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Doug and Darienne, today you are surrounded by your family and friends who are gathered here to witness your marriage and to share in the joy of this celebration. We are here to lovingly support the beginning of your new life together as a married couple.
Our guests today come from nine states, and some have traveled as many as 3,000 miles to share this beautiful day. The couple would like to thank each and every one of you for going to such efforts to join us today. There are loved ones who, for health reasons, were unable to make the journey and are in our thoughts today: Darienne's grandmother, Hazel Pratt and Doug's stepfather, Kevin Manning. We would also like to remember those who have passed away: Doug's father, Richard Stewart, and Doug's grandmother, Nana Parker, and Darienne's grandparents, E.J. Pratt and Elmer and Betty Hosley.
Love reduces our selfishness, deepens our personalities and makes life more meaningful. Matrimony symbolizes the ultimate in intimacy between two people, yet this closeness should not diminish but strengthen the individuality of each partner. This vow of marriage between Doug and Darienne is a pledge of their everlasting love whereby they commit to share all life has to offer -- the good times and the bad, with patience and understanding. For a marriage to remain strong, the love must never waiver. Marriage allows the love of two people to give meaning and wonder to life. It is a continual process of building, shaping, communicating, and caring. A marriage is a home interwoven with hopes, memories and dreams. A marriage that lasts is one that always leaves room for growth, for the couple together as a unit and as individuals.
Abby West, Cheryl and Megan Hosley and Rebecca Manning will now read a poem by Nikki Giovanni.
The couple will now exchange vows. The groom has won the coin flip, and has elected to go second.
Doug and Darienne, today you will pledge your love to one another by the giving and receiving of rings. These rings symbolize your continuing faithfulness. The circle is the symbol of perfection and peace, and your wedding rings are a symbol of unity in which your two lives will now be joined in one unbroken circle -- without beginning, without end.
As you place the ring on her finger, please repeat after me: I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.
My personal wish for you both: may your marriage be a long and adventure in personal growth, may your have family and friends to stand by you in joy and in sorrow, may you always be kind to each other, may you live long in peace and contentment.
And now, for as much as Doug and Darienne have consented to embrace each other in wedlock and have witnessed the same before this gathering, and have exchanged their vows, each to the other, and declared the same by joining hands, and by the giving and receiving a ring, by virtue of, and pursuant to, the authority vested in me by the state of rhode island and providence plantations, I now pronounce you husband and wife and declare that you have been lawfully married.
You may kiss the bride.
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