___________and _________, this is a happy day for you, but also one that has solemn considerations. The reason for this is that in marriage you not only acquire a loving partner, but also acquire legal obligations and legal rights with respect to each other, and entrust your future to the other. Thus, when you make your vows today it will be a commitment to live together as married partners, to comfort and support each other, to be faithful, and to accept each other's lives, with all their joys and burdens, as part of your own.

It’s also important for you to recognise that from this day forward your married life will not concern you alone. It is also important to your extended family, and to your whole community. This is so because we all depend upon each other during our lifetimes for support, and on the organized community for safety and prosperity. And, indeed, for everything we cannot make or do ourselves. Thus, to assure that the community will not fail us, we must give it strong and durable foundations such as families where love, loyalty, and fidelity prevail.

Such families are based on lawful marriage. In a true marriage a couple will share life in mutual love and fulfilment. By doing so they and their dependents, if any, will have the advantage of having a dependable and loving home that can always be relied upon for love, support, and guidance.

That is why marriage is not merely a private contract, but governed by law. It is by far the most important personal legal transaction a couple can undertake. Yet, it is much more than a legal transaction; the most important reason for it is human nature, which makes us want to live together as married partners. But, it also makes it hard to do so. In every marriage, for it to succeed, couples must accept from the beginning that there will be strains and sorrows that must be overcome.

In fact, you will soon discover that it takes courage, faithfulness, generosity and good sense to withstand the troubles and trials of married life. However, if you love each other generously, and patiently, you will bear them, even find happiness through them, because generous unselfish love is the path to happiness. In marriage, each gives to the other wholly and forever. Therefore, give yourselves today to each other in marriage with a whole heart! Declarations:

I __________________, do solemnly declare that there is no lawful reason why I may not be joined in matrimony to ________________.

Ask both parties:

Will you ________________ take ________________ here present, to be your lawful partner, to have and to hold and to be faithful to her/him from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, so long as you both may live?

Declaration when rings are exchanged:

As a token of my solemn vows of marriage, and my love for you, I give this ring.

Both parties shall declare:

I call upon all persons present to witness that I, ______________, do take thee _______________, to be my lawful wedded partner.