Saturday, July 22, 2017
5:00 PM
Regale Winery, Los Gatos, California
The Service
Welcome and Greeting
Welcome to this happy occasion! Let me remind you to silent your phones at this time.
On behalf of Mizuho and Dave, I welcome all of you to this place and to this moment when Mizuho and Dave express their love for each other and their desire to live as husband and wife. You are their friends and family, the ones they love, and your presence here demonstrates your friendship and love for them.
Mizuho and Dave have not come today to “get married.” The two of them have already recognized what we as family and friends also recognize, that a marriage does, in fact already exist. For some time, they have experienced a union of mind and emotion, a shared commitment to common ideals and a longing for the public recognition of this united spirit. So today, we gather in this beautiful outdoor place, in the sight of God and these witnesses, to affirm a marriage, to pronounce upon this union the blessing of Christ’s church, and to send Mizuho and Dave forth as husband and wife.
Invocation
Let us pray. O God, we thank you for your presence among us on this joyous occasion. As Mizuho and Dave give themselves to each other, we pray that they might also give themselves to you, offering their shared life in service to your will. In the quietness of these sacred moments, we remember that you planted the seeds of love in the human heart. Now, as Mizuho and Dave, stand before you and their family and friends, we affirm the love that has brought them together. Amen.
Presentation of the Couple
Who present Dave and Mizuho to be married today?
(Parents stand.)
Parents: We do.
(Father of the Bride takes bouquet and takes his seat.)
Message-Completeness
Mizuho and Dave, there is something mysterious but sacred about the bond of marriage. It signifies a commitment like no other commitment. Who would have ever guessed that the two of you would now be one in the sight of God. In some marvelous but real sense, as you come together today in marriage, a union takes place that is beyond our understanding.
While Dave expresses himself through his colorful paintings of flowers, Mizuho uses her words in translation from English to Japanese and Japanese to English.
While East meets the West, you both love to eat at the Olive Garden and at Nordstrom’s Café.
While Dave loves to ride his bike around the Bay, Mizuho would rather walk around the city.
While Dave likes to work with his hands at home renovations or landscaping, Mizuho has a quick and clear idea of what in the house will make her happy.
While Dave likes the simple Mission designs, Mizuho prefers French modern. You now have an eclectic style that you both can call “home.”
As two different and unique persons come together to become one in one another, you are more ready to complete the other. You were able to purchase a historic San Jose home that met both of your hopes—Dave has an art studio in the garage and Mizuho can walk to Whole Foods and Starbucks. The new work that you are doing on this 100-year old home symbolizes the meaning of your marriage—taking old things and making everything new again.
Dave, Mizuho believes that she can attain all that she hopes to be better with you than without you. You complete her and fulfill her. By being in her life, you give her the freedom to be the real person she is.
Mizuho, everything that Dave is and hopes to be, all of his goals and dreams, he now shares with you. Without you, he is less of himself. You complete him; you make him whole.
Teihard de Chardin, a French priest once expressed, “Love alone takes us and completes us by what is deepest within ourselves.”
This gift of completion and love is the gift you give to each other. It is also God’s gift to you on your wedding day because of how God first designed and created you. May God bless you today and everyday from this day forward.
Vows
Dave: I, Dave, take you, Mizuho, to be my wife,
To have and to hold from this day forward,
For better, for worse;
For richer, for poorer;
In sickness and in health;
To love and to cherish,
So long as we both shall live.
Mizuho: I, Mizuho, take you, Dave, to be my husband,
To have and to hold from this day forward,
For better, for worse;
For richer, for poorer;
In sickness and in health;
To love and to cherish,
So long as we both shall live.
Exchange of Rings
Dave and Mizuho have chosen rings to symbolize the constancy of their love for each other. These rings are an outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible grace that unites two hearts in love. They are especially significant because the circle of these rings is a symbol of the unending and enduring quality of the love which Dave and Mizuho share today.
Dave: Mizuho, I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.
Mizuho: Dave, I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.
Wedding Prayer
Let us pray. God of the days, who enables us to make promises and live them in all the seasons of life, we thank you for your sustaining care, your abiding presence, your abundant grace which sustains us through the years. We thank you for the strong, yet flexible ties of marriage that provide a place for us to be at home and give us encouragement to broaden and complete our identity in the wider world. Even now, we acknowledge our struggle to give the time we need for healthy relationships, and the effort we need to love each other.
Bless Dave and Mizuho, as they resolve this day, having found the right person, to be the right person for the other, with your divine help.
God of our lives, we know our need to rely on your love and on the help of family and friends, so we ask you to bless all of us, and guide us, and love us, as we walk in relationship with one another and with you. In the name of our Lord, Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Declaration of Marriage
Dave and Mizuho, because you have come to be joined in marriage and have expressed your commitment to each other in the sight of your family and friends, and in the sight of God, by means of your vows and these rings, I declare that you are now husband and wife!
Embrace and Kiss
You may now kiss.
Announcement
Following the service, you are invited to the Patio for a Reception.
Blessing
Now you will feel no rain
For each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold
For each of you will be warmth for the other.
Now you will have no more loneliness
For each of you will be companion for the other.
Now you are two bodies
But only one life is before you.
Go now to your house together
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
Go out into this world to paint beautiful pictures and to translate for human understanding,
So that the world may become a better place.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
Introduction of the Couple
I am delighted to introduce to you Mizuho and Dave as one in marriage!