Complete Book of Wedding Vows (85 page)

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Authors: Diane Warner

Tags: #Family & Relationships, #Marriage, #test

BOOK: Complete Book of Wedding Vows
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Page 161
Reaffirmation Service
"We have lived and loved as we promised long ago in the presence of God, and our past and our future are a circle unbroken. . . like this ring, with which I renew my pledge to you of never ending devotion."
"With this ring I reaffirm my love for you, a love refined in the crucible of our togetherness. Wear it as my prayer of thanksgiving and of my hopes for all our tomorrows."
"First came the engagement ring, a promise of our wedding yet to come. Then came the gold band I placed on your finger on our wedding day when I promised to love you and cherish you until the end of my days. Now comes this ring of renewal, celebrating our _____precious years of married life together and the joyous years yet to come. With this ring I reaffirm my love for you."
 
Page 163
Chapter 9
Vows Inspired by the Classics
Many couples take phrasings from classical writings and incorporate them into their wedding vows. This works especially well for a formal or period costume wedding. In this chapter I have gathered a sampling of some of the more popular selections. As you read through these selections, keep in mind that you may use one in its entirety, combine it with other writings or ferret out specific phrases that can be incorporated into your own vows.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
 
Page 164
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! It is an ever-fix'd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Shakespearean sonnet 116
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. . .
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shakespearean sonnet 18
"Then happy I that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove nor be removed."
Shakespearean sonnet 25

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