Wedding Ceremony

While I should really post something more along the lines of my previous wedding posts, I don't really feel like it at the moment. I have a lot on my plate right now, though I'm sure some of you with jobs think I have loads of free time sitting on my hands, I don't, in fact. And no, I'm not spending all my time reading--believe it or not, about 95% of my reading is done in the hour or so before I go to sleep. I just read THAT fast.

But I digress. Though I do still need to post about the wedding itself and our honeymoon, today I include the text of our wedding ceremony. I heard the poem on Brothers & Sisters, which I don't normally watch, and I owe MASSIVE thanks to Andy, who gave me the complete works of e.e. cummings for my birthday a few years ago, so I had a copy of the poem. For the sake of our awesome judge, Charles M. Zennaché, I did reformat the poem into something easier to read aloud.

Welcome.

We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Adam and Katie and to share in their hopes and dreams for the future.  They would like to thank you for witnessing this special event in their lives.

At this point Adam and Katie would like me to share a poem by e. e. cummings.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                                     i fear
no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


****

And now for the vows.

Do you, Adam, take Katie to be your lawfully wedded wife, and do you promise to love, honor, and cherish her in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, and forsaking all others for as long as you both shall live? ( I do)

Do you Katie, take Adam to be your lawfully wedded husband, and do you promise to love, honor, and cherish him in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, and forsaking all others for as long as you both shall live? ( I do)

Adam and Katie will now exchange rings as a symbol of the commitments they have made to each other.

Adam, please repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed ( With this ring, I thee wed) (places ring on Katie’s finger)

Katie, please repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed ( With this ring, I thee wed) (places ring on Adam’s finger)

By the power vested in me by the State of Oregon, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

You may kiss the bride.