STATEMENTS OF APPRECIATION: EXAMPLES
(SECULAR ROMANTIC)
1. Groom: ________________, you are loving, caring, and strong. I trust you and know that together, we can live life fully. I cannot imagine a future without you. I look forward to growing old with you, and falling in love over and over again.
Bride: ________________, standing here with you creates an immeasurable feeling of peace and tranquility in my heart and in my soul. You are my companion, my confidant, my playmate, and my lover. You are my best friend, and today you become my husband.
(SECULAR ROMANTIC)
2. Groom: ________________, I love you for many reasons, especially because you accept me the way I am. You show respect for my family, my friends, and for me, and you share my dreams. I love your independence and that you are resourceful, considerate, and beautiful. I love you and want to marry you.
Bride: ________________, you are smart, tender, and lots of fun. You are a good cook and a great dancer. You believe in the importance of family, and I know you will create a loving home for our children. We share the same hopes and dreams. I love you most of all because you are my best friend.
(SECULAR ROMANTIC)
3. Groom: ________________, you are my best friend, the sun that shines in my life, the other half that makes me whole, your smile lights up my day. You give me comfort, unconditional love, and the security to be myself. You make me laugh and feel alive. I'm happy to begin and end each day with you. With you, I am complete.
Bride: ________________, you mean the world to me. I am going to tell you what I love most about you. I love your sense of humor. You are constantly putting a smile on my face and providing me with my daily dose of laughter. I love your daily compliments; you make me feel so special. I love your smile; you brighten my day. When I am not with you, just the thought of you makes me feel good about everything. I admire your ambition and your desire to succeed and, at the same time, your ability to have fun and enjoy life. I truly believe that I am the luckiest girl to have found you. I am so excited and happy to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you with all my heart and soul.
(SECULAR ROMANTIC)
4. Groom: ___________________, you are everything I could ask for in a wife. You are thoughtful, loving, honest, and above all, you are my friend. I accept you now for who you are and for who you will become. With you, I look forward to the future, to sharing our sorrows and celebrating our triumphs, to learning more about each other, and to growing old together. I want nothing more than to share my life with you, in your loving arms.
Bride: __________________, you have become my closest friend. I look forward to waking up by your side each morning, and to returning to the warmth of your arms at the end of each day. I love your humor, your cheerfulness, your intelligence, your creativity, your silliness, and your peaceful nature. I feel honored to take you as my husband, and I know that our children will be blessed with a wonderful father. Together we have more strength and creativity than we ever had on our own.
(SECULAR ROMANTIC - A POEM READ ALTERNATELY: Love by Roy Croft )
5. Bride:
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
Groom:
I love you
Not only for what
You have made of yourself
But for what you are making of me.
Bride:
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out.
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped up heart
And passing over
All the foolish weak things
That you can't help
Seeing, dimly there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else has looked
Quite far enough to find.
Groom:
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life,
Not a tavern,
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day,
Not a reproach
But a song.
Bride:
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it without a touch,
Without a word
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Both:
Perhaps that is what being a friend means after all.
(SECULAR ROMANTIC - THE COUPLE TELL THE GUESTS WHY THEY ARE MARRYING)
6. Groom: We have asked you to come together to witness our marriage and celebrate with us our joy and happiness. ___________________ and I have found in each other a spirit of joy, a sense of shared purposes and world views, a companionship, a love so strong and so vital that we wish to join our lives.
Bride: We enter upon our marriage eagerly and with a profound sense of joy. Our worlds will continue to enlarge; our interests and our circle of friends have already been enhanced and expanded. Your delight and approval - so warmly expressed - has greatly enriched our happiness.
(SPIRITUAL ROMANTIC - ESPECIALLY FOR A SECOND MARRIAGE)
7. Groom: __________________, I never expected to find love again. However, sitting next to me on an airplane, you revived my hope and excitement. You are a wonderful woman who knows how to accept love and to give love in return. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I hope that our families and friends will share in our happiness with us. Thank you so much for accepting my love and joining me in marriage today. I love you very much.
Bride: __________________, in just eight months we have discovered a wonderful relationship that weaves a rich tapestry of similar lifetime choices and experiences. You possess the key that unlocked my heart and soul. I love you for your sensitivity to my highs and lows; your concern for all facets of our daily life; and our enjoyment of music and dancing and observing nature in the garden and from the tops of mountains. I love your mischievous spirit and dry sense of humor. I love your thoughtful concerns for our extended family. I love sharing our creative energies for cooking and photography. Together we have a rhythm that makes us one.