Officiating a wedding

I have now officiated my first wedding, and what a great day it was!

Two friends, people I have known for several years, coming together and committing themselves to one another.

The service was fun, packed and very meaningful.

Here is what I learned from the process.

1. Traditional Churches have such a huge missional opportunity in our culture through weddings
2. When it comes to wanting to plan a wedding service the best resources I could find were Anglican
3. Writing everything out was vital for me, as those legal bits are important!
4. A massively important thing is that the couple are being themselves in the songs, the fashion, the style of the service. It feels right if their friends and family know it is "them"
5. It is great to have people who know them well lead the prayers.

It leaves us towards the end of our 3 weddings in 4 weeks in the Church. That is the problem with all this pastoral advice that suggests Christians who are committed to each other for life should marry: they actually do!