I am honored.

I often tell the couples I marry how honored I am to officiate their wedding ceremony.  By definition honor means to be privileged and to regard with great respect.  I am always humbled when I am asked to serve as the officiant at a wedding.  I believe in marriage and in building a future as a team.  The culmination of the decision to spend life together is the wedding ceremony. 

Anyone who knows me well knows I love a wedding.  I am not just referring to a grand event but also the quiet, intimate smaller affairs.  Equally with their unique beauty and personality, a wedding is a momentous occasion in anyone's life.  

I can't tell you how much I am blessed to witness true joy and love in the beautiful moments when two people are vowing forever to each other.  With all the challenges in the world, that very special moment renews my faith in love and everything that love can accomplish.

As a married person myself, I am not naive.  I understand that marriage is not a series of wedding ceremony moments, but rather it is a mutual understanding that no matter what, we will row together.  The exciting moments and the mundane are all part of the life of a marriage.  Knowing the one you love will be there through all of it, the wedding, the honeymoon, the mortgage, the welcoming of children, the financial obligations, the repairs to cars and homes, the dynamics of family relationships, the illnesses, the deaths, the births, the arguments, the cuddling, the pets, the over scheduled calendar, the celebrations, the sorrows, the happiness and the challenges makes life rich and full.

I selfishly find great joy in those first moments of "I do". Witnessing and facilitating those first moments in a marriage and feeling the great promise of love is one of my greatest blessings.

I am honored.