Together – Forever! Part 50:
The ceremony

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"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!