Planning Your Lgbtq Wedding

In over twenty years of ministry, I have married hundreds of couples. Every couple has brought unique elements to their wedding, but they have all shared the decision to express their love before family and friends in a relationship that carries both societal approval and legal protection. Until recently, they have also shared one other thing in common-none of these couples were same-sex. It just wasn't allowed. It bothered me that I was allowed to bless a same-sex couple's home, business, and pets, but not their love and their commitment to each other. If God is love, and if the gospel is a witness to this all-encompassing love, why was I not allowed to sanctify and hallow the love of two people created in the image of God, simply because they share a gender? When I assigned the same-sex couples a wedding planning book to choose language for their service, I quickly realized that the book I had assigned to hundreds of cisgender couples was utterly void of appropriate language and material for same-sex services. This book is a response to that void. In its pages, you will find all the elements of a standard marriage ceremony, but you will find so much more. You will find poems of passionate love. You will find Rituals of Union, representing the joining of your lives: unity candle ceremonies, Sand ceremonies, wine ceremonies, even Celtic rituals like "Tying the Knot." You will find two beautiful Blessing of the Hands readings to use before the giving and receiving of rings. But above all, you will understand what each element of the marriage ceremony represents and how to use this knowledge to create a beautiful service that is uniquely your own. And so, allow this book to lead you on a journey of discovery-a journey that helps you understand what you and your partner hold sacred, a journey that transforms this understanding into a service that will draw you closer together, a journey that will deepen the relationship you have chosen to celebrate and solemnize in marriage.