Entrance
Music: 
“The
Sum Of Us” (CJS Edit) by Minuit.
Celebrant: Nicholas Walker
Tihei, mauri ora. E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, kei ti mihi au
ki a koutou.
Ki nga mate kua haere ki te po, tena koutou.
Ko Mangere tena maunga, Ko Manukau te moana, ko Waiohua nga tangata whenua
raua ko.
Ihumatou te marae o te rohe nei no reira e mihi ana ahau kia a koutou.
Haere mai ki te whare purehu.
Kia haere nga manuhiri, nga whanau Crabbe me Smith.
Kia haere nga hoa a Carl me Paula.
Ka nui to tatouaroha, to tatou piripono o tenei ra ataahua, tena koutou,
tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
Welcome. On behalf of us all I have just taken the liberty of acknowledging our proximity to Mangere the mountain, Manukau the harbour, Waiohua the people and Ihuniatou their marae, and the ancestors who belong to this place.
My name is Nicholas Walker, and it is my pleasure and honour to conduct the ceremony today celebrating the wedding of Paula Michelle Crabbe and Carl Jonathan Smith.
Before we proceed any further though, I have been asked to make you aware of some arrangements for this afternoon:
- Following our ceremony we will be served champagne and juice, and for those of you who would like to partake in any other drinks, there will be a cash bar serving until six pm.
- Photographs will be taken in the Lepidoptiary. You will be called for in the appropriate groupings during this time. We may all visit the Butterfly enclosure throughout the afternoon, until it closes at 5.30.
Marriage is many things to many people. Someone like myself who has married relatively recently would probably have different perspectives than those who have been married for decades. However, I would venture there are a few things we would all agree on when it comes to thinking about marriage.
Marriage is a beginning. From the day Carl and Paula announced their engagement, we — their family and friends — have felt a sense of something new and something growing.
No matter how long the pre-nuptial period, the proposal (and acceptance) of marriage represents a significant step in the evolution of their relationship.
Marriage is between two people. But it exists within a community of family, and of friends.
Today, Carl and Paula occupy the centre of our collective and undivided attention and affections. After today, the great joys and the great work will really start. In the weeks, months and years to come, they will share life's challenges – big and small. They will make decisions together – important and trivial. They will take what comes – for better or for worse. I hope that as their family and friends, we will continue in the years to come, to offer Carl and Paula the love and support which is evident today.
Most of all, of course, marriage is about love. Love creates a marriage, and a marriage depends on love to grow. Love is the mysterious spark which kindled your relationship and love is the steady flame which keeps it alive. Your marriage today is a declaration of your love for each other. It is a declaration made to each other, and to all of us gathered as witnesses.
Paula and Carl have chosen two readings for today's ceremony, which reflect their feelings about love, and each other. I would now like to invite our friend, Kirsten Lander, to recite the first of these readings.
When
you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same
way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to
pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so
little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We
leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid
it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity;
when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in
fluidity – in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free,
barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.
Carl and I have known one another for half our lives and I heard quite a bit about Paula over that time as she was a friend of his. Since their friendship became a relationship almost five years ago it has been truly wonderful seeing their happiness grow and flourish.
I've observed that they bring out the very best in each other, and with them both living full and busy lives I've seen them support the other in every new endeavour. As a couple they are marvellously generous with their time and talents, to the benefit of us, their friends and family.
Amongst this they still find time to dote on their two charming cats Calvin and Lydia, whose bright eyes and shiny coats are testimony to Carl and Paula's ability to create a warm and loving home. It is clear that they are totally comfortable with themselves, and are completely in love. I therefore have no reservation indeed and every encouragement in leading this ceremony to its happy conclusion. The second reading is transcribed from a song by one of Carl and Paula's favourite musicians, which they feel perfectly sums how they feel about each other and their relationship. This will kindly be read for us by Madeline Smith.
Every
time I look at you, the world just melts away
All my troubles, all my fears, dissolve in your affections
You've seen me at my weakest but you take me as I am
And, when I fall, you offer me a softer place to land.
I get mad so easily, but you give me room to breathe
No matter what I say or do, because you're
too good to fight about it
Even when I have to push, just to see how far you'll go
You won’t stoop down to battle, but you never turn to go.
Your love is just the antidote when nothing else will cure me
There are times I can’t decide, when I can’t tell up from down
You make me feel less crazy when otherwise I'd drown.
But you pick me up and brush me off and tell me I'm OK
Sometimes that’s just what we need to get us through the day
You're the one true thing I know I can believe in.
You're all the things that I desire, you save me, you complete me
You're the one true thing I know I can believe.
I now ask Paula Michelle Crabbe and Carl Jonathan Smith to take each other's hands and speak their chosen vows of marriage.
Paula/Carl,
today, in front of our friends and family, I choose you to be my husband/wife.
You are my best friend, the person with whom I share my dreams and my fears.
You
have shone a light into my darkest times and have helped me to become
a better person through it. I am grateful for all you have given me, and
I promise to spend the rest of my life giving it back.
I will trust and
respect you; I will be honest with you; I will grow with you and support
you. Whatever lies ahead I will face it with you.
Chris, may we have the rings, please?
Paula/Carl, I give you this ring as a symbol of the promises I have made to you today. I love you and I am honoured to be your husband/wife, your faithful partner in life.
Paula and Carl, you have spoken your vows before your gathered family and friends. You are wearing your wedding rings given as symbols of these. You have fulfilled the legal requirements for marriage.
I now pronounce you husband and wife!
Exit Music: 
“Won’t
Give In” by The
Finn Brothers.
