We have come together for the marriage of Barbara and Simon. May they continue to deepen their lives with each other and with all sentient beings.

Marriage begins in the giving of words. We cannot join ourselves to one another without giving our word. And this must be an unconditional giving, for in joining ourselves to one another we join ourselves to the unknown.

Courtesy and consideration even in anger and adversity are the seeds of compassion. Love is the fruit of compassion. Trust, love, and respect are the sustaining virtues of marriage. They enable us to learn from each situation, and help us to realize that everywhere we turn we meet ourselves.

I, Barbara, take you, Simon, to be my husband, in equal love, as a mirror for my true Self, as a partner on my path, to honor and to cherish, in sorrow and in joy, till death do us part.

I, Simon, take you, Barbara, to be my wife, in equal love, as a mirror for my true Self, as a partner on my path, to honor and to cherish, in sorrow and in joy, till death do us part.

Now Barbara and Simon celebrate their love and proclaim their union with rings of precious metal. The precious nature of their rings represents the subtle and wonderful essence they find by joining themselves with each other, and the subtle and wonderful essence they find individually, through their mutual love, respect, and support. The metal itself represents the long life they may cultivate together, not only in years, but in all the infinite dimensions of each moment they share.

The day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh'd,
      singing, inhaling the ripe breath of Autumn,
When I saw the full moon in the West grow pale and disappear in the
      morning light,
When I wander'd alone over the beach, and undressing bathed, laughing
      with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise,
And when I thought how my dear friend my lover was on his way
      coming, O then I was happy,
O then each breath tasted sweeter, and all that day my food nourish'd
      me more, and the beautiful day passed well,
And the next came with equal joy, and with the next at evening came
      my friend,
And that night while all was still I heard the waters roll slowly
      continually up the shores,
I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands as directed to me
      whispering to congratulate me,
For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the
      cool night,
In the stillness in the Autumn moonbeam his face was inclined toward me,
And his arm lay lightly around my breast - and that night I was happy.

Walt Whitman