Martha Stewarts First Gay WeddingPhoto Credit: Jag Studios
Susan Shuetz “Commitment to Love” adapted to be more appropriate for Andrew and Jeremy.
Martha Stewart Gay Wedding
Martha Stewart Gay Wedding
We are here today because love and commitment gathers us together to celebrate the marriage of Andrew and Jeremy. This poem was written by Susan Schuetz and is entitled The commitment To Love. Please reflect on your own love relationships during the reading of this poem. Love is the strongest and most fulfilling emotion possible. It lets you share your goals, your desires, and your experiences. It lets you be yourself with someone that will always support you. It lets you speak your innermost feelings to someone who understands you. It lets you feel tenderness and warmth a wholeness that avoids loneliness. Love lets you feel complete. But in order to have a successful love relationship you must make a strong commitment to each other and love and you must do and feel everything within your mind and body to make that commitment work. You must be happy with yourself and you must understand yourself before you can expect someone else to be happy with you or to understand you. You must be honest about yourself and each other at all times. You must accept each other the way you are and not try to change each other. You must be free to grow as individuals yet share your life as one. You must follow your own principals and morals. In order to have a successful love relationship you must be together always in your heart but not necessarily in your activities. You must be proud of each other and love and not be ashamed to show your sensitive feelings. You must treat everyday spent with each other as special and not take each other or your love for granted. You must spend time talking with each other every day and not be too busy with outside events that you are too tired for each other. You must understand each other’s moods and feelings. You must continue to have fun and excitement with each other and not be afraid to try new things. You must always work at love and your love relationship and not forget how important this relationship is or what you would feel like without it. Love is the strongest and most fulfilling emotion possible. If you live your commitment to love you will live your dreams between awakenings. From our very beginning, our birth, the path of our lives is already laid out deep within us. Life is the process of discovering the direction of our path. It is the given plan for us. It is our life’s work not only to discover what our purpose is but also to accept conditions, good and bad that allow us to fulfill out highest purpose. We must give to ourselves and of ourselves whatever it takes to arrive at our given destiny. Jeremy and Andrew, we open our hearts and celebrate with you feeling refreshed that love, true love, unconditional love is within us. We rejoice in the knowledge that nothing we do in this life is ever wasted or lost. Love, in bringing Andrew and Jeremy together, shows us that love itself is a profound and mysterious process and that because of those who have touched their lives in the past they have been shaped, as we know them today. It is in this spirit that Jeremy and Andrew marry, not just because of their love for one another, but because their collective experiences have brought them to the place where they are ready to fulfill what is theirs to accomplish in this life, to join forces of their individual capabilities and backgrounds to accomplish together and individually what is theirs to do. Andrew and Jeremy we ask that love bless this very moment, a confirmation of the wisdom of your choice, great happiness on the path that is set before you, respect kindness and care for one another as walk upon it. We ask for strength to live out your purpose, grace and peace through each step of the way. May you be filled with joy, may you keep your promises with ease and may love live within you always. Jeremy and Andrew, knowing that marriage is important and often difficult work, that its rewards are often invisible in ordinary day to day life, we pray that you are forever enfolded in love. May every desire you have be fulfilled, may you be given the awareness with which to deeply respect one another, listening capability with which to understand one another and to keep the promises you make here today. (Join Hands) Andrew, repeat after me: (I take you Jeremy to be my husband, loving you now and always) (I will love you when we are together and when we are apart), (when life is peaceful and when it is in disorder) – (in times of leisure and in times of work) – (I will honor your goal and dreams – and help you fulfill them) – (I will always try to keep our love growing and respect you as an individual) – (and at the same time lover our togetherness) Jeremy, repeat after me: (I take you Andrew to be my husband, loving you now and always) (I will love you when we are together and when we are apart), (when life is peaceful and when it is in disorder) – (in times of leisure and in times of work) – (I will honor your goal and dreams – and help you fulfill them) – (I will always try to keep our love growing and respect you as an individual) – (and at the same time lover our togetherness) (Holding the rings in my hand so that everyone can see them). These rings represent wholeness, a coming together of the circle from sickness to health, from want to plenty, from despair to joy, from failure to possibility, from loneliness to love. Theses rings are made of precious metals, a symbol of the riches that reside in each of you; and as any metal is purified by the white heat of testing, so will your love be purified by the tests facing you through the many seasons of your lives. These rings will forever carry a potent double message, you are individuals, yet you belong, you are not alone. Jeremy and Andrew, you are imprinted by the other yet as yourself you remain; you have asked the presence of each other to enhance who you are. Let these rings also be a sign that love has substance. Love has a present as well as a past and that despite its occasional distress love is an endless circle of happiness, wonder and delight. Wear these rings as a sign of the love you have for each other, unquenchable love, which now your words express. Jeremy, repeat after me: (Andrew, you are my promise, my dream, my answered prayer) (you are my love, my mate, my best friend) (I marry you with this ring, a gift from my heart)(wear it knowing that I am always with you) Andrew, repeat after me: (Jeremy, you are my promise, my dream, my answered prayer) (you are my love, my mate, my best friend) (I marry you with this ring, a gift from my heart)(wear it knowing that I am always with you) Andrew and Jeremy, you may celebrate your marriage with a kiss. You have come together with your hearts and minds. You have pledged to one another the future. You have celebrated your marriage by giving each other the gift of love. May you always be filled by immeasurable joy. May the spirit that lives in and around you fill your hearts and bless your lives forever. Jeremy and Andrew, may the wings of angels uphold you through all the life of your love; may you live forever in happiness with one another; may your hearts be full; may your words stay sweet; may your love grow stronger; may you live long and happily in one another’s arms and the grace of love. By the power vested in me by the people of the great State of Connecticut, it is with great joy and happiness that I pronounce you married for life. Those whom love has joined together may love continue to bless forever. (The glass is placed on the ground in front of Andrew and Jeremy). As no glass will ever break in the same way as Andrew and Jeremy will break this glass, no two marriages will be the same. Jeremy and Andrew Mozal Tof. Ladies and Gentlemen please join with me in congratulation the newlyweds!