The Civil Ceremony is the typical wording used in ceremonies performed by a Justice of the Peace. It's a great option for couple that doesn't want any religious language.
INTRODUCTION
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the presence of love to celebrate the joining of [name 1] and [name 2] in marriage. Marriage is a sacrament, a holy and sacred act, not because the church says it’s so or because the government says it’s so, but because the love shared here make it so. [name 2] and [name 1], by joining your lives together, living together in a covenant of shared responsibility and shared joy, working continually on your bond and resting secure in one another, you strengthen the bonds that hold the world together.
Marriage requires diligence, self-awareness, and careful attention to the disciplines of life that will allow you to strengthen one another in times of sorrow and take deep joy in one another’s gladness. Are you ready?
DECLARATION OF CONSENT
[name], do you take this man to be your [husband/wife/spouse]; and to live together in the covenant of marriage, as he is now and as [she/he/they] is/are yet to become? Do you promise to honor and protect [her/him/them], in sickness and in health, and, casting aside all others, be faithful to [her/him/them] as long as you both shall live? I do.
VOWS
[name], please repeat after me.
I, [name], take you, [name], to be my [husband/wife/spouse],
t have and to hold, to love and to cherish.
I promise to respect and cherish you as an individual, a partner, and an equal.
I promise to strengthen and comfort you through life’s joys and sorrows,
and to love you our whole life long.
This is my solemn vow.
CEREMONY OF RINGS
And now the giving and receiving of rings, that you might wear your love as a symbol to yourself, each other, and the world of your deep and abiding love and the promises you have made today.
[name], take [name]’s ring and repeat after me.
[name], I give you this ring
as a symbol of my vow.
With all that I am,
and all that I have,
I marry you.
DECLARATION
Bless you both. By the exchange of vows and the giving and receiving of rings, you have promised yourselves to each other. I now pronounce you [married/ husband/wife and wife/husband]. You may kiss each other!
