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Gold
Coast, Brisbane
Tweed & Byron Bay
MY
PLEDGE TO YOU
I will meet with you and craft a ceremony with the balance of formality,
romance, even humour or spirituality that you desire. All with your input
and approval. Your wedding is your special day. Together we will make
it all you want it to be.
Your
wedding day is one of the most special days of your life, that moment
when you pledge your lives to each other
for life. Choose a celebrant early so that you are
not left with too few choices.
A decision is made with the brain. A commitment is made with the
heart. Therefore, a commitment is much deeper and more binding
than a decision
Anon
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ALLOW
THE ROMANTIC IN YOU TO SHINE THROUGH
... INCLUDE A POEM
Here is a range of poems adapted
for commitment ceremonies. You might find it good to have a loved friend
or honoured guest read the poem during the ceremony. Mix and match vows
and poems to your taste. These are numbered so you can make a quick note
and
easily return to the poem later..
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CP1.
Hindu Union Poem
You have become mine forever.
Yes, we have become partners.
I have become yours.
Hereafter, I cannot live without you.
Do not live without me.
Let us share the joys.
We are word and meaning, unite.
You are thought and I am sound.
May the nights be honey-sweet for us.
May the mornings be honey-sweet for us.
May the plants be honey-sweet for us.
May the earth be honey-sweet for us.
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CP2.
I Ching
Excerpt
When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.
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CP3.Blessing for a Union
~ James Dillet Freeman ~
May your union bring you all the exquisite
excitement commitment should bring,
and may life grant you also patience,
tolerance, and understanding.
May you always need one another -
not so much to fill your emptiness
as to help you to know your fullness.
A mountain needs a valley to be complete;
the valley does not make
the mountain less, but more;
and the valley is more a valley because
it has a mountain towering over it.
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.
May you embrace one another, but not out 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 no notice of small faults.
If you have quarrels that push you apart,
may both of you hope to have
good sense enough 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, and warm and near when
you are in separate rooms
or even distant cities.
May you have happiness,
and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.
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CP4. Mary Weston Fordham
The die is cast, come weal, come woe
Two lives are joined together,,
For better or for worse, the link
Which naught but death can sever.
The die is cast, come grief, come joy.
Come richer, or come poorer,
If love but binds the mystic tie,
Blessed is your perfect hour.
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CP5. From This Day Forward
Author Unknown
From this day forward,
You shall not walk alone.
My heart will be your shelter,
And my arms will be your home.
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CP6. These I Can Promise
Author Unknown
I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;
I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold;
I cannot promise you an easy pathway
That leads away from change or growing old.
But I can promise all my heart's devotion;
A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;
A love that's ever true and ever growing;
A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.
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CP7. This Day I Commit to My Best Friend
This day I commit my life to my best friend
...the one I laugh with as we share life's wondrous zest,
as we find new enjoyments and experience all that's best.
...the one I live for because the world seems brighter
as our happy times are better and our burdens feel much lighter.
...the one I love with every fiber of my soul.
We used to feel vaguely incomplete, now together we are whole.
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CP8. Today I Commit to My Best Friend
Rachel Elizabeth Cooper (b. 1977)
Today I commit to my best friend,
Our bond complete, it hath no end,
We share one soul, we share one heart,
A perfect time - a perfect start.
With these rings we share together,
Love so close to last forever,
This special day - two special hearts,
Let nothing keep this love apart
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CP9. I Promise
Dorothy R. Colgan
I promise to give you the best of myself
and to ask of you no more than you can give.
I promise to respect you as your own person
and to realize that your interests, desires and needs
are no less important than my own.
I promise to share with you my time and my attention
and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship.
I promise to keep myself open to you,
to let you see through the window of my world
into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you,
to be willing to face changes in order to keep
our relationship alive and exciting.
I promise to love you in good times and bad,
with all I have to give and all I feel inside
in the only way I know how,
completely and forever.
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CP10. Relationship Advice
Jane Wells (1886)
Let your love be stronger than your hate and anger.
Learn the wisdom of compromise,
for it is better to bend a little than to break.
Believe the best rather than the worst.
People have a way of living up or down
to your opinion of them.
Remember that true friendship
is the basis for any lasting relationship.
The person you choose to commit to
is deserving of the courtesies
and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.
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CP11. Never Join Together But For Love
William Penn (1644-1718)
Never join together but for love;
but see that thou lovest what is lovely.
He that minds a body and not a soul
has not the better part of that relationship,
and will consequently lack
the noblest comfort of a conjoined life.
Between the two of you nothing ought rule but love.
As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way
to keep them well together.
Two committed people who love one another
show their children that they should do so too.
Others visibly lose their authority in their families by
their contempt of one another, and teach their children to be
unnatural by their own examples.
Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection;
it being the basest of passions to like
when we have not, what we slight when we possess.
Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure,
where the field is large and full of variety,
and of an enduring nature; sickness,
poverty or disgrace being not able to
shake it because it is not under
the moving influences of worldly contingencies.
Nothing can be more entire and without reserve;
nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere;
nothing more contented than such a couple,
nor greater temporal felicity
than to be one of them.
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CP12. The Art Of A Good Union
Wilferd Arlan Peterson
Happiness in togetherness is not something that just happens.
A good union must be created.
In relationships the little things are the big things.
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 should not end
with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or
sacrifice,
but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation
and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience,
understanding and a sense of humour.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,
dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right
partner.
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CP13. Apache Blessing
Author Unknown
May the sun bring you new energy by day,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries
And the breeze blow new strength into your being,
And all the days of your life may you walk
Gently through the world and know its beauty.
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CP14. Eskimo Love Song
Author Unknown
You are my chosen one
My feet shall run because of you
My feet shall dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love because of you.
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CP15. Our Union Joins Two People
In The Circle Of It's Love
Edmund O'Neill (b. 1929)
Today is our day of commitment to life,
the best that two people can find and bring out in each other.
It offers opportunities for sharing and growth
that no other relationship can equal.
It is a physical and an emotional joining that is promised for a
lifetime.
Within the circle of its love,
our union encompasses all of life's most important relationships.
Together you are each other's best friend,
confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and critic.
And there may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing,
and the love of the other may resemble
the tender caring of a parent or child.
Commitment to each other deepens and enriches every facet of life.
Happiness is fuller, memories are fresher,
commitment is stronger, even anger is felt more strongly,
and passes away more quickly.
Your commitment understands and forgives the mistakes life
is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life,
new experiences, new ways of expressing
a love that is deeper than life.
When two people pledge their love and care for each other in true
commitment,
they create a spirit unique unto themselves which binds them closer
than any spoken or written words.
Today you give a promise, a potential made in the hearts of two
people
who love each other and takes a lifetime to fulfill.
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CP16. Why Commit?
Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body...
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me,
Who won't hold them against me,
Who loves me when I'm unlikable,
Who sees the small child in me, and
Who looks for the divine potential of me...
Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night
With someone who thanks God for me,
With someone I feel blessed to hold...
Because committing means opportunity
To grow in love in friendship...
Because commitment is a discipline
To be added to a list of achievements...
Because commitments do not fail, people fail
When they enter into this bond
Expecting another to make them whole...
Because, knowing this,
I promise myself to take full responsibility
For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness
I create me, I take half of the responsibility for my life
Together we create our relationship...
Because of this understanding
The possibilities are limitless.
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CP17. To Be One With Each Other
George Eliot (1819-1880)
What greater thing is there for two human souls
than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen
each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow,
to share with each other in all gladness,
to be one with each other in the
silent unspoken memories?
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CP18. Love
Love is a friendship that has caught fire.
It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.
It is loyalty through good and bad.
It settles for less than perfection,
and makes allowances for human weakness.
Love is content with the present.
It hopes for the future and it doesn't brood over the past.
It's the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems,
compromises, small disappointments, big victories,
and working toward common goals.
If you have love in your life,
it can make up for a great many things you lack.
If you don't have it, no matter what else there is,
it is not enough, so search for it, ask God for it, and share it!
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CP19. All my happiness goes out to you
Nicholas Gordon
All my happiness goes out to you:
Pride and pleasure, joy, sweet tears, and love!
Reason, hope, and faith together move
In harmony to bless all that you do.
Let this beginning be the golden dawn
At which all dew-drenched nature sings its glory!
Nor should the darkness shrouding every story
Dim the blue-eyed beauty of this morn.
More of life will come than you can hold:
A flood no mortal witness can withstand.
Rest, then, within a quiet, gentle hand,
Knowing where love is as you grow old.
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CP20. This Love is the union of
Nicholas Gordon
This love is the union of
A greater sum than two in love.
Relatives are made by vows,
Relating endless fields and plows.
In bringing families together,
A million lives are changed forever.
Go then in joy, yourselves to please:
Each love shapes many destinies.
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CP21. On this Splendid day, as you trade vows
Nicholas Gordon
On this splendid day, as you trade vows,
No ordinary moment hurries by.
You partake, as far as time allows,
Of something more than time and Earth and sky:
Unknowable, invisible, yet there;
Resplendent to the heart if not the face;
More than both of you, yet less than air;
A transcendental act conferring grace.
Reason might say, How can this be true?
Return then to the heart, for this is love.
In making vows, you make one out of two,
A mystery beyond what words can prove.
Go then as one flesh, one home, one heart:
Each still a whole, yet also now a part.
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CP22. The vows I take will be forever
Nicholas Gordon
The vows I take will be forever:
I'll love you all my life.
There's no part way, no holding back
Once we are man and wife.
The choice is made, and now I swim
In a far different sea,
The shores of which are bright green hills
Raised up for you and me.
Our love is like a mountainside
Awash in lovely flowers:
It is our home, our solid rock,
Where all bright things are ours.
And though of need we often must
Spend our days apart,
Our love will always be with us,
Held within the heart.
I feel it now, so strong and free,
So part of every breath
That it must live--I swear it will!--
Even after death.
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CP23.
The vows you have just taken, pledging love
Nicholas Gordon
The vows you have just taken, pledging love,
Mean far more than words can ever mean.
May their gentle spirit in you move.
May your years fulfill the beauty of
The feelings whose expression we've just seen,
The vows that you have taken, pledging love.
And may you always put these vows above
The things that make life smaller and more mean.
May their gentle spirit in you move.
May your children know the power of
These words to shape a world that's sane and clean,
These vows that you have taken, pledging love.
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CP24. Thank you for your friendship and your love.
Nicholas Gordon
Thank you for your friendship and your love.
However life may turn, this gift will be
A mountain that has made my river bend,
Nor will it flow the same way to the sea.
Knowing you is something I'm made of.
Years will not this part of me remove.
One lives for just a brief eternity,
Understanding truths that never end.
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WRITING YOUR VOWS
Your vows should reflect that you are creating a loving partnership
that is a deep commitment to each other as life partners. Write
or choose what resonates with your heart ...
Ceremonies,
poems
& info to plan
your day
Please
feel free to use anything you find ... even if I don't have the
honour of being your celebrant.
Useful
Sites for Couples
Flowers
Gifts
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Advice
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WHAT IS A CELEBRANT?
Celebrants
are Professional Officiants who Create Personal Ceremonies to Honor and
Celebrate Life's Milestones: Weddings, Commitments, Gay and Lesbian Ceremonies,
Renewals of Vows, Baby Namings, Adoption Ceremonies, Coming-of-Age Ceremonies,
Birthdays, Special Achievements, Divorce Ceremonies, Survivor Ceremonies,
Rites of Passage, Funerals, Memorials, and Civic and Corporate Ceremonies.
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