Wedding Prayers & Blessings

Irish Wedding Blessing: 

May the road rise to meet you.  May the wind be always at your back.  May the sun shine warm upon your face.  The rains fall soft upon the fields.  May the light of friendship guide your paths together.  May the love and laughter grace the halls of your home.  May the joy of living for one another trip a smile from your lips, and a twinkle from your eye.  And when eternity beckons, at the end of a life heaped high with love,  May the good Lord embrace you with arms that have nurtured you the length of your joy-filled days. Amen   

The Apache Wedding Prayer:

Now you will feel no rain, For each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, For each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness, For each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two bodies, But there is one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, To enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

“The Weaving of Love”:

This knotwork of love that you weave today

Will guide you through life as you go your way

Should the road become difficult just stop and say:

“I do take you, Love, again today.”

And these vows, of Love, that you proclaim here,

Shall strengthen the bond that you build through the years.

So we witness with joy, as family or friends,

And rejoice in these words: real love never ends.

With your hands clasped together, Love’s blessing be yours!

With your hearts weaved together, Love’s blessing be yours!

With your circle around you, Love’s blessing be yours!

Ring Warming:

During this ceremony, ____  & ____will exchange rings.  These rings are the visible signs of their commitment to one another.

Family support is an important part to a happy and successful marriage.  Because of this, ____ & ____have asked for all of you to participate in a Ring Warming Ceremony.

We are going to pass the wedding rings to all of you.  We ask that you, their family and friends, each take a brief moment while you are holding their rings to wish them health, happiness, and all that is noble and good in life.  Please warm their rings with your love, and then pass them on to the next person.

Two people in love do not live in isolation. We, their community of friends and family, have a responsibility to this couple.  By our steadfast care, respect, and love, we can support their marriage and the new family they are creating today.   [The rings are now passed around]

These rings that have come back to us now not only contain precious metal; they contain that which is more precious, that which is priceless – your love and hope and pledge of support for this union. Thank you everyone.

Archangel Blessing:

In many cultures it is believed that the human soul shares characteristics with all things divine, and indeed that our souls are sparks from the Divine. It is this belief which assigned virtues to the four cardinal directions; East, South, West and North.

It is according to this belief that we align ourselves with these elements and ask for blessings from the archangels associated with the four cardinal directions.

Holy Archangel Raphael, we call to you to spread above us your golden wings and bless this union with the gifts of the East and the element of Air, for openness and breath, communication of the heart and purity of the mind and body. From the east you receive the gift of a new beginning with the rising of each Sun.

Holy Archangel Michael, we call to you to spread above us your crimson wings and bless this union with the gifts of the South and the element of fire, for energy, passion, creativity and the warmth of a loving home. From the fire within you generate light, which you will share with one another in even the darkest of times.

(Continues with Gabriel and Uriel blessings)

Greek Blessing:

“Be magnified, O Bridegroom Michael, as Abraham, and blessed as Isaac and Jacob. Go your way in peace, being glad in your wife, performing in righteousness the commandments of God. And you, O Bride Donna, be magnified as was Sarah, and rejoiced as was Rebecca and Rachel, being glad in your husband, keeping the paths of the Law, for so God is well pleased.”

Jewish Blessing:

Baruch ata Adonai Elohanu. Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, Ruler of the universe, Who created joy and gladness, loving couples, mirth, glad song, pleasure, delight, love, loving communities, peace, and companionship. Adonai, our God, let there soon be heard in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the loving couple, the sound of the their jubilance from their canopies and of the youths from their song-filled feasts. Blessed are You Who causes the couple to rejoice, one with the other. Baruch ata Adonai, m’sameiach chatan im hakalah.  Blessed are You, Adonai, Who causes the groom to rejoice with his bride.

Aaronic Blessing: (Priest makes the sign of the Shin, for Shaddai) This is the blessing of the priest, Aaron: May gracious God bless you and keep you, may God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may God’s  countenance be lifted unto you and give you peace. Amen.

Unity Candle Blessing:

Quoting from Book of Genesis in the Holy Scriptures… “In the beginning God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good…” (Genesis 1:3-4)

____ & ____, now that you have pledged your love to one another through the sharing of vows and of rings, you further symbolize your commitment to sharing life together through the creation of one flame.

May your love for one another always burn brightly and may your life together be a light to others, an example of God’s love made visible in the world. “The light that remains is the light of God’s love, the light in which you shall be forever as one.”  Please take the light from your individual candles and merge them into one. (Light candles).