4:00 PM
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica
Playa Arenilla, Golfo de Papagayo | Guanacaste
The Ceremony
Groom Jimmy Yung
Parents: Doris Yung/Victor Yung
Brother: Gary Yung
Best Man: James Wong
Groomsmen: Justin Lim, Chris Nguyen, and Gary Yung
Bride Erica Chun
Parents: Bryan Chun/Gina Chun
Sister Sophia Tyra/Roy Tyra
Maid of Honor 1: Nancy Wong
Maid of Honor 2: Julie Chen
Bridesmaids: Julie Dao and Sophia Tyra
Welcome
In the beauty and splendor of this place, we gather as a community of family and friends. In Costa Rica, we experience ripples of excitement and tremors of joy as we come to celebrate the marriage of Erica Chun and Jimmy Yung. God has created a world of harmony—dazzling flowers, soaring birds, amazing turtles and roaring oceans that meet the placid blue sky—each unique, each in relationship with the others.
God’s first gift was breathing life into humans and turning us toward each other to live in equality and unity. Erica and Jimmy have come to affirm their love for each other and to enter into this sacred union. You as their closest friends and family members have already enjoyed the beauty of their love for one another as they have welcomed us to this very special place in their life together.
Let us pray. Eternal and loving God, we are gathered in this beautiful and exotic place to celebrate the marriage of Erica and Jimmy. We stand small in this display of your creative handiwork. It reminds us that we, too, are part of your grand design. We know the same God who brought these volcanoes into being, also desires to be present with these, your children, as they begin their new life together. Grant us renewed understanding of what it means to be in covenant with each other as Erica and Jimmy become husband and wife in the company of these family members and friends, and in your holy presence. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Presentation of the Couple
Who present Erica and Jimmy to be married?
Parents: We do.
God’s Creativity
Erica and Jimmy, you have chosen a beautiful background for your wedding. When you first visited Costa Rica, you made a promise to each other that when you were ready for marriage that you would come back here. You have fulfilled one of your first promises with many more to come in life!
Being outside on the beach makes this wedding particularly special. We have moved beyond the confines of walls, or mortar or glass or timber, to the expansive world of God’s creation, where God’s creative work is more visible.
This reminds us that you—both of you—are part of God’s creative design. Your uniqueness has attracted each of you to the other. You told me that you first met in Davis through a mutual friend. At first, Jimmy thought that Erica was mean and tried to avoid her. But God kept this unique attraction for each other going when you discovered that you sat in the same seat working at Wells Fargo but a year apart or that Erica kept on texting Jimmy to go skydiving with her that led to a shoulder injury. We often say, “No pain, no gain” and Jimmy got a girlfriend out of it! That uniqueness is God’s gift to you, and a gift you now cherish.
We learned that Costa Rica rose from the ocean 3 million years ago and formed a bridge between North and South America. The rich biodiversity that we have seen since being here represents 615 different species compared to the impoverished United States with only 104 species. There is nowhere in the world where there is so many types of habitats teeming with life in such a small area as in Costa Rica. Your marriage is like the bridge that Costa Rica created to join the two continents together! May your marriage also be teeming with life and vitality.
As we look upon these beautiful surroundings, we remember that beauty is a creative process. Marriage is a creative process as well. Although we like to say that today you are “getting married,” when you leave this place, you will enter the process of “becoming married.” For marriage to achieve its fullest, most unique and beautiful expression, takes time. It won’t take 3 million years! It is a creative process.
The key word for you today is “creativity.” God created us to be tremendously resourceful. We are able to develop ideas, inventions, and amazing new ways of doing things. Erica, you might develop a new and effective way of training people to understand constantly changing systems. Jimmy, you might figure out a way to invest funds for the benefit of all humankind, legally. And when it comes to a marriage and relationships, we need to also be creative. You’ll need to adjust and accommodate. You’ll need to be flexible and have a sincere willingness to see the other person’s perspective.
Erica and Jimmy, you are creative and capable people. Use that creativity to be spontaneous when finding a new place to eat; to be unpredictable going to a new place for vacation; to be imaginative when watching a new kind of movie.
Use your creativity to nurture love for all of God’s creatures by starting an animal sanctuary and starting a family of your own. We pray that as Costa Rica is teeming with fantastic living things that you too would be blessed with little Ericas and little Jimmys running around.
God the Creator loved his people so much that he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins so that we may continue to be co-creators with God in this world. Use your creativity to nurture your love. Use creativity to strengthen your bond. Use creativity to solve problems that arise. Use creativity to release you from conventional thinking and free you to explore the road less traveled. Coming to Costa Rica is certainly a road less traveled for you and all of us. Use creativity to deepen your love for one another.
As you do this, you will discover your marriage “becoming” something as beautiful as the flora and fauna of this “rich coast,” as fertile and green as the rainforests, as strong and firm as the volcanoes, as active and alive as the waves from the oceans. You will find your marriage becoming absolutely most important in your life. Amen.
Exchange of Vows
Erica and Jimmy have written their own vows and will be sharing them with each other.
Let us pray.
Joy rings through the skies, and songs echo in the trees, O God, for love is alive today. We thank you for the love that has brought Erica and Jimmy to this moment of making promises to each other. Lead them along the paths of peace. Let their love grow as true as the flowers around us. Give them your patience and vision to see beyond the daily troubles to see your plan for their lives. Be their abiding presence in the day and their light in the night, so that their love and commitments may be a beacon of hope to a hurting world. Amen.
Exchange of Rings
Whenever we think about God’s creation, we think about the circle of life—life comes and goes, life is made new again and again. It’s a blessing to have baptized Erica and Jimmy that now I have the privilege of marrying them—from new life in Christ to a new life together. After visiting Costa Rica their first time, they are now being married in this special place in their hearts. We are coming full circle.
These rings are an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace, which unites two hearts in love, and they are of special significance because the circle of these rings is a symbol of the unending and enduring quality of the love which Erica and Jimmy are sharing today.
Erica: Jimmy, I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.
Jimmy: Erica, I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.
Let us pray. By these rings, O God, join Erica and Jimmy together, and bless these rings that those who wear them, who give and receive them, may be ever faithful to one another, remain in your peace, and live and grow together in your love. Amen.
Declaration of Marriage
Erica and Jimmy, because you have declared your willingness and intention to enter into the state of marriage with each other, and have declared the same in the company of God and these witnesses, and have given these rings to each other as a symbol of this commitment, by virtue of the authority vested in me as a minister of the Christian Gospel, I pronounce you husband and wife, united in the beauty and holy bonds of marriage.
Benediction
It’s been in the high 80s and sunny skies in Costa Rica. But when you return to San Francisco where you call home,
may you not feel the chilly fog for each of you will keep the other warm.
When the rains do come in California, may you not feel the wetness for you will share an umbrella to get under.
May you not be lonely for each of you will be the companion for the other.
Now you are two bodies but there is only one life before you.
Go now into God’s beautiful and creative world to enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord lift up his heavens upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Embrace & Kiss
Erica and Jimmy, you may kiss.
Introduction of the Couple
It is my pleasure to introduce for the first time, Erica Chun and Jimmy Yung!