I Love to Marry People

I love to marry people! This is by far the best ministry I could have chosen. I love to see the looks on the faces of my Brides and Grooms when they say their vows, exchange rings, and it is really exciting when I can pronounce them Husband and Wife!

There are beautiful Brides and misty eyed Grooms and Mom and Pop in the first row are dabbing their eyes and the ring bearers and junior flower girls could not be any more cute.

But the best part is the fact that my couples have the wedding they want in the setting they want with out judgement or hassles. I want to do for my couples what ever they want to do and how they want it done.

Call me at 513.633.2352 or email me at doyouido@hotmail.com - I would love to talk with you about your day.

The picture of the "hippie" couple is my wonderful wife and I on our wedding day - January 25, 1975. Like the hair??

Good luck and God bless.... Rev BB

Laws of the Land

Look at the link for laws by state.
Here is the county locations. http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/united_states/ohio/index.shtml#counties
http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/united_states/kentucky/index.shtml
http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/united_states/indiana/index.shtml

Try Something Different for Your Wedding

Do you want to do something different at your wedding ceremony? Go ahead – it is your day and you can make it even more special by adding a surprise element in the mix.

Here are a few thoughts on things to do.

· Have the Groom walk his Mother down the aisle and then take is place in the front with the minister.
· Have a unity candle
· Try a unity water ceremony. With three vases in place the Bride’s water is red and the Groom’s is yellow. When they are combined they make a new color representing a new family.
· Unity Sand Ceremony – it is the same as the water ceremony but you add the two color sands in layer and then seal and you have a keepsake forever.
· Ring of roses – have the Best Man or the Maid of Honor throw rose petals in a circle around the Bride and Groom to symbolize the circle of love that they are creating this day. The Minister can say some words to that effect while the petals are being placed.
· Share a glass of wine – small amount of wine in a single cup and share this after the ring ceremony.
· First dance immediately after pronouncing the couple husband and wife. The band begins and they dance while all of the guests are still seated.
· Bell Ringers – give each guest a small bell and as the Bride and Groom walk out everyone rings the bells.

Have fun planning your wedding. God Bless…. Rev. BB

I Had to Brag

I had to brag about my grandchildren. Here is a photo of three of the seven. From left to right, Jonah,Evelyn, Isaac. They are good lookin' kids!!!!!

Also another pic of all seven. Jonah, Rowan, Guenivere, Teaghan, Alaina, Evelyn and Isaac. My favorite photo. Rev Ben

Have Fun Planning

http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/stjohncathedral/Resources/weddings.html

http://www.bridesave.com/bookstore/bkstore_vows.cfm

http://www.usabride.com/vows_passages/readings_poems.html

http://www.todays-weddings.com/planning/readings.html

Have some fun planning your wedding with these links.

We Two ~ Kuan Tao-Sheng ~(13th Century)You and IHave so much love,That it burns like a fire,In which we bake a lump of clayMolded into a figure of youAnd a figure of me.Then we take both of them,And mix the pieces of water,And mold again a figure of you,And a figure of me.I am in your clay.You are in my clay.In life we share a single quilt.In death we will share one coffin.

Today~ Unknown ~Today I marry my friend,the one I laugh and cry with,the one I have learned from and shared with.This one I have chosen to support, encourage and give myself to, through all the days given us to share.
Today I marry the one I love.


To you I give my heart …..~ Ruth Van Gramberg ~I stand beside you strong and suremy dearest, dearest friend,And as we make our sacred vowsMy thoughts of you transcend.I give you my heart, my hopes, my dreams
Accept these gifts of mineThey are so precious and fragileThey need your care divine.Treat my trust with gentleness
Treat me with loving careI can but grow with patience and loveAs long as you are there.

To My Bride~ Steven Reiser ~
To my bride, I give you my heartSharing love each day, from the very startTo my bride, I give you my kissFilling each day with joy and blissTo my bride, I give you my beingTo love, to play, to work and to singTo my bride, I give you my mindLearning each day to be more kindTo my bride, I give you my soulGrowing together to be more wholeTo my bride, I give you my lifeRejoicing each day that you are my wife.

Love~ By Roy Croft ~
I love you,Not only for what you are,But for what I amWhen I am with you.I love you,Not only for whatYou have made of yourself,But for whatYou are making of me.I love youFor the part of meThat you bring out;I love youFor putting your handInto my heaped-up heartAnd passing overAll the foolish, weak thingsThat you can't helpDimly seeing there,And for drawing outInto the lightAll the beautiful belongingsThat no one else had lookedQuite far enough to find.I love you because youAre helping me to makeOf the lumber of my lifeNot a tavernBut a temple;Out of the worksOf my every dayNot a reproachBut a song.I love youBecause you have doneMore than any creedCould have doneTo make me good,And more than any fateTo make me happy.You have done itWithout a touch,Without a word,Without a sign.You have done itBy being yourself.
Perhaps that is whatBeing a friend means,After all.
Loving You~ Larry S. Chengges ~ Your love is the best thing that has ever happened to me.It has given my life new priorities and meaning and filled it with joy.Thank you for giving so much of yourselfAnd for helping me to discover so much about myself too.Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself.When we are togetherLove feels so right with youAnd I miss you so much when we are apartI'll always be there for youAnd together I knowWe can make our dreams come true.

Blessings and Readings

Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you,May the wind be always at your back.May the sun shine warm upon your face,The rains fall soft upon your fields.And until we meet again,May God hold you in the palm of his hand.
May God be with you and bless you;May you see your children's children.May you be poor in misfortune,Rich in blessings,May you know nothing but happinessFrom this day forward.
May the road rise to meet youMay the wind be always at your backMay the warm rays of sun fall upon your homeAnd may the hand of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on,May blue be the skies above you,May pure be the joys that surround you,May true be the hearts that love you.

The Prophet by Kahil Gibran
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.To know the pain of too much tenderness.To be wounded by your own understanding of love;And to bleed willingly and joyfully.To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;To return home at eventide with gratitude;And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.

I Ching
When two people are at onein their inmost hearts,they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.And when two people understand each otherin their inmost hearts,their words are sweet and strong,like the fragrance of orchids.

Fidelity by D.H. Lawrence
Man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowersin summer, and love, but underneath is rock.Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae,older than plasm altogether is the soul underneath.And when, throughout all the wild chaos of loveslowly a gem forms, in the ancient, once-more-molten rocksof two human hearts, two ancient rocks,a man's heart and a woman's,that is the crystal of peace, the slow hard jewel of trust,the sapphire of fidelity.The gem of mutual peace emerging from the wild chaos of love.

Shakespeare Wedding Readings

Shakespeare Wedding Readings

Your Guide to Shakespeare.

Let the eloquence of the Bard make your wedding magical.

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no! it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come:Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

("Sonnet 116")My bounty is as boundless as the sea,My love as deep; the more I give to thee,The more I have, for both are infinite.("Romeo and Juliet", 2.2.139-41)Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growest:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

("Sonnet 18")One half of me is yours, the other half yoursMine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, then ours.

Sample Ceremonies

Who brings this woman to marry this man?

This is the time that you have chosen to become husband and wife. We are here not only to witness your commitment to each other, but to wish you every happiness in your future life together. Marriage is founded on sincerity and understanding which leads to tolerance, confidence and trust. We believe that those qualities which have attracted you both to each other, can be best developed during a life spent together. A happy marriage will enable you to establish a home with love and stability where your family and friends will always be welcome.

~~~ READING TWO LIVES ~~~
Two lives, two people, so very different, yet so similar. Together we stand as one, sharing our future as it comes. The past is that past. Buds are yet to blossom, with care and trust, the best is yet to be revealed. Honesty and kindness, are the fruits of love. Lord bless this day and always to enrich us so our love will never end. Before you are joined together in marriage in my presence and in the presence of these your family and witnesses, I am bound to remind you of the solemn and firm nature of the relationship into which you are about to enter. Marriage as most of us understand it, is the voluntary commitment of a man to a woman and a woman to a man to the exclusion of all others and is entered into with the desire, the hope and the firm intention that it will last for life.

~~~ EPHESIANS 5:25-28 and 31-33 ~~~
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh. However each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife respect her husband.

~~~ From the book of RUTH ~~~
And Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God; where you die I will die and there will I be buried. May the lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.
Minister: We shall now say your vows.

VOWS
(Groom): I (Grooms Name) affirm my love to you (Brides Name) as I invite you to share my life. I promise always to respect your needs. I will endeavor through kindness, unselfishness and trust to achieve the warm rich life we now look forward to. To this end I call upon all present to witness that I take you (Brides Name) to be my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health while we both shall live.
(Bride): I (Brides Name) affirm my love to you (Grooms Name) as I invite you to share my life. I promise always to respect your needs. I will endeavor through kindness, unselfishness and trust to achieve the warm rich life we now look forward to. To this end I call upon all present to witness that I take you (Grooms Name) to be my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health while we both shall live.

RING VOWS
Groom: (Brides Name); with this ring I thee wed. Take it and wear it as a symbol of all we shall share.
Bride: (Grooms Name); with this ring I thee wed. Take it and wear it as a symbol of all we shall share.

~~~ Corinthians 1; 13 ~~~
Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited, it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's faults, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope. It is always ready to endure whatever comes. True love does not come to an end.
Minister: You have declared before all of us that you will live together in marriage. You have made special promises to each other, which have been symbolized by the joining of hands, taking of vows and the giving and receiving of two ring's. By the authority vested in me as a Minister in the (State of or Country), I now pronounce you to be husband and wife. Now that the ceremony is over and the experience of living day by day is about to begin, go and meet it gladly.

Embrace each other. (Announce the couple generally Mr and Mrs Grooms Name to the guests.)

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