Same Sex Spiritual Ceremony

Convocation:

Welcome! We are gathered here today to share in a celebration of love, and to join together forever the hearts of Donna and Karen. Today in the presence of their friends, Donna and Karen will join their lives together, two beautiful spirits sharing the most sacred and tender of human relationships. They have invited us all here today to rejoice, celebrate and bear witness to this sacred union. They stand before you bound by their love for each other, and the desire to share this expression of their love with you and with the world. We, their families and friends, form a community of love that together we may support and encourage them with our abundance of prayers and blessings on this day and for all of their lives.

Invocation:

At this time I ask that you all join me in a wish and blessing for Donna and Karen, as they begin the journey on their path of togetherness.

Our hope and wish for Donna and Karen is a long and loving lifetime of joy, peace and happiness. May their unconditional love, compassion and caring for each other continue to be the strength that they will hold fast to for all their days together.

1st Reading: Read by?(Reading are a nice way of including someone in the ceremony. Readings can be done by family members, friends, etc.)

Address:

“From this day forward,
You shall not walk alone.
My heart will be your shelter,
And my arms will be your home”.

Donna and Karen have found the gift of love in each other, they have found in one another other that special person who provides them with peace, love and comfort and who will support each other and share all of life. They have created a love that is simple, effortless, and real, a love which allows them to truly be themselves; they accept all parts of each other with unconditional love and understanding.

Donna and Karen’sjourney began when they met through a mutual friend. (Here we can add your story of how you met)They both right away felt the tug and force of their connection, a feeling they had never felt before and they became fast friends. Their connection eventually evolved to dating and they have been together inseparable ever since.


Donna and Karen got engaged (here we can add your proposal story)

It has been a 4 years and Donna and Karen’s are both so happy to have found each other and how wonderful they are together. Their connection has always been so strong and they cherish their relationship; how easy it is and how much it allows them both to grow. They support each other and encourage each other through everything that life brings! Over the years their relationshipshas evolved through all the joys, challenges and changes of life into this beautiful and loving partnership that you see here before you today!

Karen and Donna have invited you here today because you are their dearest family and friends. We come together also as the joining of two families. One of the things that Karen and Donna have impressed upon me is how important their individual families are to them, and the shared values that they carry with them into this union. All of you are those closest to them and you have contributed to who they are, and you will continue to have important influence in their lives in the years to come. Friends and family here today remind them of landmarks in their lives – good and bad, easy and tough – all that you have shared with them leading up to this great day. Your presence with us today is essential and our couple wish to express and honor the important role that you all play in their lives not just today but every day, and they would like to send out their heartfelt thanks to their families and friends for their continued love, support, and encouragement throughout their lives.


Within their relationship Donna and Karen have grown together, and they complement and balance each other perfectly. They have a lot of things in common and are alike inmany ways. They share everything and support and encourage each other no matter what life brings. Throughout their relationship they had learned thatcommunication, patience, understanding, passion, and laughter were vital to their relationship. But holds all this together the core of their relationship is the strong love that they have for each other. A love that for each of them comes in many wonderful and amazing ways;

For Karen, Donna is her love, and her support. Donna is beautiful, kind, considerate and generous. Karen loves Donna’sbeautiful eyes, and how she loves her unconditionally; she is always there to support her, motivate her and encourage her. She loves Donna’s kind and giving nature; she always goes above and beyond for her and the people she loves in her life. Karen adores Donna’s sense of humor and how she can always make her laugh. Donna is her best friend; she is her family, and she makes her happy everyday! Karen truly respects and loves the person that Donna is, and she is the one she wants to spend the rest of her life with!

For Donna, Karen is her love, her support and her strength. Karen is supportive, genuine, giving and always puts herself out for everyone. She adoresKaren’s smiling eyes and her adventurous nature. Donna loves her sense of humor; how she can always make her laugh and can turn around any bad day. She loves how easy it is to love Karen; she understands her and really gets her. Karen loves her and accepts her for who she is and lets her be herself.With Karen she always feels supported, comforted, and encouraged! She knows her and understands her like no one else and she accepts her for who she is! She is her love and her life and she couldn’t imagine her life without her!


Together they are like two peas in a pod!Donna and Karen have fun no matter what they are doing; whether it is sharing their love of the beach, boating and nature or spending time with family and friends,as long as they are together they are happy and content!! Together they have generous and caring spirits, a love of their families, and a mutual respect, love and commitment to each other that is immeasurable.

Donna and Karen you have establish the gift of love and over the years have held fast to the beliefs and strengths that you share as a couple that have carried you to this day. Together both in your true form of inner beauty, and light of genuineness, you feel as you always have, a familiar comfort and understanding in the core of your relationship with each other. A mutual security and nurturance that you experience with that person who is your one true love, your soul mate!

2nd reading: (optional)

Sand Ceremony: with parents
(Already there will be five containers of your choosing on the altar, one empty). “Donna and Karen, you are about to seal your relationship by the giving and receiving of rings and the exchanging of your vows. This covenant is a pledge between two people who agree that they will commit themselves to one another throughout their lives, to share the rest of your lives together. Within a marriage each person is both their own and each other’s. Two individuals choosing to create a new life with endless possibilities and new dreams that are theirs together. Today we also recognize the significant role that that both families play in such a joining. Donna and Karen would like to ask their parents to join them.

This sand that each of your parents have is a symbol of the foundation that you have given Donna and Karen for their lives, a foundation based in love, support, nurturing and care. The sand you will now pour represents this strong foundation of love that will be the base and core of their marriage.
(parents pour sand and return to place)

Donna and Karen, will you now hold close to your heart the container of sand representing the essence of all that you are and all that you bring to this union. As you do so, place in these grains of sands all your hopes and dreams for the future. Bring to mind the strength of your promises that you will share today, and carry with you throughout your life together.

As these two vessels of sand are poured into the central vessel that already hold a strong foundation given to you by your families, the individual ones will no longer exist, but will be joined together as one. Just as this sand can never be separated and poured again so will it be with you marriage.

Consecration:

A wedding ceremony is an outward form. To be true it must be a symbol of something inner and real; a sacred personal union which nature might mirror, a church solemnize, or a state declare legal, but which only love can create and mutual loyalty fulfill.

I ask you both, as you stand in the presence of your family and friends, to remember that love, loyalty and compassion alone will avail as the foundation of a happy and enduring home. No other human ties are more tender, no other vows more sacred than those that you will now assume. If these sacred vows are honored and kept close to your hearts, and you endeavor to always live according to the best that is within each of you, your life together will be full of joy, peace and love.

Expression of Intent:

In the presence of God, family and friends, I ask you to state your intentions.
Donna and Karen, have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
Will you love and honor each other as partners for the rest of your lives?
Donna and Karen respond: I will.

Vows: (Couples can choose to write a personal statement or vow to each other)

At this time Donna and Karen will state their vows.

I, Karen, take, you Donna to be my wife, my partner, my love and my best friend. I promise this day to share your life with you, to respect you, honor you, support you and love you, through life’s challenges and celebrations, I will stand by your side from this day and for all the days of your life.

I, Donna, take, you Karen to be my wife, my partner, my love and my best friend. I promise this day to share your life with you, to respect you, honor you, support you and love you, through life’s challenges and celebrations, I will stand by your side from this day and for all the days of your life.

Rings:

“The Circle is a perfect figure, without beginning, without end, with no area of weakness. It is a symbol of the Cycle of Life, of birth, death, and rebirth. These rings that you now exchange serve as a physical reminder of your commitment to each other, and that all things begin and end and begin again, as is the nature of life itself. These rings will remind you that life goes on, that moments pass, yet your love is constant. When you are engulfed in anger or in sadness, look to your hand, and remember that the Wheel turns forever onward, and that it is love that turns the Wheel.”

Here couples can choose from many ceremony options; such as Wine ceremony, Wine box and love letter ceremony, Hand ceremony or Handfasting, etc.)

Wine box ceremony: Optional

Donna and Karen have chosen to perform a Love Letter & Wine Box ceremony.

This beautiful box contains the couples favorite bottle of wine, two glasses, and a love letter to each other. The letters describe the good qualities they find in one another, the reasons they fell in love, and their reasons for choosing to marry. The letters are sealed in individual envelopes and they have not seen what the other has written. They have created your very own “romantic” time capsule to be opened on their 5th wedding anniversary.

I recommend that you keep the box in a place of honor prominently displayed in your home as a constant reminder of your commitment to each other.

Donna and Karen should you ever find your marriage enduring insurmountable challenges, you are to as a couple, open this box, sit and drink the wine together, then separate and read the letters you wrote to one another when you were united as a couple in marriage. By reading these love letters you will reflect upon the reasons you fell in love and chose to marry each other here today.

Our hope is, however, that you will never have a reason to open this box until your 5th wedding anniversary to share, enjoy and relive the most important day of your lives.Donna and Karen, you may now seal the box.

Wedding Blessing

Join me now in a final blessing for Donna and Karen as they walk hand and hand into the expandable horizon!
I ask you both to remember to:

Be together in harmony and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Empower each other and allow your relationship to evolve to its highest purpose. Nourish each others possibilities and lift up each others spirits. Care for one another, share your love openly and let it be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Sing and dance together and be joyful. Share your love with each other and unite your love with our Creator. May your union last through all of your moments together, so that in the triumphs and the trials that lie ahead, you will feel just as you do now – happy to be in love and married to one another. Go then, in peace, and live more and more in the present, which is beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and towards the horizons of the future.

Pronouncement:

Because, Karen and Donna, you have showered our 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 unity in love and legally married to one another!

The Kiss:

As the kiss is the messenger of the heart and soul, allow your souls to meet on your lips with this kiss.

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