Wedding Ceremony
Good evening and welcome! Before we begin, I would like to kindly ask that you stow and silence your cell phones and cameras during the ceremony. While Lauren and Mike want you to completely enjoy and remember your time tonight, they also wish for there to be no visible cell phones out in their wedding portraits that their photographer will take.
OPENING AND WELCOME
Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, it's here. Today, March 16th, 2019, marks the day that Michael and Lauren finally make it official, before the most important people in their lives, proclaiming their love and commitment to each other. And at their request, we are gathered to bear witness, and to celebrate with them as they set forth on their journey into this defining new chapter.
Though Lauren and Mike have been together for eight years, today’s event is no small occasion. They have spent a great deal of time and effort developing their relationship, leaning on shared affinities while diligently molding their differences into a complementary union. In her focus and his humor, in her cooking and his cleaning, in her ability to win arguments and his tendency to lose them, they have discovered in each other the matching pieces for building a lifelong foundation of love and support. Which brings us to today's celebration.
Throughout human history, weddings have been perhaps the most recognizable of ceremonies, a unique reminder of what we share in common with the rest of humanity – this singular celebration of love. And though each culture has its own symbols, rituals, and traditions for celebrating marriage, today we should try to remember that a wedding itself is a symbol -- a symbol of love and commitment between two people who have decided to share with each other all that they will experience for the rest of their days.
Most of us here have been to weddings before – many of us have celebrated our own. As such, we are no strangers to the myriad definitions and proclamations of love, nor to the various commitments made on such occasions. And we almost certainly know, through our own experiences, what love is, and what love is not. So while there is no wheel for us to reinvent today, with regards to the specific application of marriage-defining romantic love, we do have the opportunity to take a step back and meditate on love more broadly.
Rather than simply identifying what love is, we can examine what love allows us to do in the power that it bestows upon us. By love alone we are granted the power to do that which in our instinct should be impossible -- to set aside ourselves for the benefit of another. Love’s power guides us to silence judgment, to relieve the ego of duty, and to nurture the dreams of another. We are empowered by love to stretch our own capabilities and to surprise even ourselves with acts of affection and meaning. And it is love which specifically elevates this power to the level of superhuman, in that it allows us to do all of these things without hesitation, but rather with unabashed joy in the giving of ourselves so completely to another.
On broadening our application of love, be it romantic, platonic, or simply compassionate, scholar Chris Hedges writes:
“To survive as a human being is possible only through love. And when conflict is ascendant, the instinct must be to reach out to those we love, to see in them all of the divinity, pity, and pathos of the human. And to recognize love in the lives of others – even those with whom we are in conflict – love that is like our own. It does not mean we will avoid conflict. It does not mean that we as distinct individuals will survive. But love, in its mystery, has its own power. It, alone, gives meaning that endures. It alone allows us to embrace and cherish life. Love has power both to resist in our nature what we know we must resist, and to affirm what we know we must affirm. And love, as the poets remind us, is eternal.”
Together, in our collective familiarity with love's definition and power, as well as with the symbolism that a wedding represents, we can appreciate the celebration of love's eternal victory that Lauren and Mike share not only with each other today, but also with us.
That being said, we also acknowledge that this ceremony is certainly not magic. It will not bring to life that which does not already exist, or that which has not already been celebrated in all of the commitments Lauren and Michael have made to each other, both large and small, in the days since they first met. What we are celebrating today is not the beginning of a marriage, but rather a marriage-already-in-progress. This ceremony is a symbol of how far their relationship has come, as well as the promises that they will continue to make to each other throughout their lives together.
Each of us in this room have our own relationships with Mike and Lauren, whether as individuals, as a couple, or both.
But to Lauren and Michael’s parents, each of you have watched your baby who is standing here today toddle through your homes, enter kindergarten, give you toothless smiles, morph into teenagers, drive their first cars, move away from home, chomp their way through college, and become thriving adults who have now, somehow, found happiness and their counterpart in each other. Others of you in this room are relatives or friends who have met them along that journey. But parents, you’ve been there for the whole entire ride.
And everyone in this room has surely noticed what my husband and I have noticed about Lauren and Michael as a unit.
My husband and I first met Lauren and Mike five years ago on the tail end of one of their SEC get-togethers. They had met another SEC couple who were friends and coworkers with our next door neighbor, and had decided to attend a cookout the following day where we were in attendance. We had no idea who they were--a newly introduced friend of a friend who was a coworker of my next door neighbor. It’s just safe to say that it was happenstance and good fortune that brought them to us, as we were 4 degrees of Kevin Bacon apart upon our first introductions.
But what we recognized immediately in Mike and Lauren, and the reasons we call them very close and lifelong friends today, was that they have a mutual respect for each other and all humans, a shared sense of humor, shared values, and a selflessness for each other that made it extremely evident that they have the kind of relationship that turns turmoil into a shared problem to conquer together--without question. And that is one of the cornerstones of a truly loving relationship--it’s not as much about a couple’s actions around each other, but more importantly how they choose to react to situations together.
Over the past years, I have also watched them embrace one another’s individual life traditions while creating new traditions of their own together.
Lauren and Mike, I imagine your future will look a little like this:
I envision you in your home’s kitchen: kneading dough for your homemade, heart-shaped, Valentine’s day pizza each February, and someday, creating those homemade heart-shaped pizzas with your children.
I imagine you watching the Florida Gators play on Saturday afternoons while perfecting the newest appetizers that took 4 grocery stores and a farmer’s market of ingredients to attain.
I picture you cheering each other on with your professional successes and supporting each other through life’s stresses.
I expect Mike will fill your children’s baby books with the most eloquently written and hilarious stories of their adventures. And then I see you all laughing at those writings in 30 years when your children are old enough to laugh with you.
You’ll make a life and a home together--1000 miles away from where you started.
EXPRESSION OF INTENT
Michael, Lauren, please face each other, hold hands, and remember this moment.
Do you, Michael, take Lauren to be your lawfully wedded wife, your chef de cuisine, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, and to be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Do you, Lauren, take Michael to be your lawfully wedded husband, your sous chef and dishwasher, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, and to be faithful to him for as long as you both shall live?
RING CEREMONY
The giving and receiving of rings is the most important part of a marriage ceremony, because the rings are made in the symbol of that which is eternal, a perfect and unbroken circle. There is no beginning and no end, signifying that there will be no end to your marriage, and no end to the happiness that you will share.
These are also the special symbols you will wear before your family, before your friends, before the world, declaring that you belong to someone, and that someone belongs to you. For the rest of your lives, these rings will remind you of the love that you share, and of today – the day in which you donned them forever.
In conjunction with the exchanging of rings, Mike and Lauren have some personal anecdotes for each other.
Lauren reading:
Mike, the day I meet you in the young alumni section of the Dallas Gator bar, I was instantly infatuated with your smile, big shoulders, blue eyes, and warm personality.
I told everyone about you. In my head, I had already decided we were the perfect match before I even went on a date with you. As the prospects of me staying in Dallas were looking grim, I wouldn't admit to myself that I really didn't want to leave this city until I aggressively pursued things with this new guy I just met. I suppose you could call it lust at first sight.
I'll never forget the 1st time you hugged me -- it felt like I had never known what a hug was supposed to be before that moment. How the first night we hung out with a group from the Gator club, you made a point to join me when I was walking by myself. It was the simplest gesture but it confirmed my intuitions about you.
Reality soon set in by date #2 when I realized you didn't like cheese, weren't a foodie, didn't like to fly, and was not quite as infatuated with me as I was with you.
Over the course of different stages in our relationship, we grappled with how serious we somehow became despite our differences. You were a homebody, I couldn't sit still. You have an affinity for road trips, I was a world traveler. I liked to wax philosophical on off-limit topics like politics and religion. You decompress by reading while I watch reality TV. We constantly bickered over who's Florida was better. So, I had to reconcile this magnetic feeling to always be around you with the fact that I'd have to learn to compromise.
Magically we started moving toward total alignment in almost every facet of life, becoming a perfect balance, and it seemed hard to imagine a day without you in it. Now, we make daily sacrifices to make each other happy.
I love you insatiable curiosity to learn and teach me. I never would've seen and told everyone about a World War I documentary before I met you. I would've never held a knife correctly or learned to look both ways in a grocery store aisle before you. I wouldn't have been willing to run around the world chasing soccer stadiums before you.
You prove your love countless little ways, never opting for the grand gesture -- opening car doors, scheduling surprise dinners after a hard week, bringing home small tokens just to see me smile.
I believe you are a remarkable person -- so thoughtful that you struggle to ever put your own interests ahead of even a stranger. You go out of your way to make someone's day "just because."
To paraphrase you, we have had many tests of how we move through life's challenges together -- sickness, grief, unemployment for us both, relationships lost. But, to quote Portia de Rossi on her wedding day to Ellen Degeneeres, "It is good to be loved, it is profound to be understood."
Thank you for accepting me as I am, for knowing what I need whenever I am down. For waiting until my tears run dry and holding my hand until I fall asleep. For endlessly and creatively finding ways to make me laugh. For challenging me intellectually and teaching me there is always more to learn about the world and its people. I couldn't ask for a more patient and loyal partner in life. And, like my mom always said about my dad, you are my one and only. I love you and I promise to care for you, always accept you exactly as you are, be your teammate, your equal, your person.
Mike reading:
I made you cry one time. Well, a number of times, really. I make mistakes or poorly choose my words from time to time, and these blows land heavy on you. You still love me, I think — I mean, you’re here — so you do allow me, albeit often at great length and well into the wee hours of the morning, to monologue my way out of whatever hole I’ve dug, and I’m grateful for that.
But I made you cry one time in particular, and I’ll never forget it. It was early in our relationship, and yet it WAS that part of our relationship, in a nutshell — me struggling to understand you, struggling to understand me. And it is integral to why we’re facing each other right now, in front of everyone who counts, reading aloud these love letters.
“It wasn’t my favorite.” That’s a quote, not a statement. That’s the actual quote. Because in all of the possibilities of our infinite and ever-expanding universe, I had managed to find myself in one where I’m at a table telling Lauren Medoff that this particular meal wasn’t my favorite. (Those collective groans you hear? That’s the sound of everyone else knowing something that I didn’t.)
Now, what the meal was, I couldn’t tell you — though I’ve more than a sneaking suspicion that you could tell me. But I had uttered words that, at their most basic definitions, simply suggested there was at least one other meal I’d liked more, and hey, that’s not bad.
But what you heard was a dismissal of an evening’s efforts — not necessarily those of your hands, but those of your heart. I didn’t get it then, but I get it now. And I’ve been working on getting it for all of the years in between.
This is a microcosm of my favorite thing about you, which dovetails with what I want so badly to become my favorite thing about myself — you care, you care, you care, you care, and you care. Not for vanity, not for points, not for attention. You care from love. You want to give your best to the people that you love, and you care that they know when it’s happening. It sounds simple and universal, but frankly, it’s not. Not on your level. On your level, it’s rare. And it’s challenging. And it’s painful. And you do it with grace. I mean, sometimes with swear words, but generally with grace.
And because care and quality cannot exist and cannot be created without each other, then I recognize with the clearest of vision who and what I am looking at right now — a woman of quality, a woman who cares, the woman I’m marrying.
You had to know that I wouldn’t finish this without quoting some passage from some book, but this is important, my favorite thing I’ve ever read, practically defining life as I know it — and I need you to hear it. The passage, again from Chris Hedges, reads:
“We are tempted to reduce life to a simple search for Happiness. Happiness, however, withers if there is no Meaning. The other temptation is to disavow the search for Happiness in order to be faithful to that which provides Meaning. But to live only for Meaning, indifferent to all Happiness, makes us fanatic, self-righteous, and cold… cut off from our own humanity and the humanity of others.
We must hope for grace, for our lives to be sustained by moments of Meaning and Happiness, both equally worthy of human communion. And it is this grace, this love, which in our darkest moments allows us to endure.”
This. This is everything that I believe in. And if grace is what I must hope for, and if in you I find that grace, then I’m not sure what other explanation I need for standing here now — because here is my Happiness, and here is my Meaning.
Now all I have left is to offer you a promise that I’m not even sure I am qualified to make, but one I’d sure love to try keeping — that being a promise to indulge and support and share in your every pursuit of a life filled with both Happiness and Meaning.
If I can give you that, then you’ll know I’ve cared, and you’ll never, ever, ever have to wonder about love.
Michael, place the ring upon Lauren's finger and repeat after me:
I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a devoted partner to you.
Lauren, place the ring upon Michael's finger and repeat after me:
I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a devoted partner to you.
PRONOUNCEMENT
Michael and Lauren, we have heard your promises to share your lives together, and we recognize and respect the commitment you have made before each one of us as witnesses. Therefore, in the honesty and sincerity of what you have said and done here today, and by the power vested in me by the State of Texas (?), I now pronounce you husband and wife.
Now seal these vows with a kiss!
BREAKING OF THE GLASS
We conclude the ceremony with the tradition of the breaking of the glass. The breaking of the glass, like the commitment made today, is irrevocable and permanent. It is also a reminder of the fragility of marriage, and our duty to nurture it and one another with special care. As the groom breaks the glass, it is tradition that we all shout “Mazel Tov!” which means congratulations, and good luck.
(Mike breaks the glass)
INTRODUCTION
Dear friends and family, it is now my personal privilege and great joy to introduce to you:
Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Lauren Craig!
OPENING AND WELCOME
Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, it's here. Today, March 16th, 2019, marks the day that Michael and Lauren finally make it official, before the most important people in their lives, proclaiming their love and commitment to each other. And at their request, we are gathered to bear witness, and to celebrate with them as they set forth on their journey into this defining new chapter.
Though Lauren and Mike have been together for eight years, today’s event is no small occasion. They have spent a great deal of time and effort developing their relationship, leaning on shared affinities while diligently molding their differences into a complementary union. In her focus and his humor, in her cooking and his cleaning, in her ability to win arguments and his tendency to lose them, they have discovered in each other the matching pieces for building a lifelong foundation of love and support. Which brings us to today's celebration.
Throughout human history, weddings have been perhaps the most recognizable of ceremonies, a unique reminder of what we share in common with the rest of humanity – this singular celebration of love. And though each culture has its own symbols, rituals, and traditions for celebrating marriage, today we should try to remember that a wedding itself is a symbol -- a symbol of love and commitment between two people who have decided to share with each other all that they will experience for the rest of their days.
Most of us here have been to weddings before – many of us have celebrated our own. As such, we are no strangers to the myriad definitions and proclamations of love, nor to the various commitments made on such occasions. And we almost certainly know, through our own experiences, what love is, and what love is not. So while there is no wheel for us to reinvent today, with regards to the specific application of marriage-defining romantic love, we do have the opportunity to take a step back and meditate on love more broadly.
Rather than simply identifying what love is, we can examine what love allows us to do in the power that it bestows upon us. By love alone we are granted the power to do that which in our instinct should be impossible -- to set aside ourselves for the benefit of another. Love’s power guides us to silence judgment, to relieve the ego of duty, and to nurture the dreams of another. We are empowered by love to stretch our own capabilities and to surprise even ourselves with acts of affection and meaning. And it is love which specifically elevates this power to the level of superhuman, in that it allows us to do all of these things without hesitation, but rather with unabashed joy in the giving of ourselves so completely to another.
On broadening our application of love, be it romantic, platonic, or simply compassionate, scholar Chris Hedges writes:
“To survive as a human being is possible only through love. And when conflict is ascendant, the instinct must be to reach out to those we love, to see in them all of the divinity, pity, and pathos of the human. And to recognize love in the lives of others – even those with whom we are in conflict – love that is like our own. It does not mean we will avoid conflict. It does not mean that we as distinct individuals will survive. But love, in its mystery, has its own power. It, alone, gives meaning that endures. It alone allows us to embrace and cherish life. Love has power both to resist in our nature what we know we must resist, and to affirm what we know we must affirm. And love, as the poets remind us, is eternal.”
Together, in our collective familiarity with love's definition and power, as well as with the symbolism that a wedding represents, we can appreciate the celebration of love's eternal victory that Lauren and Mike share not only with each other today, but also with us.
That being said, we also acknowledge that this ceremony is certainly not magic. It will not bring to life that which does not already exist, or that which has not already been celebrated in all of the commitments Lauren and Michael have made to each other, both large and small, in the days since they first met. What we are celebrating today is not the beginning of a marriage, but rather a marriage-already-in-progress. This ceremony is a symbol of how far their relationship has come, as well as the promises that they will continue to make to each other throughout their lives together.
Each of us in this room have our own relationships with Mike and Lauren, whether as individuals, as a couple, or both.
But to Lauren and Michael’s parents, each of you have watched your baby who is standing here today toddle through your homes, enter kindergarten, give you toothless smiles, morph into teenagers, drive their first cars, move away from home, chomp their way through college, and become thriving adults who have now, somehow, found happiness and their counterpart in each other. Others of you in this room are relatives or friends who have met them along that journey. But parents, you’ve been there for the whole entire ride.
And everyone in this room has surely noticed what my husband and I have noticed about Lauren and Michael as a unit.
My husband and I first met Lauren and Mike five years ago on the tail end of one of their SEC get-togethers. They had met another SEC couple who were friends and coworkers with our next door neighbor, and had decided to attend a cookout the following day where we were in attendance. We had no idea who they were--a newly introduced friend of a friend who was a coworker of my next door neighbor. It’s just safe to say that it was happenstance and good fortune that brought them to us, as we were 4 degrees of Kevin Bacon apart upon our first introductions.
But what we recognized immediately in Mike and Lauren, and the reasons we call them very close and lifelong friends today, was that they have a mutual respect for each other and all humans, a shared sense of humor, shared values, and a selflessness for each other that made it extremely evident that they have the kind of relationship that turns turmoil into a shared problem to conquer together--without question. And that is one of the cornerstones of a truly loving relationship--it’s not as much about a couple’s actions around each other, but more importantly how they choose to react to situations together.
Over the past years, I have also watched them embrace one another’s individual life traditions while creating new traditions of their own together.
Lauren and Mike, I imagine your future will look a little like this:
I envision you in your home’s kitchen: kneading dough for your homemade, heart-shaped, Valentine’s day pizza each February, and someday, creating those homemade heart-shaped pizzas with your children.
I imagine you watching the Florida Gators play on Saturday afternoons while perfecting the newest appetizers that took 4 grocery stores and a farmer’s market of ingredients to attain.
I picture you cheering each other on with your professional successes and supporting each other through life’s stresses.
I expect Mike will fill your children’s baby books with the most eloquently written and hilarious stories of their adventures. And then I see you all laughing at those writings in 30 years when your children are old enough to laugh with you.
You’ll make a life and a home together--1000 miles away from where you started.
EXPRESSION OF INTENT
Michael, Lauren, please face each other, hold hands, and remember this moment.
Do you, Michael, take Lauren to be your lawfully wedded wife, your chef de cuisine, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, and to be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Do you, Lauren, take Michael to be your lawfully wedded husband, your sous chef and dishwasher, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, and to be faithful to him for as long as you both shall live?
RING CEREMONY
The giving and receiving of rings is the most important part of a marriage ceremony, because the rings are made in the symbol of that which is eternal, a perfect and unbroken circle. There is no beginning and no end, signifying that there will be no end to your marriage, and no end to the happiness that you will share.
These are also the special symbols you will wear before your family, before your friends, before the world, declaring that you belong to someone, and that someone belongs to you. For the rest of your lives, these rings will remind you of the love that you share, and of today – the day in which you donned them forever.
In conjunction with the exchanging of rings, Mike and Lauren have some personal anecdotes for each other.
Lauren reading:
Mike, the day I meet you in the young alumni section of the Dallas Gator bar, I was instantly infatuated with your smile, big shoulders, blue eyes, and warm personality.
I told everyone about you. In my head, I had already decided we were the perfect match before I even went on a date with you. As the prospects of me staying in Dallas were looking grim, I wouldn't admit to myself that I really didn't want to leave this city until I aggressively pursued things with this new guy I just met. I suppose you could call it lust at first sight.
I'll never forget the 1st time you hugged me -- it felt like I had never known what a hug was supposed to be before that moment. How the first night we hung out with a group from the Gator club, you made a point to join me when I was walking by myself. It was the simplest gesture but it confirmed my intuitions about you.
Reality soon set in by date #2 when I realized you didn't like cheese, weren't a foodie, didn't like to fly, and was not quite as infatuated with me as I was with you.
Over the course of different stages in our relationship, we grappled with how serious we somehow became despite our differences. You were a homebody, I couldn't sit still. You have an affinity for road trips, I was a world traveler. I liked to wax philosophical on off-limit topics like politics and religion. You decompress by reading while I watch reality TV. We constantly bickered over who's Florida was better. So, I had to reconcile this magnetic feeling to always be around you with the fact that I'd have to learn to compromise.
Magically we started moving toward total alignment in almost every facet of life, becoming a perfect balance, and it seemed hard to imagine a day without you in it. Now, we make daily sacrifices to make each other happy.
I love you insatiable curiosity to learn and teach me. I never would've seen and told everyone about a World War I documentary before I met you. I would've never held a knife correctly or learned to look both ways in a grocery store aisle before you. I wouldn't have been willing to run around the world chasing soccer stadiums before you.
You prove your love countless little ways, never opting for the grand gesture -- opening car doors, scheduling surprise dinners after a hard week, bringing home small tokens just to see me smile.
I believe you are a remarkable person -- so thoughtful that you struggle to ever put your own interests ahead of even a stranger. You go out of your way to make someone's day "just because."
To paraphrase you, we have had many tests of how we move through life's challenges together -- sickness, grief, unemployment for us both, relationships lost. But, to quote Portia de Rossi on her wedding day to Ellen Degeneeres, "It is good to be loved, it is profound to be understood."
Thank you for accepting me as I am, for knowing what I need whenever I am down. For waiting until my tears run dry and holding my hand until I fall asleep. For endlessly and creatively finding ways to make me laugh. For challenging me intellectually and teaching me there is always more to learn about the world and its people. I couldn't ask for a more patient and loyal partner in life. And, like my mom always said about my dad, you are my one and only. I love you and I promise to care for you, always accept you exactly as you are, be your teammate, your equal, your person.
Mike reading:
I made you cry one time. Well, a number of times, really. I make mistakes or poorly choose my words from time to time, and these blows land heavy on you. You still love me, I think — I mean, you’re here — so you do allow me, albeit often at great length and well into the wee hours of the morning, to monologue my way out of whatever hole I’ve dug, and I’m grateful for that.
But I made you cry one time in particular, and I’ll never forget it. It was early in our relationship, and yet it WAS that part of our relationship, in a nutshell — me struggling to understand you, struggling to understand me. And it is integral to why we’re facing each other right now, in front of everyone who counts, reading aloud these love letters.
“It wasn’t my favorite.” That’s a quote, not a statement. That’s the actual quote. Because in all of the possibilities of our infinite and ever-expanding universe, I had managed to find myself in one where I’m at a table telling Lauren Medoff that this particular meal wasn’t my favorite. (Those collective groans you hear? That’s the sound of everyone else knowing something that I didn’t.)
Now, what the meal was, I couldn’t tell you — though I’ve more than a sneaking suspicion that you could tell me. But I had uttered words that, at their most basic definitions, simply suggested there was at least one other meal I’d liked more, and hey, that’s not bad.
But what you heard was a dismissal of an evening’s efforts — not necessarily those of your hands, but those of your heart. I didn’t get it then, but I get it now. And I’ve been working on getting it for all of the years in between.
This is a microcosm of my favorite thing about you, which dovetails with what I want so badly to become my favorite thing about myself — you care, you care, you care, you care, and you care. Not for vanity, not for points, not for attention. You care from love. You want to give your best to the people that you love, and you care that they know when it’s happening. It sounds simple and universal, but frankly, it’s not. Not on your level. On your level, it’s rare. And it’s challenging. And it’s painful. And you do it with grace. I mean, sometimes with swear words, but generally with grace.
And because care and quality cannot exist and cannot be created without each other, then I recognize with the clearest of vision who and what I am looking at right now — a woman of quality, a woman who cares, the woman I’m marrying.
You had to know that I wouldn’t finish this without quoting some passage from some book, but this is important, my favorite thing I’ve ever read, practically defining life as I know it — and I need you to hear it. The passage, again from Chris Hedges, reads:
“We are tempted to reduce life to a simple search for Happiness. Happiness, however, withers if there is no Meaning. The other temptation is to disavow the search for Happiness in order to be faithful to that which provides Meaning. But to live only for Meaning, indifferent to all Happiness, makes us fanatic, self-righteous, and cold… cut off from our own humanity and the humanity of others.
We must hope for grace, for our lives to be sustained by moments of Meaning and Happiness, both equally worthy of human communion. And it is this grace, this love, which in our darkest moments allows us to endure.”
This. This is everything that I believe in. And if grace is what I must hope for, and if in you I find that grace, then I’m not sure what other explanation I need for standing here now — because here is my Happiness, and here is my Meaning.
Now all I have left is to offer you a promise that I’m not even sure I am qualified to make, but one I’d sure love to try keeping — that being a promise to indulge and support and share in your every pursuit of a life filled with both Happiness and Meaning.
If I can give you that, then you’ll know I’ve cared, and you’ll never, ever, ever have to wonder about love.
Michael, place the ring upon Lauren's finger and repeat after me:
I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a devoted partner to you.
I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a devoted partner to you.
PRONOUNCEMENT
Michael and Lauren, we have heard your promises to share your lives together, and we recognize and respect the commitment you have made before each one of us as witnesses. Therefore, in the honesty and sincerity of what you have said and done here today, and by the power vested in me by the State of Texas (?), I now pronounce you husband and wife.
Now seal these vows with a kiss!
BREAKING OF THE GLASS
We conclude the ceremony with the tradition of the breaking of the glass. The breaking of the glass, like the commitment made today, is irrevocable and permanent. It is also a reminder of the fragility of marriage, and our duty to nurture it and one another with special care. As the groom breaks the glass, it is tradition that we all shout “Mazel Tov!” which means congratulations, and good luck.
(Mike breaks the glass)
INTRODUCTION
Dear friends and family, it is now my personal privilege and great joy to introduce to you:
Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Lauren Craig!
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