My name is Jeff Oates and I am very pleased to officiate that is very joyous occasion here today. On behalf of ______________ and ____________ I would like to welcome you all and ask that you join with us in the spirit of love and joy while we join these two people in marriage.

I am duly authorised by law to solemnize marriages according to law.

Before you are joined in marriage in my presence and in the presence of these witnesses, I am to remind you of the solemn and binding nature of the relationship into which you are now about to enter.

Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a women to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.

We, who have gathered here today are privileged to witness and to participate in a ceremony celebrating, the public acknowledgment of a love which ____________ and ____________ have for each other, knowing that by our presence here with them, we are saying that they, together, are loved by many others. We have come to surround them as they stand before us, where now ____________ and ____________ in essence say, "Welcome to our marriage! Welcome to the Celebration!"

When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way from moment to moment. That is impossible. It is even a disservice to pretend it is possible. Yet that is what most of us demand. We have such little faith in the ebb and flow of life and of love and of relationships. We leap forward at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb, for we are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanence, on duration, on continuity. But the only continuity possible in life, as in love, is in growth, in flexibility and in freedom, as dancers are free barely touching as they pass, but partners in creating the same pattern.

I speak now to ____________ and ____________ of love, in which, the trust and freedom of the other person becomes as significant as the trust and freedom of one's self.

I speak to them of generosity, which gathers the beauty of earth for riches and the kindness which turns away the wrath of foolish men and women.

I speak of all our hopes for their continued growth through patience, one for the other.

May ____________ and ____________ keep the vows made on this day, in freedom, teaching each other who they are, what they yet shall be, enabling them to know that, in the fullness of being, they are more than themselves and more than each other, that they are all of us and that together we share joyously the fruits of life on this Earth, our home.

Do you ____________, knowing this man's love for you and returning it, realizing his strengths and learning from them, recognizing his weaknesses and helping him to overcome them, take ____________ to be your lawfully wedded husband?

I do.

Do you ____________, knowing this woman's love for you and returning it, realizing her strengths and learning form them, recognizing her weaknesses and helping her to overcome them, take ____________ to be your lawfully wedded wife?

I do.

I call upon the persons here present to witness that I __________ take you __________ to be my lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ‘till death shall part us.  And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

I call upon the persons here present to witness that I __________ take you __________ to be my lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ‘till death shall part us.  And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

May this ring forever be to you the symbol of my growing love.

May this ring forever be to you the symbol of my growing love.

May these two find happiness in their union, may they live faithfully together,

executing the vows they have made between them; and may they ever remain compassionate and encouraging, that their years may be rich with the joys of life, and their days be long upon the Earth.

It now gives me great pleasure, by the authority vested in me, to pronounce that ________________ and _______________ are husband and wife.

(The groom is invited to kiss his bride)

The Celebrant invites the bride and groom with the bridal party and the parents to retire to sign the register and certificates.

Ladies and gentlemen please let’s all be upstanding and greet for the first time Mr and Mrs _____________________ with applause.