ROSE CEREMONY: EXAMPLES
(SECULAR ROMANTIC)
1. Your gift to each other for your wedding today has been your wedding rings - which shall always be an outward demonstration of your vows of love and respect, and a public showing of your commitment to each other. You now have what remains the most honorable title which may exist between a man and a woman - the title of "husband and wife". For your first gift as husband and wife...
[Celebrant hands each a single rose]
you will give each other a single rose. In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love, and a single rose always meant only one thing - it meant the words "I love you". So it is appropriate that your first gift as husband and wife would be a single rose.
Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife.
[Bride and Groom exchange roses]
In some ways, it seems like you have not done anything at all. Just a moment ago, you were holding one small rose - and now, you are holding one small rose. And, in some ways a marriage ceremony is like this. And, in some ways tomorrow is going to seem no different than today. But in fact today, just now, you have both given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you'll always remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage.
_________________ and ___________________, I would ask that wherever you make your home in the future - whether it be a large and elegant home, or a small and graceful one - that together, you pick one very special location for roses; so that on each anniversary of this truly wonderful occasion, you both may take a rose to that spot as a recommitment to your marriage - and a recommitment that this will be a marriage based upon love.
In every marriage there are times when it is difficult to find the right words. It is easiest to hurt those who we most love. It is easiest to be hurt by those who we most love. It might be difficult sometimes to say the words 'I am sorry' or 'I forgive you', 'I need you', or 'I am hurting'. If this should happen, if you simply cannot find these words, leave a rose at that spot which both of you have selected - for that rose then says what matters most of all, and will overpower all other things and all other words. That rose says the words: 'I still love you.' The other should accept this rose for the words which cannot be found, and remember the love and hope that you both share today.
____________________ and _____________________, if there is anything that you remember of this marriage ceremony, let it be this... that it was love that brought you here today, it is only love that can make it a glorious union, and it is by love which your marriage shall endure.
(SECULAR ROMANTIC - SHORTENED VERSION)
2. [Bride and Groom stand facing each other, each holding one red rose]
In the elegant language of flowers, red roses are a symbol of love, and the giving of a single red rose is a clear and unmistakable way of saying the words "I love you." For this reason it is fitting that the first gift you exchange as husband and wife would be the gift of a single red rose. Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife.
[Bride and Groom exchange roses]
You both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you always remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage. ______ and ______ I would ask that wherever you may make your home, that you choose a special location for roses. And at those times when words fail, that you leave a red rose at that spot you have both selected - a rose that will say what matters more than all other words... "I still love you." The other should accept this rose for the words that cannot be found, and remember the love and hope that you both have shared today.
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