Sarah and David have invited us here today to share in the celebration of their love and their marriage. We gather here today to celebrate their union, and to honor their commitment to not just looking at one another, but to looking outward together in the same direction. Today, Sarah and David proclaim their love to the world, and we rejoice with and for them.

The word “romance,” according to the dictionary, is described as something heroic, exciting or mysterious. An adventure. For most of your lives thus far, you each have been on your own separate adventures, living your own experiences. But the individual paths that you were following have led you to each other, to a shared adventure.

The poet Nikki Giovanni wrote that “we love because it is the only true adventure.” When your two lives connected, you set out on the greatest adventure of your life. Falling in love isn’t always easy. It is a roller coaster ride. It’s when you want to be together despite it all. That’s when you truly love another. When you want to take that ride together, up the hills, racing down the steep drops, around the sharp curves. Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

And I can’t think of a better way to take that ride than with your best friend. Sometimes the best friendships turn into something more… an everlasting love. Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It is anger. Tears. Joy. Laughter. That’s the best – to laugh with someone because you think the same things are funny. The man and woman who can laugh at their love, who can kiss with smiles and embrace with chuckles, will long outlast the sentimental, mushy, dewy-eyed couples. Nothing lives on so fresh and evergreen as the love with a funny bone. We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.

A love that does not have friendship as its base is like a mansion built upon the sand. In each other, you have found true friendship. And where you find true friendship, you find true love. Two souls joined for life. Two lives, two hearts: joined together in friendship, united forever in love.

Sarah and David, this is our wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your hearts, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourselves, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your lives.

JUDGE: David, will you take Sarah for your wife? Will you love and respect her? Will you be honest with her always? Will you stand by her through whatever may come? Will you genuinely and sincerely share your life with her?

DAVID: I will.

JUDGE: Sarah, will you take David for your husband? Will you love and respect him? Will you be honest with him always? Will you stand by him through whatever may come? Will you genuinely and sincerely share your life with him?

SARAH: I will.

(RINGS)

JUDGE: Your rings are an unbroken and never-ending circle that symbolize a commitment of love that is also never ending. As often as either of you looks at this symbol, I hope that you will be reminded of the commitment to love each other that you have made today.

JUDGE: David, please repeat after me:

JUDGE/DAVID: This day I marry my friend,
The one I laugh with, Live for,
Dream with, Love.

(David puts ring on Sarah’s finger)

JUDGE: Sarah, please repeat after me:

JUDGE/SARAH:This day I marry my friend,
The one I laugh with, Live for,
Dream with, Love.

(Sarah puts ring on David’s finger)

JUDGE: By virtue of the giving and receiving of the marriage vows and covenants of giving and receiving of the marriage rings, and by virtue of the power vested in me as a judge, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

(CANDLE LIGHTING)

(Sarah and David step forward and each take an individual candle)

JUDGE: This candle you are about to light symbolizes your coming together in marriage. From every human being there rises a light, and when two souls are destined for each other and find each other, their streams of light flow together and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being.

As you light this candle today, may the brightness of the flame shine throughout your lives. May it give you courage and reassurance in darkness. Warmth and safety in the cold. And strength and joy in your bodies, minds, and spirits.

May your union be forever blessed.

(GLASS BREAKING)

And finally, in the tradition of Jewish weddings, we ask David to break a glass as a reminder that everyone should consider the vows between Sarah and David as permanent and as final as the breaking of this glass is unchangeable. Also, the breaking of the glass is a warning of the fragility of a marriage. It must be handled with tender loving care, with trust and with honesty.

(David breaks the glass)

You may now kiss the bride!