Together
– Forever! Part 50:
The
ceremony
--------------------
"Dear
Friends and family,
we are gathered here at this hour to
celebrate the drawing together of two lives. We have come so that
Prue and Andy may be joined in marriage. We have come together to
share in this day of triumph, this day of great joy! This commitment,
which is based upon trust, friendship and love, shall unite,
strengthen and protect them along their path of marriage, which they
begin here today in the presence of these beloved family members and
friends.
Prue and Andy, today you stand here within the charmed
circle of your love. But true love is not a total absorption in each
other; it is, rather, looking ahead in the same direction together.
This love is patient, selfless, generous, and kind. Love is by far
the most important thing of all. It is the fulfilling of life. There
is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer, no door that
enough love will not open, no gulf that enough love will not bridge,
no wall that enough love will not throw down, no error that enough
love will not redeem. Through love we can come to know the beauty of
unity and wholeness.
It is said that love is the highest
experience that comes to mankind. It asks that we step out beyond
ourselves to enrich the life of the beloved, to reduce our
selfishness, to deepen our personalities, to make life more
meaningful. This joining together in marriage is not to be taken
lightly, but undertaken with consideration and respect both for the
beloved and for ones self.
Prue and Andy, this love you share
makes burdens lighter because you divide them, makes joys more
intense because you share them, makes you stronger individually so
you can reach out and become involved with life in ways you dared not
risk alone.
New challenges may arise in your life together, but
you can meet them all! Love's quiet patience and tender wisdom will
always prevail, for love is spirit in action, and great is its power
to heal and reveal the truth.
May the two of you through the years
bear witness to a life of unconditional love based upon respect,
trust, friendship and dedication. Your commitment to be united in
marriage, the essence of which is the taking of another person in
their entirety-as a lover, friend and companion-is therefore to be
taken both with great joy and quiet reflection.
We are gathered
here in joyous thanksgiving for the love that has united Prue and
Andy. We celebrate not only for them but also for ourselves, for we
are inspired by their joy and delighted by their happiness and
fulfilment. It brings into our midst new waves of love and fullness.
We give thanks for this beautiful day, for this marvellous occasion,
and for the love which is the gift that has brought them each to the
other, and now touches all of us!
Prue and Andy, as you now
prepare to take your wedding vows, will you please face one another
and take each other's hand."
Prue and Andy both got up. Prue
turned around and got a paper from Piper. Andy did the same and got
one from Leo. Both turned back to each other and grabbed the other's
hands, then looked at each other while standing right before the
priest.
"Prue... you may start"
Prue nodded and took a
deep breath before finally starting to read her vow
"I actually
only wrote this yesterday, as I never found the right words. But
yesterday Piper gave me the best topic for my vow. I hope it was
worth the waiting."
Prue said grinning slightly and then looked
down
"Just look down. What do you see? Is it my hands in yours
or yours in mine?"
Prue opened her vow and then looked at Andy
and threw him a smile, before biting her lip and continuing
"Hands
can resemble, can mean and can show so much."
Prue
continued and then looked back down on her notes
"I look back at
all the years we spent together and I see these hands doing so much.
I see my hands giving you something and also receiving something from
yours. I see all the countless times we held each others hands, our
hands stroking the others, caress the other, rub the other's back.
I see your thumbs pushing tears..."
Prue stopped for a second to
take another calming breath
"away from my eyes and cheeks and I
see them, as they carved our initials into a tree. I see our hands,
how one gives the other a small squeeze to give the other strength. I
see your hands lifting my chin up, so I would have to look into your
eyes, so you can tell me how much you love me."
Prue once again
bit her lip, trying to still suppress her tears. They agreed on Prue
reading her vow first, so she was faster done with them
"Today I
not only want to lay my hands into yours, as I did already so many
times before. Today I also want to lay May life into your hands. From
today on, our hands won't be the only things, which are linked: it'll
also be our lives."
Finally a few tears prang out of her eyes
and rolled down her cheeks. She cleared her throat before continuing
with a shivering voice.
"Today our future is going to start,
what I think is enough of a reason for me to have the question in my
mind 'what HOLDS the future for us?' but I don't care, as long
as my hands rest like this in yours. I see our hands doing so much
more in our future. I see you kissing your hand and blowing it at me,
cause u are too lazy to get up and walk back up to me to kiss me. I
see our hands creating and decorating our new home. I see our hands
writing little love notes, when we're not able to see each other
for a few days. I see your hands, as they protectively wrap
themselves around me, so I can hide from all the problems, from all
the troubles of the world in them. With these hands, I will cook your
daily meals... at least try to from time to time, since I don't want
to poison you."
Prue said grinning through her tears, which now
freely rand own her cheeks
"I will try to bake you and our
daughter cookies with them. I see you holding our daughter tenderly
with these hands, which look so large and strong, but melt to butter
for our baby. I see you comforting our daughter with them. See them
placing band aids on her hurts. See them ruffling her hair and
brushing tears away. See you protect her with them from all the harm
there possibly can be."
Prue told him, as she saw Andy's
surprised expression at the word 'daughter'
"Today, for this
special day, I see another aspect. I see a special finger. My ring
finger. In only a few minutes a ring, a symbol of our love will be
shining on it. It'll tell everyone who I belonged to. For eternity.
And I promise you today I still will be proud to hold your hands in
mine, when they're already old and wrinkly. Pinky-swear!"
Prue
finished a she sniffled and pulled her tears a little back and then
received a gentle kiss of Andy, which was an attempt on calming her
down.
"Andy"
the priest told him, nodding at him to start.
Andy cleared his throat before looking deep into Prue's eyes, to
find the strength he needed. Prue squeezed his hand gently and smiled
at him
"Today's our wedding day and I'm supposed to tell you
now, how much I love you. I thought for weeks about this, if not even
years. I couldn't find the right words. I started to do researches
about this topic and I had to realize, that there's not only ONE
way to show someone you love, how much you do it.
First of all
there's the simplest thing of all of them: just use another
language! I found 'wo ai nei', what's Chinese, I found 'ich
liebe dich', what's German and I naturally found the famous 'je
t'aime'."
Prue couldn't hold back a grin... it was funny
how Andy tried to involve his powers in this.
"Another great
method to express your love is to find other expressions for 'I
love you'. There's 'I adore you', 'I can't live without
you', 'we are meant to be together', 'you put a spell on
me'..."
Andy said and grinned at her, as she looked at
him
"and 'you're my everything'. Wonderful words for
wonderful women.
The third way is to say it with music. There are
a billion of love songs out there. And I even want to go that far, as
to claim, that there's not one song on the whole world, which
hasn't the topic of love somehow in it. I wanted to give a few
examples and after a lot of headache I decided on those here 'I'm
keeping you forever and for always. We will be together all of our
days' by Shania Twain... or like it is said in 'our' song 'I've
had the time of my life, no I never felt like this before. Yes is
wear. It's the truth and I owe it all to you'..."
again
tears were flowing down Prue's cheeks as the memories and hormones
juts caught up to her
"or to say it with the word of police
'every breath you take. Every move you make. Every bond you break.
Every step you take. I'll be watching you'. Great songs to create
great memories in special times
now last but not least there's
nothing to say, but something to do. All those little things that
show the other, you love them like having a candlelight dinner, kiss,
carve your initials into a tree, listen to each other, have a bath or
shower together, give the other nicknames, breakfast in bed... the
list is a never ending story.
I loved all four of those ways and I
made resolutions to show you in all the upcoming years we have
together how much I love you."
'You better'
Prue would
have had mumbled, but the tears made her unable to speak
"But
for today, it just wasn't the right promise. The right actions. The
right words. I never found them. But I found one similarity of all of
them. It's only one single thing necessary to do them: a loved one
by your side. I think that's the greatest way to show someone how
much you love him or her: simply be there... in good and in bad
times... whenever you are needed and unneeded. I'm today here to
give you exactly that promise. To never leave your side again but
instead be there for you and hold your hand 'forever and for
always'."
Prue's eyes were shining even thought tears were
flowing down her cheeks you could clearly tell, it were tears of joy.
Andy again just pecked her lips gently and tried to pull some of her
tears away, then just starred into her eyes, while holding her eyes
awaiting the priest's words
"great... now repeat after me...
I, Andy, take you, Prue, to be my lawful wedded wife"
"I,
Andy, take you, Prue, to be my lawful wedded wife"
"I will
love, honour, cherish and support you in good times and in bad"
"I
will love, honour, cherish and support you in good times and in
bad"
"in sickness or in health, from this day forward, as your
beloved husband"
"in sickness or in health, from this day
forward, as your beloved husband"
"partner
and best friend"
"partner and best friend"
"With all
that I am, and all that our love inspires me to be"
"With all
that I am, and all that our love inspires me to be"
"I promise
you this for all of the days of our lives"
"I promise you this
for all of the days of our lives"
the priest smiled at them and
then looked at Prue
"I, Prue, take you, Andy, to be my lawful
wedded wife"
"I, Prue, take you, Andy, to be my lawful wedded
wife"
"I will love, honour, cherish and support you in good
times and in bad"
"I will love, honour, cherish and support
you in good times and in bad"
"in sickness or in health, from
this day forward, as your beloved wife"
"in sickness or in
health, from this day forward, as your beloved wife"
"partner
and best friend"
"partner and best friend"
"With all
that I am, and all that our love inspires me to be"
"With all
that I am, and all that our love inspires me to be"
"I promise
you this for all of the days of our lives"
"I promise you this
for all of the days of our lives"
both looked more relaxed after
this was through.
"This sacred union of marriage we have just
witnessed is symbolized in the exchange of wedding rings. May I have
the rings please?"
Phoebe and Paige nodded and handed the priest
each one ring
"Your rings have no beginning and they have no
end. For this reason, in the long and sacred tradition of marriage,
rings have come to symbolize eternal love. They have long been given
to lovers by each other as tokens of faith, trust, and hope as well
as a tangible sign of a promise given and kept through the days of
their lives together.
These rings are a symbol of wholeness, unity
and perfection, and like a circle they represent love's endlessness
and very timelessness. They are a symbol of the unbroken circle of
love. Love freely given has no beginning and no end, no giver and
receiver for each is a giver and each is a receiver."
the priest
turned to Andy
"As you place the ring on Prue's finger please
repeat after me:
'With this ring I thee wed and encircle you
with my constant love, faith and devotion.'"
Andy grabbed the
ring and took Prue's left hand into his own. He looked Prue one
more time into the eyes and then repeated again
"With this ring
I thee wed and encircle you with my constant love, faith and
devotion."
then put the ring on her left ring finger and the
priest turned back to Prue
"As you place the ring on Andy's
finger please repeat after me:
'With this ring I thee wed and
encircle you with my constant love, faith and devotion.'"
Prue
grabbed the ring and took Andy's left hand, then a swell, looked
once more at Andy, before
"With this ring I thee wed and
encircle you with my constant love, faith and devotion."
She as
well put the ring on Andy's finger and then smiled up at him
"You
now have each given and received rings as a pledge of your love and
as a symbol of your unity as husband and wife.
Now there is no
more loneliness for you, for each of you will be companion to the
other. Now you are two bodies but there is only one life ahead of
you.
May you build and seek out your dreams as a team. May you
find constant reward and challenge as you pursue the ongoing
adventure of learning who you are and where you want to go together.
May you always have a special sense of your mission in life together
and may you never tire of the endless possibilities of exploring your
shared existence. May your love keep fresh, alive, and growing
always.
Prue and Andy, may God always keep you close to Him and to
each other, and give you joy in each new day. May He bless your
journey into marriage! You have committed yourselves to each other in
this joyous covenant of marriage here, today. May you become as one
and lovingly fulfil the promises you have made here today."
The
couple just barely listened to the priest. They weren't able to
wait for the final words anymore... for the kiss and there the last
few sentences go...
"By the authority vested in me by the State
of California, I now pronounce you to be husband and wife.
You may
kiss."
Prue and Andy smiled at each other a great smile than
they ever had on their lips. As their lips met each other and Andy
tugged Prue into an even tighter embrace while kissing her
The end
To be continued in the
new year, in a new fic!