Mellissa and Daniel,
Litchfield, NH July 26th 2008

I would like to welcome everyone here today to celebrate the joining in marriage of Mellissa and Daniel.
Marriage is a promise, made in the hearts of two people who love each other, which takes a lifetime to fulfill. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life's most important relationships. A wife and a husband are each other's lover, teacher, listener, critic, and best friend.
It is into this state that Mellissa and Daniel wish to enter, and create together a new family that includes their love of their children.
To celebrate this special bond I would like to invite the new family to perform a Sand Ceremony to signify that once joined, each of them remains as individual as a grain of sand, and yet once blended are inseparable for all time.
I place a layer of white sand to signify that Love has blessed this union and that Love is a basis upon which we build. Mellissa and Daniel, I ask you to add sand to signify yourselves and the bond of love that shall not be undone and which is the strength and foundation of this new family,
Children, I ask you to add your sand to complete the family that once joined shall never be separated. I add the final layer to seal the bond that this new family has created. With love this bond is made.
From this day forward they shall be a family whose strength is founded upon love, friendship, honor and trust.
Do we have the rings?
Rings are a symbol of eternal love, they have no beginning and no end, and so with the exchange of rings Mellissa and Daniel symbolize their eternal love. [ring is placed on finger]
Daniel, repeat after me…..
with this ring and before the gaze of our children...
I Daniel, take you Mellissa to be my lawfully wedded Wife
I vow to love you and care for
You, as long as we both shall live.
I take you, with all your faults and your strengths, as I offer myself to you with my faults and my strengths.
I will help you when you need help,
and I will turn to you when I need help.
I choose you as the person with whom I will spend my life, completing our family with love and honour.
[ring is placed on finger]
Mellissa, repeat after me…..
with this ring and before the gaze of our children...
I Mellissa, take you Daniel to be my lawfully wedded Husband
I vow to love you and care for
You, as long as we both shall live.
I take you, with all your faults and your strengths, as I offer myself to you with my faults and my strengths.
I will help you when you need help,
and I will turn to you when I need help.
I choose you as the person with whom I will spend my life, completing our family with love and honour.
By the power vested in me by the state of NH, I now declare you husband, wife and family, you may kiss each other.
Present family. !