you; when you laugh I will share your joy. Everything I am and everything I have is yours, from this moment forth and for eternity.
Presentation of Rings:
_____ & _____, these rings are symbols of the promises you have just made. They are circles of wholeness, symbols of a long journey together, filled with wonder, surprises, laughter, tears, celebration, grief and joy. May these rings always glow in reflection of the warmth and the life which flow through the two of you today.
Exchange of Rings:
Please repeat after me
_____ / _____, you are my life, my love, my best friend, and with this ring I thee wed. May it be a reminder of my love and the sacred commitment I have made here today.
Final Blessing:
_____ & _____ by your free choice you have made a marriage, and no matter what the demands on your lives and your time, the meaning of your living is now known through your love.
May all blessings attend you. May joy pervade your lives together. May you carry into your marriage the beauty and the tranquility of this place, and keep alive always the sense of exploration and the peace and the intimacy you have shared here today. May you find here a good beginning of your married life and the true fulfillment of many, many happy years together!
Pronouncement of Marriage & Presentation:
_____ & _____, because you have showered each other’s hearts with expressions of your love and promised each other the joy of all your days, it gives me great honor and pleasure to now pronounce you husband and wife.
I now present to all of you _____ & _____! (All applaud)
Kissing of the Bride:
_____, you may now kiss your beautiful bride!