CIVIL MARRIAGE CEREMONY

between

MERLE TAMM

and

GRANT EDWARD HARVIE

on

Saturday 3 November at 4pm

On board the “Pevensey” paddlesteamer

Conducted by

Carol Williams

Civil Marriage Celebrant

(03) 5482 4535

Introduction and Monitum

Celebrant:

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Carol Williams and on behalf of Merle and Grant, I would like to welcome you all here today. They thank you for being present to witness and share with them the joyous occasion of their marriage.

Love is a miraculous gift and a wedding is a celebration of that magic. We rejoice that miracles do occur, that at any moment the unexpected can happen and the course of our entire lives can change. Today is a celebration for all of us, for it is a pleasure to see love in bloom, to participate in the wedding of two people who want to walk together for a lifetime. Therefore we give thanks for the love shared by Merle and Grant, and their belief in the destiny and truth of their love.

The love story of Merle and Grant began almost a year ago – in fact it will be a year next Tuesday – when two young people met for the first time in the little country town of Jerilderie. Who could have foreseen that within such a short time they would commit to joining their lives together forever.

The Persian poet Rumi has written:

“The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing

How blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They are in each other all along.”

For Merle and Grant, meeting each other was one of those moments when you feel that all life’s adventures in the past were steps along the way, leading you to the one person who you simply can’t live without. It is the moment the dream of your life comes true if you are brave enough to say “yes” to it.

Marriage should be a growing and dynamic relationship, a dream of tomorrow in which we can grow and fulfil our possibilities. It is wondrous when someone else believes in our dreams and wants to live with us and help make those dreams and aspirations come true. Love makes burdens lighter because it divides them, it makes joys more intense because they are shared. It makes you stronger so you can reach out and become involved with life in ways you would not risk alone.

Marriage is the promise of hope between two people, the sheltered environment in which we can endlessly explore and develop ourselves in the knowledge that we can grow and meet life’s challenges together. If you embrace marriage with an open heart, love deepens and matures with compassion and tender caring for each other.

Merle and Grant, stand together and for each other always, be content in mind and spirit and make each day a blessing and fulfilment of your dreams.

We all sincerely hope that you will always hold one another in the light of all light, the love of all love.

Hand-Holding Ceremony

Celebrant: Please face each other and hold hands, so you may feel the gift that you are to one another whilst Gnt’s brother, Ross, will read for us “These Are the Hands”

Ross:

“These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you.

These are the hands holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.

These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future.

These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch will bring comfort to you like no other.

These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief trouble your mind.

These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow and tears of joy.

These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children, and

will help you hold your family together as one.

These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.

And these are the hands that, even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch”.

The Monitum

Celebrant: Now as a Civil Marriage Celebrant, I am duly authorised to solemnise marriage according to the laws of Australia. Before Merle Tamm and Grant Edward Harvie are joined together in marriage in my presence and in the presence of these witnesses, I am to remind them of the solemn and binding nature of the relationship into which they are now about to enter.

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

The Asking

Celebrant:

Do you, Merle, take Grant to be your lawful husband,

To stand by him for the rest of your lives together?

Merle: I do.

Celebrant:

Do you, Grant, take Merle to be your lawful wife,

To stand by her for the rest of your lives together?

Grant: I do.

The Vows

Celebrant hands folder to Merle and Grant

Merle:

I call upon the persons here present

To witness that I Merle

Take you Grant

To be my lawful wedded husband.

Grant:

I call upon the persons here present

To witness that I Grant

Take you Merle

To be my lawful wedded wife.

Merle:

I have dreamed my whole life of having someone as wonderful as you to love me just the way you do. I promise here to treasure for all of my days the love we celebrate today. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep for today, tomorrow and forever.

Grant:

There was darkness for a long time and then there was light, and that light was you. Let us make of our two lives one life, and our love will grow into a bond too strong to break. I will always be there for you in the ups and downs in life as I want you for today, tomorrow and forever.

The Ring Ceremony

Celebrant: The wedding ring is a symbol of the unbroken circle of love, a reminder that love freely given has no beginning and no end, no giver and no receiver, for each is the giver and each is the receiver. The great circle of life itself is symbolised in these small circles on your finger.

Grant:

With this ring I wed you.

Where you go I will go, and where you live I will live.

Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

Merle:

With this ring I wed you.

Where you go I will go, and where you live I will live.

Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

Celebrant: May these rings forever remind you both of the vows that you have shared here today.

Reading

The poet Roy Croft has written a beautiful verse about love that Johnny will now read to us.

I love you

Not only for what you are

But for what I am

When I am with you.

I love you

Not only for what

You have made of yourself

But for what

You are making of me.

I love you

For the part of me

That you bring out;

I love you

For putting your hand

Into my heaped up heart

And passing over

All the foolish, weak things

That you can’t help

Dimly seeing there

And for drawing out

Into the light

All the beautiful belongings

That no one else had looked

Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you

Are helping me to make

Of the lumber of my life

Not a tavern

But a temple;

Out of works

Of my every day

Not a reproach

But a song.

The Wedding Blessing

Ross: I would now invite you all to read with me a native American blessing for Merle and Grant

“Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for each other.

Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth for the other.

Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before.

Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your life together.

And may your days be good and long upon the earth”.

Declaration of Marriage

Celebrant: Merle and Grant, you have promised your love to one another and it is my pleasure to declare you to be Husband and Wife. Congratulations from all of us - the real fun has just begun.

(Grant kisses his bride)

Signing of the Registers and Marriage Certificate

Witnesses: Keith Eden Roe and John Joseph Colossimo

Introduction

Celebrant:

Family and friends, in the tradition of Merle’s home country, Estonia, a bride who is going to take her husband’s name has to “throw away” her maiden name. We are on the River Murray, so Merle’s maiden name will be kept within its deeps forever.

As she signs the paper that will be attached to a stone then thrown in the river, Merle is solemnly making this vow: “I, Merle, known by my maiden name ‘Tamm’ for the very last time, kindly ask everybody in future to call me by the name ‘Harvie’ when praising me as well as backbiting me”.

I am delighted to introduce to you for the first time

“Mr & Mrs Harvie”