Grab a Box of Tissues and Read Up!

Our Outstanding Officiant, Reverend Jerry Styner has given us a copy of the beautiful words he spoke at our ceremony.

The Transcript

Please be seated...
Good afternoon and welcome to the union of Ryan Scott Duryea and Jennifer Lynn Roth They are two blessed souls, two beautiful souls, who, while remaining two, today become one. In this oneness, neither loses their individuality or identity, for each are their own expressions of the Universal Life Force.
To all of you who have joined us this afternoon to celebrate this sacred union, I ask that you allow each word spoken for and by Ryan and Jennifer to flow into and through your consciousness, to become a part of your being.

Welcome Jennifer. This is the day created for you to affirm and share your love with Ryan.
Welcome Ryan. This is the day created for you to affirm and share your love with Jennifer.
Who gives this bride Jennifer to be wedded to this man Ryan? (response)

(Please face me)

Ryan and Jennifer, your marriage today is a commitment to life, the very best that you can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other relationship can equal. It is a physical and emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime.

As you pledge your love and care for each other in marriage, you create a spirit unique unto yourselves which binds you closer than any spoken or written words. Your marriage is a promise, a potential made of the love for each other in your hearts. A promise which takes a lifetime to fulfill.

This is the sacred day that brings you together, blended and woven through beautifully into a tapestry of love-in joy, in peace, in tenderness, as you venture forth to a new life together-as you blend together all the learning, all the loving, all the growing, all the caring of the day to day realities you have experienced to this point in your lives.

Ryan and Jennifer, this is your day, and every day forth shall be your day, for you have been carefully and closely woven together to make each new day for you a rich and complete fulfillment.

From the day you first met, something inside you knew. Each of you knew and The Life Spirit within you knew. And so it shall be as long as love holds the weave.
(ROSE)

This white rose is a symbol of pure love. It is fitting at this time that we consider the message of love that this flower brings to the world. The rose blooms because of an inner beauty that MUST express. It does not need the love or admiration of others in order to show its beauty. It only KNOWS to be beautiful. No matter what occurs, it can only continue to express the beauty that comes from within its own knowing.
Each year, on the anniversary of this date, I would like to suggest that you go away to be alone with each other, and there give to each other a simple white rose in honor of the commitments you are now making.

Now Ryan and Jennifer, please turn to each other and clasp hands. The few words which you will now say will take you across a threshold of life, and things will never again be quite the same. For, after these vows, you shall say to the world, "This is my husband... this is my wife." Together your lives will blossom and grow and beautify, not only through your living together, but through all those your human nature touches.

From this day forward, you shall not walk alone.

TO JENNIFER:

Ryan's heart will be your shelter,

TO RYAN:

Jennifer's arms will be your home.

Will you Ryan, and will you Jennifer, wave goodbye to the past, saluting it for its warm memories while knowing within yourselves that it is today and all the tomorrow's that really matter?

If so, please say, "I will."
BOTH: "I will."
And now I ask you Jennifer, do you take Ryan to be your beloved husband, to love him with all the love within you, and even more as you grow together-to cheer him, to praise him, to touch him with kindness in voice and action, to understand his being, to support him in every way, to help him to be the best that he can be? If so, please answer "I do."

Jennifer: "I do."
Ryan, I now ask you, do you take Jennifer to be your beloved wife, to love her with all the love within you, and even more as you grow together-to cheer her, to praise her, to touch her with kindness in voice and action, to understand her being, to support her in every way, to help her to be the best that she can be? If so, please answer "I do."

Ryan: "I do."
May I have the rings please? (Take them from the ring bearer)

These rings which you give as tokens of your endless love and fidelity are circles, symbols of the Earth, the Sun, the Universe-of wholeness, perfection, peace, and unity. They have no beginning and no ending. They are tokens of your sacred and ever growing relationship that we have come today to celebrate and confirm.

Ryan, as you place this ring on Jennifer's finger, please repeat after me:

With this ring, I thee wed. Let it ever be a symbol of our love. As a token of our faithfulness, each to the other, I place it now upon your hand.
Jennifer, as you place this ring on Ryan's finger, please repeat after me:

With this ring, I thee wed. Let it ever be a symbol of our love. As a token of our faithfulness, each to the other, I place it now upon your hand.
Ryan and Jennifer,

"May your love be firm,

and may your dream of life together

be a river between two shores-

by day bathed in sunlight, and by night

illuminated from within. May the heron

carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring

the sea's blue grace. May your twin thoughts spiral upward

like leafy vines, like fiddle strings in the wind,

and be as noble as the Douglas fir.

May you never find yourselves back to back

without love pulling you around

into each other's arms."

-James Bertolino
In as much as Ryan Duryea and Jennifer Roth have consented together and have spoken their vows before The Universe and those present, by the power vested in me by the state of California and the International Centers for Spiritual Living, it is my great honor to pronounce them Husband and Wife.

You may kiss...

May I present to you, for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Duryea!