Our Wedding Ceremony

SARAH-ROSE MULLIGAN AND CRAIG BURKE

MARRIAGE CELEBRATION

Marriage, Marriage is what brings us together today. Marriage, that blessed arrangement, that dream within a dream …

We have gathered here so that Sarah and Craig may marry each other.

Marriage means making a commitment to developing and maintaining co-operation, friendship, and above all, mutual respect. Marriage means trust, understanding, honesty, patience, humour and lots of encouragement. Marriage means each partner cares for the other, and supports them in what they do.

Marriage demands courage of each partner – the courage to be open, the courage to grow and change, the courage to sort out together the tasks of everyday living.

Marriage requires closeness and distance – closeness for the couple growing together, and enough distance for each partner to be individual. The poet Rilke has said: ‘A good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other the guardian of solitude’.

We have also come together so that Craig and Sarah may publicly make vows to each other.



Sarah and Craig, we rejoice with you today. We are glad to join with you in the celebration of your marriage, to witness your vows, and support you in your intentions for your future life together.




Charlotte Mulligan will now read to us

Love Sonnet by Pablo Neruda
I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.


Craig, will you have Sarah to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and keep her, in sickness and in health, remaining faithful to her as long as you both shall live?

Craig:I will.

Sarah, will you have Craig to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and keep him, in sickness and in health, remaining faithful to him as long as you both shall live?

Sarah: I will.



Bryan, Desiree, Beverley and Euen, do you, the parents of Craig and Sarah, give your blessing to their marriage?

Parents: We do.



Craig: Sarah, I have lived with you and I love you. Today I give myself to be your husband and I take you to be my wife. Whatever life may bring, I will love you and care for you always.



Sarah: Craig, I have lived with you and I love you. Today I give myself to be your wife and I take you to be my husband. Whatever life may bring, I will love you and care for you always.



Wedding rings serve as a symbol of the vows you have just made. They are the outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible love which binds your lives together. As rings are without edge or seam, having no beginning and no end, so they symbolize a love which does not end.



Craig: Sarah, I give you this ring as a token of the vow made between us, and as a sign of my love and affection for you.



Sarah: Craig, I give you this ring as a token of the vow made between us, and as a sign of my love and affection for you.



I now pronounce you husband and wife.

You may kiss the bride



Signing of the Register

Witnesses: Kieran Davies & Petra Lenihan

Performance by Kat Angus of Lovesong by The Cure



There comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take.



To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people thing, a rejection of freedom, rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession but participation then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.



Because it is in the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together you become a new creature.



Sarah and Craig, we extend to you our love and support, may your relationship flourish and grow through a long and happy life together



May you love deeply, laugh heartily, practice patience, and smile often.

May you dream together, grow, give, give in and trust enough to take.

May you see many sunrises, listen to the rain, savour special moments.

May you rediscover each other, listen carefully and always have open hearts

It is with great pleasure that I ask you to welcome amongst you as husband and wife, Craig and Sarah Burke