Wedding toast for my son and his bride

I love to write, to put words together and give meaning and order to my life. I’ve written poems, legal briefs, affidavits, articles, tributes for loved ones who’ve passed, among many other items.

As writers, we relish opportunities to create with our words. In my previous post, I wrote about the difficulty I was having writing a wedding toast for my son and his bride and how I eventually found my way. Below is the toast I read this weekend at their wedding. (Yes, that’s them in the photo!)

Congratulations, Cliff and Angie. I am so honored to be able to give this toast to you.

As a writer, I believe that words are spells. Our words can be used as weapons, to tear people down. Or our words can be used as blessings, to build people up.

As parents, we try to do our best to build our children up, to protect them from the world, to equip them to follow their dreams and live a meaningful life. We hope that they learn to be compassionate, loving, and true to themselves. We hope that they find friends who love them and build them up as we do. We hope that they eventually find a partner to share their life with love and laughter. As parents of these two young people, I know that we are all relieved, today, that they have found each other. Because these two young people are everything that we have hoped for.

But we don’t raise a child in a vacuum. It takes a village or a community to raise a child. I’d like to acknowledge all the people here today who helped raise these two beautiful people, who offered their support and their love over the years. We thank you for helping us raise our children. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Yet, it’s not just the parents or the village who are important here. I’d like to also thank all of Cliff and Angie’s friends—those friends who we dreamed would come into our children’s lives. We thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for being in Cliff and Angie’s lives. We thank you for offering them your love and support. We thank you for being there to guide them into their future.

I’d like to end by reading a poem by Rumi (added onto by me):

This Marriage – Ode 2667

May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May it be sweet milk, 
this marriage,
like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade
like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
our every day a day in paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcome
as the moon in a clear blue sky.
May this marriage promote friendship
among yourselves and others.
May this marriage bring you ever closer
to God and your soul’s purpose.
May this marriage be like the wind
in the trees, ever moving and sweet.
May you never run out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage.