Woman:
Family and friends, please witness as we proclaim our love for one another, and join our lives in marriage.

Man:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways--

--I love the mischievous twinkle in your eyes that says you find life a glorious adventure.

--I love your gentleness with cats and dogs, and turtles and butterflies,

--I love your honesty, your courage, your willingness to forgive.

--I love how you give of yourself wholly in your life work, with little thought of compensation, but rather with dreams of transforming the world into a better place.

--I love the fire of your kisses, and the beauty of your femaleness as you stand naked before me.

Woman:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways--

--I love your patient approach to life, your unfailing belief that obstacles can be overcome.

--I love your exuberance, the way you approach each new day with excitement.

--I love the ecstasy of our bodies intertwined in passion.

--I love you for the thoughtful, kind things you continually do for me day in and day out.

--I love your stubborn refusal to let the injustice of this world shake your faith in the ultimate beauty of humanity and the harmony of the universe.

Man:
We desire to build a committed, loving partnership without squelching one another's autonomy. We would like to read some words written by Anne Morrow Lindbergh:

Woman:
A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back--it has the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. ...The dancers who are perfectly in time never destroy "the winged life" in each other or in themselves.

Man:
We intend to build a marriage that is free of rigid expectations.

...When you love someone you do not love them all the time in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity--in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping even. Security in a relationship lies not in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now...

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1955) Gift From the Sea. Reprinted with permission from Random House Inc., New York, NY pp. 104, 105, 108, 109, 110.

Woman:
We know that maintaining a satisfying marriage takes hard work, patience, compromise, and courage. Yet we also believe that the energy we contribute to our relationship will be returned to us—for we will draw strength and sustenance from our partnership and thereby be enriched as individuals.

Man:
We believe that in a healthy marriage, partners should allow one another the freedom to enjoy friendships with other people. We also know that, as much as we enjoy one another's company, we each need time to pursue our individual interests and goals.

Woman:
However, we believe that partners must reserve their passion and sexuality for one another. We therefore make the following pledge to one another in the presence of all of you. ______, in order to nurture the rich, intimate passion we share, I hereby make a commitment to be monogamous with you throughout our marriage.

Man:
______, in order to nurture the rich, intimate passion we share, I hereby make a commitment to be monogamous with you throughout our marriage.

Man:
As part of this ceremony we want to acknowledge, with family and friends present, that we do not intend to become parents. We have done much soul-searching in reaching that decision. We have come to conclude that we hear a different calling in our souls.

Woman:
We very much believe that raising children is one of the most sacred and valuable contributions that any couple can make to the world. However, we also know that there is a lot of work to be done in order to make this world a peaceful and safe environment for the children that are already here. There are many serious problems confronting humanity: wars and political unrest, starvation and hunger grave environmental problems, joblessness and homelessness, spiritual alienation; the list goes on and on. We believe in our hearts that people are needed who can devote their life energies to helping eradicate these pressing problems so that this planet can be a place where each and every child has access to the resources he/she needs to develop into a healthy, happy human being.