Are you looking for a Spirit-based wedding ceremony filled with grace, love, and joy? If so, contact Rev. Christina to arrange an appointment to talk about the ceremony of your dreams.

Congratulations on making a powerful, blessed decision to get married!

"Thank you, Rev. Christina, for being such a shining light during our wedding ceremony!" Julie B. and Curtis S.

Rev. Christina absolutely loves officiating at weddings. Her style creates a relaxing atmosphere which allows the wedding party to fully experience the beauty and magic of the joining of two people in love. Christina's wedding ceremonies are truly weddings from the heart. Rev. Christina is honored to work with both straight and same sex couples who wish to unite in marriage.

"Christina, it was such a beautiful ceremony. Thank you for being so flexible and fun." Brad G. and Gord G.

Whatever your spiritual traditions and beliefs are, Rev. Christina works closely with you to ensure that your wedding ceremony is a unique reflection of your love, commitment and union. Her desire is to co-create a personal and customized wedding service that honors your individuality and love. Some couples like to create some of the content of the service, such as vows, readings, and rituals. Others ask Rev. Christina to draw on her experience and her love of Universal Truths to create the entire ceremony.

 

When you are choosing a Minister, please feel free to interview Rev. Christina. You are invited to meet or to talk on the phone to decide if Rev. Christina's style is what you are looking for. After making your decision, the next step is to make an appointment to get together to start the planning process. You are encouraged to seek inner guidance about what will make your wedding a true unique reflection of the two of you.

In the planning meeting, Rev. Christina will enjoy the experience of getting to know you, and you will have the opportunity to learn more about the minister you have chosen for your wedding. You will discuss your vision for your wedding ceremony; and review the ceremony elements including your vows, music selections and family involvement in the ceremony. You will also complete and sign the Reservation form and pay your deposit. You will discuss your general plan and ideas for your ceremony location, date, attendants, rehearsal, style and tone. Rev. Christina will have many suggestions, ideas and recommendations for you to consider. She is happy to email you her Wedding Planning Guide prior to the meeting.

Remember to celebrate your love often as you prepare for your Special Ceremony.

Rev. Christina recommends that you take a day off together just to focus on what you really want your special ceremony to express.

Things to consider in your planning are:

•  Is there anything unique and creative you'd like to include in the ceremony?

•  Do you want your ceremony to feel formal, casual, traditional, fun, joyful, etc.?

•  Do you want to personalize your service by writing your own vows or reading to each other?

•  What will you call the service: wedding, marriage, holy union, celebration of love?

•  What will you call yourselves – life partners, husband, wife, lifelong mate, etc?

•  What special musicians and music do you want to use?

•  How will you enter the ceremony location? Who walks with whom?

•  Do you want to begin with a question like who gives away or blesses this couple or bride?

•  What special readings do you want to include? See Sample Readings

•  What vows would you like to use? See Sample Vows

•  Will there be one ring, two rings or no rings?

•  Would you like to use the Unity Candle ceremony or Rose ceremony? See Special Rituals

•  Will you be blending families together and want a Family ceremony? See Family Ceremony

•  How will you be introduced at the end?

Rev. Christina is also available for additional wedding consultations, spiritual counseling, prayer sessions and pre-marriage counseling services.

“John and I want to thank you again and again for your presence at our wedding day, and really for the days before and the days after.  In looking at the pictures it is easy to recall how you held the space for all of us to gather, and in doing so, for me, I was able to relax into that space and be present.  It is difficult to put into words how easy you made this for John and me.  We are really grateful.” – Sally B.

 

On this Page:

• Planning  
• Ceremonies  
• Vows and Readings  
• Special Rituals  

Every ceremony is customized to fit the beliefs and desires of the couple. Here are some sample service elements that you may want to consider using.

Sample Order of Service

The ceremony usually contains the following elements:

Prelude Music and Special Seating

Procession with Special Music

Optional: "Who gives or Who blesses this bride or couple"?

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Music or Solo

Marriage Readings and Minister's Message

Vows and Ring Exchange

Optional: Unity Candle, Rose or Family Rituals

Music or Solo

Closing Prayer and Blessing

Pronouncement, Kiss and Introduction

Recession and Postlude Music

Sample Minister's Messages

Depending on the couple's desire and the other elements included in the service, Rev. Christina will tailor her message for you. Here are three samples that Christina has used in the past:

Ripples of Love

On this day you take a giant step of courage and commitment to love, understand and grow. When a commitment this strong is made by two people, the force of that commitment, love, and courage, reaches out and touches all of us around you, so that our lives are changed and we share a part of your love. Like a stone dropped in a still pond, the ripples of love from this celebration extend and change the world we live in.

Divine Blessing

Today we bless these beloved ones as they join together. We invite the Divine Presence to join us in this ceremony, binding the lives and destinies of ____ and ____. Today they speak and we hear the words that will forever join them. Spirit, we allow the intentions they speak today to stand true over time and run deep as a singing river through the landscape of their lives. We are consciously aware of your Presence with us here in this moment. We see ____ and ____‘s love being nurtured by You, always and forever. May they be comforted and lifted by your strong, loving presence and the love they feel from their family and friends. May these two blessed ones grow gloriously in their own unfolding love. May all the world be blessed by their union. Thank you, God.

Miracle of Love

A wedding is a celebration of the miracle of love, and that's what we are here to do today; to celebrate the fact that miracles do occur. To celebrate the knowing that at any moment, the unexpected can happen and that after almost giving up hope, most inexplicably and wonderfully, the path of our entire lives can change. Through marriage, you join each other at all the levels of your being - body, mind, heart, and spirit. Your joining does not mean losing your individuality, for your individuality constitutes your spiritual being-ness. The longer that you are together developing as individuals and as a partnership, the more you will have to give to each other and your world. Your commitment then, is to Love. It is Love that has brought you here today, and it is Love that calls forth and strengthens the best qualities in each of you. As you fulfill the vows you make here, your life together will be increasingly full of Love, Joy, and Peace, for you are one with God, and God is Love, Joy and Peace.

 

Your vows are the heart of your wedding ceremony. There are many creative, meaningful options for wedding vows. Here are three samples that Christina's couples have used in the past:

Contemporary

____, do you accept ____ as your (partner/husband/wife)? To share his/her life, his/her dreams, and his/her love? To speak honestly and openly to him/her in love? To care for him/her tenderly, to honor his/her commitments and encourage him/her in all he/she may do? To respect his/her needs and fulfill them through all the changes life may bring to him/her? I do.

Love of My Life

____, I have found you and you are my soul mate. You are the love of my life. I ask you to share your life with me in sickness and health. To share your hopes and dreams, your joys and sorrows through fortunes good and bad. I ask you to be my partner in life. I promise to love, honor and respect you. To nurture you and support you and to celebrate the beauty of our love and life together, everyday. Do you ____, take ____ to be your (partner/husband/wife)? I do.

Traditional

____, do you take ____ to be your lawfully wedded (partner/husband/wife)? To love him/her and honor him/her, nurture and sustain him/her, through times of darkness, as well as light, from this day forward? Do you commit before God to honor this vow, all the days of your lives? I do.

Readings

Your wedding readings serve to enhance your personal feelings about love and marriage. Couples usually select one or two readings from the hundreds of available writings. Here are four readings that Christina's couples have used in the past:

From The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

I share these words: “Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone,
Even as the strings of the lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping,
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in one another's shadow.”

Why Marriage? - Author Unknown

Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body.
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me,
Who won't hold them against me,
Who loves me when I'm unlikable,
Who sees the small child in me, and
Who looks for the divine potential in me.
Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night
With someone who thanks God for me,
With someone I feel blessed to hold.
Because marriage means opportunity
To grow in love in friendship.
Because marriage is a discipline
To be added to a list of achievements...
Because marriages do not fail, people fail
When they enter into marriage
Expecting another to make them whole.
Because, knowing this,
I promise myself to take full responsibility
For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness.
I create me, I take half of the responsibility for my marriage
Together we create our marriage.
Because of this understanding
The possibilities are limitless.

Wedding Prayer - Apache Tradition

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

First Corinthians 13 - New International Version Bible

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres…

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

A Candle Ceremony

Many couples choose to use the Unity candlelighting ceremony which is a moving visual tribute to your love and its basis in Spirit. For this ritual you need two individual candles, a white candle that represents the Divine (or Christ) and one larger Unity wedding candle. Here is sample text that Rev. Christina's couple's have used in the past:

Today we joyfully honor the joining of the spiritual love lights within ____ and ____.

A legendary rabbi and teacher once said, “from every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls are destined to find one another, their two streams of light flow together and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being.” Today, we celebrate this truth!

You see before you two single candles. Each symbolizes the uniqueness and individuality you bring to this union of two souls. ____ and ____ have chosen two candles in the shape of Yin and Yang, the Zen circle of balance. The black and white shapes represent the interaction of two energies, called "yin" and "yang" or heaven and earth, which underlie all of life. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white. Each of them contains an element or seed of the other, each interdependent and reinforcing the other.

Now, please light your candles. I ask each of you to take your individual candles and light the special Unity candle you have selected for this sacred occasion. The new flame of the Unity candle represents your two hearts merging into one. In keeping with the sacred vows you have taken, I ask you to turn to this candle and see it as a symbol of your pure, united love.

This Unity candle also represents the light and love that is now burning in your hearts. It represents heaven and earth. Yin and yang coming together. It is your special candle to light on each wedding anniversary. May it rekindle the memories and love you feel in your heart in this moment.

____ and ____ as you hold these thoughts and feelings of love in your hearts, please close your eyes. I invite you to turn your attention within. Take a few silent moments to dedicate your lives to one another and to the divine purpose for which the two of you have come together.

We ask your families and friends gathered here today to bless your sacred love, and to offer their love and support throughout your married life.

A Rose Ceremony

This ceremony creates a special way to say "I Love You" throughout all the years of your marriage. For rose ceremony, there are two red roses and a special vase. Here is sample text for this ritual that Rev. Christina's couples have used in the past:

A red rose has always symbolized “True Love”, with a message that means “I Love You”. The special red roses here will be your first gifts to each other as a married couple. You are giving these powerful symbols of love to each other to make an impression that will last throughout your marriage.

I'd like you each to take a rose from the vase. Now please give your rose to each other as a special gesture and gift of love. You have selected this special vase to hold these roses today and throughout all the years of your marriage. Together, I ask you to select a special place in your home and future homes that you can make into your altar (or corner) of love. This is where the vase will always sit waiting for an expression of “True Love”.

On every wedding anniversary, I invite you both to separately buy a rose for your loved one and place it in your special vase. This important ritual will serve as a recommitment to your marriage. It will remind you of the vows you have made today and the beautiful truth that your relationship is based on spiritual love.

In every relationship, there are times when it's difficult to tell each other how we feel. It may be hard to say “I apologize, I forgive you, I am hurting” and sometimes even “I love you” when we're feeling angry or resentful. Whenever this happens, I invite either one of you to place a rose in the vase on your altar of love.

When this happens you will both notice and therefore understand that in spite of what may be going on the rose is saying; “I still love you”. This will be a precious reminder of the commitment you are making today, on your wedding day. Let us have a moment of silence as we focus on this commitment to love.

A Family Ceremony

When married couples have children from a previous relationship a family ceremony can be used as a sacred way of including both generations. Adult and young children can be recognized and honored as an important part of this wedding ceremony. Often the couple will write a unique message for their children which is also included. Here is sample text for a family ceremony that Rev. Christina's couples have used in the past:

This ceremony today is to recognize something very special that is taking place.

(To Bride's Children) Your mother and ____ are very happy that you are here participating in this ceremony. And (To Groom's children) Your father and ____ are very happy that you are here participating in this ceremony.

In this wedding, we honor the new relationship that is being formed between ____ and ____ as they become united in marriage. And there is another very special part of this ceremony. It is to honor your new family that is being formed today. In this new family every member has a special part to play, whether it is father, mother, daughter or son.

(To the children) ____ and ____ want you to know that your part in this new family is a cherished one. (Bride) ____ realizes that she can never take the place of your birth mother, and she supports the love you have for her. And at the same time, on this day, she commits to you, her motherly love. (Groom) ____ realizes that he can never take the place of your birth father, and he supports the love you have for him. And at the same time, on this day, he commits to you, his fatherly love.

Please join hands and let the circle that is formed be symbolic of the love that weaves this family together. In a moment of silence may each of us bless and celebrate this new family.

Contact Rev. Christina to arrange an appointment to discuss the wedding ceremony of your dreams.