The Ceremony

Because I want a record of it, and we all know anything posted on the internet is forever.

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Good afternoon and welcome.

We have gathered together to celebrate the marriage of Chris Horsfall and Lauren Cude. Marriage is a promise born of hope between two people who love each other, who trust that love, who honor one another as individuals, and who wish to share their future with each other.

It enables two separate individuals to share their desires, longings, dreams and memories, joy and laugher, to protect, comfort and to help each other through uncertainty. It provides the encouragement to risk more, and thus to gain more.

Chris and Lauren, today you commit yourselves to each other above your separate selves; to valuing your union above your own interests; in doing so you will achieve a sense of peace and love not attainable otherwise. With this joy comes a profound responsibility to each other.

As you enter into marriage, you give thanks for the past, which has brought you to this place and look forward with hope to what the future will bring. As you find union with each other, you proclaim that union today and pledge to preserve it against what storms might come. We, by our participation in this celebration, recognize and honor this commitment.

Today, you are not only committing to your vows and your love. You are committing yourselves to the love you’ll share tomorrow and all the days after.

Chris and Lauren, When there are difficult times, when you doubt the validity your love, bring yourself back to this moment: You have chosen to walk one path together, to bridge the differences between you with love. Remember to respect those differences; learn to understand them, for they are part of why you came to love each other in the first place.

Chris, do you stand before me freely and without reservation, intent on having this woman as your wife? (I do)

Lauren, do you stand before me freely and without reservation, intent on having this man as your husband? (I do)

Chris: I give you my ring, and with it I pledge to you all that I am, and all that I have, and all that may come to me.

Lauren: I give you my ring, and with it I pledge to you all that I am, and all that I have, and all that may come to me.


May you remain positive in times of adversity, and in these times grow together, knowing that your union is stronger than the trouble.

Know that your relationship is based on love and acceptance; use this as a model for your relationship both within and against the invading outside world.

At last, may you live your lives together and in the end say, “because you have loved me, you have given me faith in myself, and because I have seen the good in you, I have faith in humanity.”

Having formally affirmed your commitment to one another now, by the authority vested in me by the Republic of Costa Rica, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

You may kiss the bride.