Our Ceremony

The wedding was amazing. The perfect day with friends and family. I just thought I would share our ceremony with folks:

Officiant:

We are here today to take advantage of time. Not just the time that we have to enjoy each other, something that can be fleeting because of carelessness or fate. But this unique time in California when the words Marnie and Ramsey are about to say are recognized, not just as true, but with a legal force. They stand before us in celebration, saying, in essence, “Welcome to our marriage.” And our presence tells them that they are, in fact, loved by many.

These two people have already started a life together. They have already weathered the promises of traditional vows. Sickness and health. Richer and poorer. Instead, we can talk about the realities of love. When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. That is impossible. It is even a disservice to pretend it is possible. Yet that is what most of us demand. We have such little faith in the ebb and flow of life and of love and of relationships.

We leap forward at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb, for we are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanence, on duration, on continuity. But the only continuity possible in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity and in freedom.

I speak now to Marnie and Ramsey and ask them to have trust and faith in each other. They must recognize that they are super heroes to each other. Each with powerful strengths, and hidden weaknesses. And they must use that strength wisely and, against all instinct, share their weaknesses openly. They must hold their own, and the other’s, heart with tenderness.

I speak also to Lucy. Because this celebration recognizes that she has made this couple a family, one that extends to all of us, but one that lives in these three. Lucy, please hold up the rings?

Marnie:
May this ring forever be to you the symbol of my growing love.

Ramsey:
May this ring forever be to you the symbol of my growing love.

Officiant:
May these two find happiness in their union. May they live faithfully together, executing the vows they have made between them; and may they ever remain compassionate and encouraging, that their years may be rich with the joys of life, and their days be long upon the Earth.

I now pronounce you married.