Thanks for visiting our site! Each wedding minister has a selection of wedding ceremonies that you can choose from. Below are some ideas for your wedding ceremony. Our Ministers can adapt or modify any part of your ceremony to fit your unique wedding. We can provide a variety of wedding ceremonies for all types of couples.

Services Included With Each Ceremony:

1. Optional Personal visit with bride and groom, 
   (to get acquainted and answer your questions.) 
2. Unlimited email & telephone support.
3. Provide you with many ceremony options so that you can personalize 
   your wedding ceremony.
4. Your wedding license officiated and registered.
5. Free Wedding planner "Weddings 101" 
   (lots of great ideas for your wedding)
6. Travel to your wedding location.

Sample Ceremony Outline:

Processional:
(Optional) Who gives this bride to be married:
(Optional) Opening prayer, blessing, poem or reading:
Introduction:
Vow exchange (You can say your own vows):
The promises (The I do's & pledges):
Ring Exchange:
(Optional) Poem, reading, special requests, unity candle etc:
Closing words:
Optional) Closing prayer, blessing, poem or reading:
Pronouncement:
Big big kiss:
Presentation of husband and wife:
Recessional:

Examples Of Special Requests & Inserts:

Unity candle or mixing sand symbolizing unity, blending of families:
Breaking of the glass: (Symbolizes the fragility of life)
Rose presentation to parents/children or family: (A single red rose means I love you)
Mention of children or family in Ceremony Parental honoring: (Some couples will give their children a ring, medallion, bracelet, or say some special words to them or to family members in the ceremony)
Love poetry, blessings & readings:
Nature weddings & indian poems:

Ceremony Examples:

(You may say your own vows with any ceremony) The ceremonies listed below are approx. 20-30 minutes in length. Special readings, songs, poems, unity candle, etc. will extend the ceremony, usually 5-10 minutes more, depending on how many inserts are added to the ceremony. 

1. Contemporary ceremony:
2. Civil non-religious ceremony:
3. Christian non-denominational ceremony:
4. Short simple ceremony: Approx. 15-20 minutes
5. Marriage vow renewal ceremony:

PROCESSIONAL:

Introduction:

Who gives this woman to be married to this man? (Optional)

Family & Friends, we have gathered here today with ______ and ______ to give thanks for the gift of marriage and to share in the joy of their wedding. We are gathered here today to celebrate one of life's greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of love, and to add our best wishes to the words which shall unite ______ and ______ in marriage.

To love is to enter a whole New World, a world of togetherness, a world of sharing.... All that is dearest and deepest within your hearts.
To love is to remember and keep alive forever all those unique qualities that drew you to one another in the beginning.... the thrill of discovery.... That wonderful feeling of oneness when your eyes met.
To love is to constantly search for new ways to bring each other to happiness, to make the most of every moment you share together, and marvel at how your feelings for one another keep rising to new dimensions.
To love is to create an oasis of tranquility for one another and a quiet place, apart from others, where you need not pretend...where you can be yourselves.... And know within your hearts, you will be accepted by one another.
To love is to greet each day with anticipation...Always eager for another opportunity to share new adventures...And gather up new memories together.
To love is to follow the rainbow through the rain, to be able to laugh at yourselves and be willing to say...."I was wrong, I'm sorry"...To forgive, and more importantly, to FORGET, and to always believe and trust in one another.
To love is to watch with wonder all the miracles of creation, to find beauty in all the simple things of life, and to find, within ourselves, a deeper appreciation and a new awareness of how wonderful it is to be alive, To be happy, To be together.
To love is to come together from the pathways of our past and then move forward... Hand in hand, along the uncharted roads of our future, ready to risk, to dream, and to dare....
And always believe that all things are possible with faith and love.

Exchange of vows: (Or you can say your own vows.)

__________ and _________ will now exchange their vows:
Bride/Groom Repeat:

I promise to always stand by your side as your partner, your love and your best friend. I give you all my trust and all my tomorrows. Its my desire to grow old with you. My love for you will never fade.

Do you ________; take this woman, to live together in marriage; will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in health and in sickness, in prosperity and in adversity; and forsaking all others, to be faithful to her, so long as you shall live?? I DO

Do you ________; take this man, to live together in marriage; will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in health and in sickness, in prosperity and in adversity; and forsaking all others, to be faithful to him, so long as you shall live?? I DO

The Wedding Ring Exchange:

The wedding rings (the unbroken circle) are symbols of eternity. The gold is symbolic of that which is pure and the diamonds are symbolic of what is permanent and incorruptible. Today you have chosen to exchange rings, as a sign of the love you have for each other and a seal of the promises you are making this day.

May we please have the rings?

___________ as you place this ring on her finger repeat after me. Groom recites: May this ring forever be a symbol of my growing love for you. Please wear it as a sign to the world that you are my wife. With this ring I thee wed.

___________ As you place this ring on his finger repeat after me. Bride recites: May this ring forever be a symbol of my growing love for you. Please wear it as a sign to the world that you are my husband. With this ring I thee wed.

Optional: Unity Candle or Sand Pouring, Readings, Special Music, etc.

In Closing:

As you begin in your marriage, here are a few words you can take with you on your journey together:

Let your love be stronger than your anger.
Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend than to break.
Believe the best of your beloved rather than the worst.
Confide in your partner and ask for help when you need it.
Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting Relationship.
Give your spouse the same courtesies and kindness you bestow On your friends. 
Don't forget to say "I love you" every day.
May life grant you patience, tolerance and understanding.  

Pronouncement:

And now as you enter the greatest journey of your life: In as much as you all have agreed to enter the marriage relationship, having exchanged vows, and have given and received rings as tokens of your love. I, now by the authority committed unto me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

YOU MAY NOW KISS YOUR BRIDE:

Presentation of Couple:

Ladies and gentleman, I now present to you___________________________________

RECESSIONAL:

PROCESSIONAL:

Who gives this bride to be married? (Optional)

Opening Prayer:

Introduction:

Dearly Beloved, we are assembled here in the presence of God and this company of loved ones and friends, to join ___________________________________ in the bonds of holy matrimony. The Scriptures clearly challenges us with the sacredness of the marriage relationship. This is set forth with the example of deepest devotion, Christ's love for His Church. The Master himself shared the joys of the marriage feast in Galilee, where he also performed his first miracle, changing water into wine. Marriage is a way of life, given by God, so that the husband and wife may provide each other companionship, help, comfort, joy and most of all love. The great Apostle Paul very beautifully guides us in the underlying meaning of love in 1 Cor 13:4-8.

Love is patient and kind;
Love is not jealous or boastful;
Love is not arrogant or rude;
Love does not insist on its own way;
Love does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices with the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, Endures all things.
Love never fails.

Learning to love each other and living together will be one of your greatest challenges of marriage. Marriage, therefore, is not to be entered into lightly, and the Lord said we are to hold it in high honor at all times.

Exchange of vows: (Or you can say your own vows.)

__________ and _________ will now exchange their vows:
Bride/Groom Repeat:

I promise to always stand by your side as your partner, your love and your best friend. I give you all my trust and all my tomorrows. Its my desire to grow old with you. My love for you will never fade.

Do you ________; take this woman, to live together in marriage; will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in health and in sickness, in prosperity and in adversity; and forsaking all others, to be faithful to her, so long as you shall live?? I DO

Do you ________; take this man, to live together in marriage; will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in health and in sickness, in prosperity and in adversity; and forsaking all others, to be faithful to him, so long as you shall live?? I DO

The Wedding Ring Exchange:

The wedding rings (the unbroken circle) are symbols of eternity. The gold is symbolic of that which is pure and the diamonds are symbolic of what is permanent and incorruptible.

These rings are a tokens of your commitment to love each other, continually. Marriage is the greatest covenant relationship we can have besides our relationship to the Lord. "I exhort you today" before God, your family, and friends. Let your home be one of the greatest places on earth for your love, joy, and peace to be revealed.

Today you have chosen to exchange rings, as a sign of the love you have for each other and a seal of the promises you are making this day.

May we please have the rings?

___________ as you place this ring on her finger repeat after me. Groom recites: May this ring forever be a symbol of my growing love for you. Please wear it as a sign to the world that you are my wife. With this ring I thee wed.

___________ As you place this ring on his finger repeat after me. Bride recites: May this ring forever be a symbol of my growing love for you. Please wear it as a sign to the world that you are my husband. With this ring I thee wed. 

Optional: Unity Candle or Sand Pouring, Communion, Readings, Special Music, etc.

Closing Remarks:

As you begin in your marriage, here are a few words you can take with you on your journey together:

Let your love be stronger than your anger.
Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend than to break.
Believe the best of your beloved rather than the worst.
Confide in your partner and ask for help when you need it.
Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting Relationship.
Give your spouse the same courtesies and kindness you bestow On your friends. 
Don't forget to say "I love you" every day.
May life grant you patience, tolerance and understanding.  

Pronouncement:

And now as you enter the greatest journey of your life: In as much as you all have agreed to enter the marriage relationship, having exchanged vows, and have given and received rings as tokens of your love. I, now by the authority committed unto me, I now pronounce you one husband and wife.

YOU MAY NOW KISS YOUR BRIDE

Wedding Prayer:

Presentationof Couple:

Ladies and gentleman, I now present to you _____________________________________

RECESSIONAL:

Unity Candle Insert:

_________________________and_________________________
the two separate candles in front of you, symbolizes your separate lives, separate families and friends. The individual candle represents your lives before today. Lighting the center candle represents that your lives are now joined together as one and represents also the joining together of your two families and friends.

Unity Sand Pouring Insert:

_________________________and_________________________
the two separate containers of sand, symbolizes your separate lives, separate families and friends. The individual container represents your lives before today. Pouring the sand into the separate container symbolizes that your lives are now joined together as one and represents also the joining together of your two families and friends.

Denise Braxton Brown and Peggy Wrightsman:

Let's grow old together, beginning with today. Let's work slowly with each other and build a relationship that we can both enjoy being a part of. Let's share love and understanding that neither of us is perfect; we are both subject to human frailties. Let's hold each other close and whisper through the night, pledging our love, honoring our commitment. Let's encourage each other to pursue our dreams, even when we're weary from trying. Let's expect the best that we both have to give and still love when we fall short of our expectations. Let's be friends and respect each other's individual personality. Let's be candid with each other and point out strengths and weaknesses. Let's be friends as well as lovers. Let's never take for granted these moments that we've shared, but always be reminded of how intensely we have learned to live, and how we have learned to love each other. Let your journey together grow sweeter by the day. Let's grow old together and look back on life and smile.

Happiness In Marriage:

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the art of marriage. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship shouldn't end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives; It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is being friends and respecting each other's individual personality. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a big sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is finding room for things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is in being the right partner.

Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is desire, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy' O Divine Master, Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Blessing For A Marriage: James Dillet Freeman

May your marriage bring you all the wonder excitements a marriage should bring. And may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another - meeting each others needs. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. My you embrace one another, but not encircle one another. May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you,: and take not notice to small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have the good sense to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence - no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even in distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it in loving one another.

New Testament I Corinthians 13:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and I have not love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in differences, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Old Testament Song of Solomon 2:10, 13,16:

My Beloved spake, and said to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For low, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; Flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Arise my love, my fair one, come away. My beloved is mine and I am his.

How Do I Love Thee: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by the sun and candle light, I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old grief's, and with my childhood's faith, I love thee with a love I seem to lose With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life - and, if God choose, I shall but love them better after death.

Let us not ask too much, Clifford Gessler:

Let us know how not to ask too much of each other, Share body and mind and spirit without giving up freedom, Love without trying to absorb, be kind yet not smother with kindness, Walk together, but neither retard the other's pace. I would not lead one who did not choose to follow Or follow one who demanded that I be led. The spark of selfhood, that high and precious thing, Let us not dampen it with scorn or blame: Each his own master and the two of us richer, dearer because of it But neither sunk passively in the other, That alone is true mating.



Can-A-Lope Wedding Ministers Service:

Can-a-lope Wedding Ministers will travel to the location of your choice. The options for your wedding ceremony are endless-and recent trends show that a church wedding ceremony is not, the sole prerequisite for having a beautiful wedding ceremony and a blessed union. Deciding to marry is an important decision, and just as important is where a couple marries. The size of the wedding ceremony, the type of ceremony desired formal, casual, one-of-a-kind or religions should reflect the personality of the couple and most importantly finances have to be taken into account. While many a wedding ceremony invitation will boast a church address as the setting, couples are increasingly looking to alternative locales to start their lives together. They are performing their wedding Ceremonies at oceanfront's, in historic mansions, racetracks, backyards, parks, and neighborhood-catering halls decorated just for them. Couples who decide to have their wedding ceremony in places other than the church haven't abandoned the spiritual aspect of marriage, many have just decided to think outside of the box when it comes to their nuptia1s. There are numerous locations to consider for a wedding ceremony, natural outdoors settings, gardens beaches, mountaintops, resorts, lofts, country clubs, and landmarks. The key when choosing an outdoor location is to consider Mother Nature; have a back-up plan, consider renting a tent or using an indoor location. The trends are leaning towards non-church wedding ceremonies. Inside the church or out, couples can still create a sacred wedding ceremony. At Can-A-Lope Weddings we believe God gave marriage to a1l men and women. Can-A-Lope Weddings is not affiliated with any religious or denominational organization. Can-A-Lope Wedding Ministers requires only, that you love each other and that you have a sincere desire to be married. We provide a wide range of wedding ceremonies, traditional vows, religious Christian type vows, nonreligious, contemporary and sometimes a short simple sweet ceremony.