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Prelude:     

Suggested Processional:  

1)  Groom and Minister enter (wait up front).

2) Groomsman and bridesmaids enter

3)  Best Man & Maid of Honor enter next

4)  Flower Girl & Ring Bearer enters next

5)  Bride ushered in by her father or close male relative (everyone stands in honor of the Bride, while wedding march plays)

Call to Worship: 

Honored family and friends, with great affection for Patrick and Erica we have gathered together to witness and bless their union in marriage. To this sacred moment they bring the fullness of their hearts as a treasure and a gift from God to share with one another. They bring the dreams which bind them together in an eternal commitment. They bring their gifts and talents, their unique personalities and spirits, which God will unite together into one being as they build their life together. We rejoice with them in thankfulness to the Lord for creating this union of hearts, built on friendship, respect and love. 

Opening Prayer: 

Our Father, love has been Your richest and greatest gift to the world. Love between a man and woman which matures into marriage is one of Your most beautiful types of love. Today we celebrate that love. May your blessing be on this wedding service. Protect, guide, and bless Patrick and Erica in their marriage. Surround them and us with Your love now and always. Amen.


Address:   Marriage is ordained of God to promote the spiritual, social, and material well-being of the family and the home. Therefore its obligations should be entered into with deep devotion, unselfish love, and upright purpose, its bonds being assumed in the sight of God with reverence and sober consideration. The scriptures give us insight into the origin and nature of the marriage covenant and the quality of love it requires: 

from Genesis 2:24: New King James Version (NKJV) 

²⁴Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  

From Matthew 19:6: New King James Version (NKJV) we read 

⁶So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate."    

Probably the best example of the type of love required in marriage, and in fact, all relationships, is found in 1 Corinthians 13, where we read that: 

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  
⁸Love never fails.

Individual Wedding Vows: 

Patrick do you take Erica, to be your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, for as long as you both shall live? 

Patrick: I Do  

Erica do you take Patrick, to be your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, for as long as you both shall live? 

Erica: I Do 

Joint marriage vows: 

You have pledged your commitment to each other separately, as individuals. Now, you will pledge your commitment to each other as one by answering this question as one: 

Do you both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband and wife, observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keeping yourselves wholly for each other and from all others as long as you both shall live? 

Both answers: We do.

Ring Ceremony:  

May I have the rings?  

Patrick, as a token of the endless and pure love which you have for Erica, you may place this ring on the third finger of her left hand. 

Erica, as a token of the endless and pure love which you have for Patrick, you may place this ring on the third finger of his left hand.

Pronouncement by minister:

Since you have mutually pledged yourselves to each other in the holy bonds of marriage, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the authority vested in me by the State of Florida, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

You may kiss your bride. 

Honored family and friends, may I present to you: 

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick and Erica Smith.