love, lindsey kaye: Team McLeod : Your Hand in Mine

Good afternoon, everyone! Welcome, all of you, on this wonderful, beautiful, important day! I know many of you came a long way to be here, but short or long, your efforts and your presence honor Collin and Lindsey, and they thank you so very much for being here with them.

Again, for your listening pleasure.

I’m Fred. My wife, Suzanne, and I are very lucky to be neighbors of Collin’s parents, Craig and Erin, for many, many years now and it’s my distinct honor to officiate at today’s ceremony.

Christmas... it’s a magical time, isn’t it? It’s all about wonderful things, especially love for one another, and celebration of that love? How do we manifest that love? Through gifts, of course. Our families often visit each other next door on Christmas Day to see who’s opening what and we’ve seen a lot of surprises opened over the years, but nothing like what we saw on Christmas Day 2006. Gifts were being exchanged when we all heard a gasp, dropped what we were saying or doing, and looked at Lindsey just in time to see her stunned…over a ring. And with all of us as silent witnesses, Collin asked Lindsey to marry him. It’s one of those beautiful moments frozen forever in time for us, and Collin’s gift was the gift that truly keeps on giving - because here we are today to celebrate that gift, that love.
Collin and Lindsey, marriage challenges us to share the same journey without abandoning the truth of our individuality; to not lose ourselves in one another, but rather walk side by side, heading in the same direction. As with all relationships, marriage is an endless presentation of choices about how we want to be with one another.
Always protect, affirm, and support each other, and be brave about sharing your vulnerabilities. Always remember that your friendship and the shared values of respect, honesty and trust are the reason that you have chosen to build a life together. Enjoy the intertwining of your independence with your intimacy.
As your relationship began, distance separated you both. Your love could only be shared from the sound of your voice, and communicating that love, that practice which you follow to this day, has helped make the bond between you strong. I wish you the courage to keep your hearts open to each other for the rest of your lives.

I will now ask Meggan, Collin’s sister, to read a few words by two of Lindsey’s favorite authors.
"We never need to say anything to each other when we're together. This is - for the times when we won't be together. I love you... as selfishly as the fact that I exist. As selfishly as my lungs breathe air. I breathe for my own necessity, for the fuel of my body, for my survival. I've given you, not my sacrifice nor my pity, but my ego and my naked need. This is the only way you can wish to be loved. This is the only way I can want you to love me.... that love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. ...Once you've felt what it means to love as you and I know it – the total passion for the total height – you're incapable of anything less."
Ayn Rand - an excerpt from The Fountainhead
"For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow."
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
In the words of the Supreme Court of California, “Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other brings stability to our society… Civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition.”
Marriage may shape your lives through your personalities, giving them potential to take on exciting new interests, traditions, hobbies and ambitions. It may strengthen your faith, your drive; it may skew your schedule, nay, become your schedule, but only one thing is certain – marriage will change your lives.
This meaningful decision should be based purely in love. Always remember that your ability to marry the person you love is a privilege - and that this privilege and your chosen partner in life should never be taken for granted.

If you will, please take a moment to enjoy the nature that surrounds you as Collin’s soul brother, Kevin, recites a short reading of Scripture from Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13, 8:6-7
¹⁰ My beloved spoke and said unto me, `Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.¹¹ For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.¹² The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.¹³ The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.'"
⁶ "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."⁷ "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised." I ask you to remember that love is faith. Love is not only a faith in God, but a faith in one another. Love is trust; it is acceptance. Love will be the foundation of all abiding and deepening relationships. No other vows are more sacred than those you assume today. Your vows are to be given to each other, and you will need the continuing love, support and understanding of your other to keep them. If able to keep the vows you take here today, not because of any religious or civic law, but out of a desire to love and be loved by another person fully, without limitation, then your life will have joy and the home you establish will be a place in which you both will find the direction of your growth, your freedom, and your responsibility.

Do you, Lindsey, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, freely choose now to speak the words that will unite yours and Collin’s lives in marriage? Do you promise to treat him with boundless love and respect, to be faithful in mind, heart, and hands, and to honor the vows you will make here today for the rest of your lives?I do.

Do you, Collin, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, freely choose now to speak the words that will unite yours and Lindsey’s lives in marriage? Do you promise to treat her with boundless love and respect, to be faithful in mind, heart, and hands, and to honor the vows you will make here today for the rest of your lives?I do.

From that moment of Yes when your engagement began until this moment of Yes, you have been making promises and agreements in an informal way. All those conversations that were held riding in a car or over a meal or on long walks—all those sentences that began with "When we're married" and continued with "I will and you will and we will"—those late-night talks that included "someday" and "somehow" and "maybe"—and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of wedding.
The symbolic vows you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, "You know all those things we've promised and hoped and dreamed—well, I meant it all, every word."

Please repeat after me;

I, Lindsey, take you, Collin, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.

I, Collin, take you, Lindsey, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.

Collin and Lindsey’s love is strong and growing stronger, but in reality, the community around them is what will truly support the growth of that love. Not just this county, city or neighborhood, but all of you, the ones whose love is present here today.

You are precious to them; precious throughout their lives and their history together, and in sharing this special day with the Palmers and McLeods. In Scottish wedding lore, the uniting of families through marriage brought forth peace and good will among clans, strengthening all extended family in love and support. The pinning of the groom’s tartan upon the bride is a tradition of the Scots that has existed for millennia, and we ask you kindly to join in that tradition by reciting with us the Scottish wedding blessing.

Through these words, may you bestow your wishes for everlasting love, your high hopes and prayers for Collin and Lindsey as they begin their new lives together. In all the experiences of life, may they always stay close to you and to each other as they share the joys and blessings as well as the trials and heartaches. Help them to honor and keep the promises made here today, and remind them of your great love for them, so they in turn, may reach out in love to others.

Erin and Craig, will you join us here under the oak?

If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.
So let it be.

May I have the rings please?

A ring is a circle, and the circle is sacred and absolute. It is the circle of the planets and their paths, of the sun and the moon, of time and timelessness. Of LP's, CD's and 45's. Of drum shells and the microscope lens. The path we make when we leave and come back to where we started, and the earth from which we are born and to which we shall return. Complete and never-ending, the circle, and these rings, symbolize the unity in which your lives are now joined and to which, wherever you go, you shall always return.

These rings will serve as a constant reminder to each of you the vows you have made on this special day. Let them not determine the path of your lives, but instead keep in your memory the beautiful affection and admiration you share for one another.

Lindsey, please repeat after me and place this ring on Collin’s finger;

Collin, I give to you this ring as a token of my love and devotion, my faith in our strength together, and my promise to learn and grow with you.
With this ring, I thee wed.

Collin, please repeat after me and place this ring on Lindsey’s finger;

Lindsey, I give to you this ring as a token of my love and devotion, my faith in our strength together, and my promise to learn and grow with you.
With this ring, I thee wed.May God be with you and bless you,May you see your children’s children,May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings,May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.