Rose Ceremony
"Your gift to each other for your wedding today has been
your wedding rings - which shall always be an outward
demonstration of your vows of love and respect; and a
public showing of your commitment to each other.

You now have what remains the most honorable title which
may exist between a man and a woman - the title of
"husband" and "wife." For your first gift as husband and
wife, that gift will be a single rose.

In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a
single rose always meant only one thing - it meant the words
"I love you." So it is appropriate that for your first gift - as
husband and wife - that gift would be a single rose.
Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife.
(Sometimes a couple will play a special song at this point).
In some ways it seems like you have not done anything at
all. Just a moment ago you were holding one small rose -
and now you are holding one small rose. In some ways, a
marriage ceremony is like this. In some ways, tomorrow is
going to seem no different than yesterday. But in fact today,
just now, you both have given and received one of the most
valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you always
remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the
devotion of marriage.
_________ and _____________, I would ask that where ever
you make your home in the future - whether it be a large and
elegant home - or a small and graceful one - that you both
pick one very special location for roses; so that on each
anniversary of this truly wonderful occasion you both may
take a rose to that spot both as a re-commitment to your
marriage - and a re-commitment that THIS will be a marriage
based upon love.
In every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find
the right words.
It is easiest to hurt who we most love. It is easiest to be most
hurt by who we most love.
It might be difficult some time to words to say "I am sorry" or
"I forgive you"; "I need you" or "I am hurting". If this should
happen, if you simply can not find these words, leave a rose
at that spot which both of you have selected - for that rose
than says what matters most of all and should overpower all
other things and all other words.
That rose says the words: "I still love you."
The other should accept this rose for the words which can
not be found, and remember the love and hope that you both
share today.
__________ and ________, if there is anything you
remember of this marriage ceremony, it is that it was love
that brought you here today, it is only love which can make it
a glorious union, and it is by love which your marriage shall
endure."
Hudson Valley Ceremonies