Rose wedding ceremony
Your
gift to each other for your wedding today has been your wedding rings, which
shall always be a 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, that gift will be a single rose.
In
the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a single rose always
meant one thing, it meant the words “I Love You.” So it is appropriate
that for your first gift as husband and wife, that gift would be a single rose.
Please
exchange your first gift as husband and wife.
In
some ways it seems 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. In some
ways a marriage ceremony is like this. Tomorrow is going to seem no
different than yesterday, but in fact today, just now, 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.
(Bride)
and (Groom), 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 you
both 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, both as a
recommitment to your marriage and a recommitment that this will be a marriage
based on love.
