Ceremony Details/Music

Processional Music: Somewhere Over the Rainbow-Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAIKznMPXUk

Walk down the aisle: Instrumental of “Coming Back to Life”-Pink Floyd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPvtUjTbV_A

1-The Greeting-Dear friends and loved ones of Lisa and Mike, throughout history, people have found ways to commemorate and celebrate the most important moments of life. In these times they call upon their friends and family to share their joy, for to celebrate alone would only diminish the joy of the day.  And at the same time, people turn to God, seeking His approval and blessing - in this case, upon the happy couple and the new family they create today. Thus, for these reasons, Lisa and Mike come before you now, and in the presence of Almighty God, to be joined as husband and wife.
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2. Giving Away of the Bride Minister:  "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"  Answer:   “I do." 

3. Words of Remembrance  Before we go on with our happy business, the couple would like me to mention that Anthony Dimino and Henry Kaiser, Genevieve Romero, Francis Zamminer,  and Anntoinette Zamminer are fondly remembered and very much missed today.  And a special mention of  Lisa’s mother Madelaine, who has not been present in body for a while, but has always been present in spirit.
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4. Words of Appreciation-Lisa and Mike want you to know how thankful they are today that you, their family members and so many special friends, are able to be here today to celebrate with them and share their joy.

5. WISHES FOR BRIDE AND GROOM- Lisa and Mike, in this place and in these moments, our wish is for your happiness, not just for this day but on the path of life set before you.  We wish for you strength to seek your goals, wisdom to discern the right roads; joy in living each day; and meaning and purpose.  May you have beloved friends who support you, and family who love you. 

                We wish for you a marriage in which you are a blessing and a comfort to each other, sharing each other’s joys, consoling each other in sorrow, helping each other through the difficult times of life.  And may you always  keep your promises and vows given this day; and may love abide always in you and between you, now and evermore.

 6. Reading #1 Jackie (sister of the groom)True Love by Helen Steiner Rice    

True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.

 7. Reading #2 Ralph (brother of the bride)Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea

 When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility.

The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now.

Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.

  8. Vows

Now, just as your hearts are joined together in love, please also join your hands."
The Groom repeats after me (phrase by phrase as marked)
I Michael, take you Lisa, to be my wife,/ my partner in life and my one true love./ I will cherish our friendship/ and love you today, tomorrow, and forever./ I will trust you and honor you./ I will laugh with you and cry with you./ I will love you faithfully/ through the best and the worst,/ and through the difficult and the easy./ Come what may, I will always be there./ As I have given you my hand to hold/ So I give you my life to keep/ So help me God.

The Bride Repeats

I, Lisa, take you Mike, to be my husband,/ my partner in life and my one true love./ I will cherish our friendship/ and love you today, tomorrow, and forever./ I will trust you and honor you./ I will laugh with you and cry with you./ I will love you faithfully/ through the best and the worst,/ and through the difficult and the easy./ Come what may, I will always be there./ As I have given you my hand to hold/ So I give you my life to keep/ So help me God.
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9. Exchange of Rings

Michael, this precious ring is an abiding symbol of the love that you promise to Lisa today. As she wears it, may it constantly remind you of the kind of love that she will always deserve and need, and a love which cherishes her and protects her as one who is precious to you, and a love which never ends. 
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The man places the ring on the bride's left hand, and repeats after me:
With this ring, I marry you/ and I gladly share my life with you.  

Lisa this precious ring is an abiding symbol of the love that you promise to Michael today. As he wears it, may it constantly remind you of the kind of love that he will always deserve and need, and a love which cherishes him and protects him as one who is precious to you, and a love which never ends. 
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The woman places the ring on the groom's left hand, and repeats after me:
With this ring, I marry you/ and I gladly share my life with you.  

10. Unity Ceremony-Sand Ceremony -given by Robbin

Lisa and Mike, before you met, your lives were on different paths with different destinations. Love has brought you together and joined these separate paths into one.  The sand in these jars symbolize your separate lives, separate families, separate sets of friends, and the different life journeys you once traveled. I ask that each of you take one of the jars and that you fill the center jar together.

~The couple steps forward and takes their individual jars and fills the center jar.~

With the mixing of these grains of sand you have now symbolically joined your once separate lives. As your two lives have been inseparably combined, so now are your friends and family joined, through you into one. And your once solitary life’s paths are also now one. All that was once separate is now shared and in this sharing you both will find great comfort.

 11. The "Blessing of the Hands" (bride and groom join both hands)-These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.  These are the hands that will give you support as you chase down your dreams. These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future. These are the hands that will  love you and cherish you through the years. These are the hands that will comfort you when you are sick or console you when you are grieving. These are the hands that will  hold your children and hold your family as one. These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it. And lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.  These four hands now enter the Sacrament of Marriage.

 12. WEDDING PRAYER- Gracious God, our heavenly Father, the Giver of every good and perfect gift, we thank You for the supreme gift of Your love, whereby you have set the solitary in families, and placed us in human relationships, as fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and as husbands and wives. 

                We ask Your divine favor upon Lisa and Michael whom we bless in Your name.  Grant that they may surely keep and perform the vows which they have made.  May Your blessing rest upon them as they go through life, hand in hand together.  May they live each for the other, and both for You.

       Graciously keep them in all their ways; and may their ways be Your ways, full of peace and joy.  And so loving and being loved, may they find their lives ever filled with a deeper harmony, as they learn to share life together through the years.

13. Declaration of Union-For as much as Lisa and Michael have made solemn promises of love to each other, and have witnessed the same before God and this company declaring the same by giving and receiving these rings, by the authority vested in me as a minister of the gospel, and by the State of New York, ...  I pronounce that they are husband and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Whom God has joined together, let no one separate.

14. "You may Kiss the Bride!"

15.  Pronouncement -It's my pleasure to introduce to you for the very first time... Lisa and Michael Kaiser! 
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Recessional Music: More Than a Feeling-Boston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm_-sW4Vktw