A Wedding at Woodlawn Christian Church

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This past Saturday I was able to perform my first wedding here at Woodlawn Christian Church.  The young couple Matt Weiss and Alicia Stonehocker, are a wonderful couple and I enjoyed going through the premarital counseling with them and the wedding went off without a hitch.  I am very confident that Matt and Alicia will enjoy a lifetime together as one, and I am extremely happy for them and proud of them.

I've attached below the script of the service.  Our wedding coordinator for the Church, Roxy Crandall told her husband that it was the best wedding service she'd seen.  I think that's likely an extreme stretch, but I'm thankful that it went over so well.

Thank you, Matt and Alicia and God's blessings on you both!

In His Grace,
Roy

Stonehocker / Weiss Wedding
Prelude

Processional

Bridal Processional

Introduction
When two hearts are bound together in the bonds of Christian matrimony, it is a blessed and sacred moment. We recognize that marriage is an important part of God’s plan for mankind. God Himself long ago ordained and instituted marriage, and it was He who performed the first wedding ceremony in the Garden of Eden.

When our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world He chose a wedding at Cana in Galilee to perform His mighty miracle. In order to achieve success in this, the highest of all human commitments, we must look to Gods’ Word for direction. The Bible says that you are to submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, you are to submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body.

Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. A man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

The beautiful love you share with each other is described in 1st Corinthians 13. There the Bible says, “Love is ever patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone you will be loyal to them no matter what the cost. You will always believe in them, always expect the best of them, and always stand your ground in defending them. All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. Someday prophecy, and speaking in unknown languages, and special knowledge— these gifts will disappear. There are three things that remain – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:4-9, 13, TLB).

Giving Away of the Bride
May the Lord bless you both as from this day forward you seek to carry out these scriptural ideals in your marriage.
In light of the serious approach the Scriptures take toward marriage, it should be entered into with sobriety and great reverence.  If any man can show just cause why this couple should not be joined together, let him speak now or else, hereafter and forevermore, hold his peace.
Who gives this woman to be married to this man?

Response: Her mother and I.

Prayer
LET US PRAY
Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life.

We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of a man and a woman in his Holy Name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this man - Matthew, and this woman - Alicia.  Defend them from every enemy.  Lead them into all peace.  Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads.  

Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Message

Vows
So, Matt and Alicia, you have come today signifying your desire to be formally united in the bonds of Christian matrimony.  Will you now please join both hands, remember always that the closer you keep Christ in the center of your life, the greater your love will be for the other.

Matt in taking Alicia to be your lawful and wedded wife, before God and these witnesses present, you must promise to love her, to honor and cherish her, and leaving all others, to cleave only to her and be to her in all things the true and faithful husband so long as you both shall live. Do you so promise?

Response: I do.

Alicia in taking Matt to be your lawful and wedded husband, before God and these witnesses present, you must promise to love him, to honor and cherish him and leaving all others, to cleave only to him and be to him in all things the true and faithful wife so long as you both shall live. Do you so promise?

Response: I do.

Then, you are each given one to the other. In times of happiness and in times of sorrow; in times of plenty and in times of poverty; in times of sickness and in times of well-being; to love and enjoy till death shall separate you.

Exchange of Rings
May I have the rings?

Throughout all time the ring has been used to seal this most important of all human commitments. The ring is a beautiful symbol of your love, in that it is an unending circle symbolizing the eternity of your love, and the purity of gold in the ring symbolizes the purity of your love and marriage in God’s eyes.

Matt, will you take this ring which is a beautiful symbol and meaningful token of your love for Alicia and place it on the ring finger of her left hand while holding it in place repeat these words to her? “With this ring I thee wed, with loyal love thee endow, and all my worldly goods with thee I share, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen”

Alicia, this ring is a beautiful symbol and meaningful token of your love for Matt. Will you now place it on the ring finger of his left hand while holding it in place repeat these words to him? “With this ring I thee wed, with loyal love thee endow, and all my worldly goods with thee I share, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen”

The pouring of the Unity Sand
“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). God created you as an individual, perfect by His glory and love. But God also said that it was not good for man to be alone, and so he created woman to be his partner and helper. Today as you have made a sacred covenant before God joining in marriage, you now become one flesh. You have chosen to symbolize that union with a sand ceremony.

First, I will pour in the TAN sand, representing your faith in God as the foundation of who you are as individuals. 

Now ALICIA, pour some of your sand, representing yourself as an individual before you came to this union. 

Now MATT, also pour some of your sand, representing yourself as an individual before you came to this union. 

I will next pour some more TAN sand, representing your faith in God as the foundation of your marriage.

Now, MATT and ALICIA pour your remaining sand together to represent your joining as one in marriage completely and eternally.

Lastly, I pour a final layer of TAN sand to represent God watching over you and protecting you with his everlasting love.

May God bless this marriage so that you are as inseparable as these grains of sand. Amen.

Signing of the Marriage Certificate

Pronouncement
Now, having pledged your eternal faith in each other, and your undying love for each other, having entered into a convent agreement with God, and having sealed that pledge and covenant through the symbolic union of your lives through the enactment of the unity sand, by the exchange of these holy and blessed rings, and by your solemn vows to each other before and with God, I, acting in the authority vested in me as a minister of the Gospel, and looking to God for his divine approval upon your lives, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mark 10:9).

Introduction of Couple
I present to you all Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Weiss.
Matt, you may now kiss your bride...

Benediction
May the God of peace who raised Christ from the dead strengthen your inner being for every good work, and may the blessing of God Almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit Rest upon you both and dwell within you this day and forevermore. 
Amen. 

Recessional