On Saturday, April 12th, I was married to Terry Nielsen in the sunshine surrounded by friends and loved ones. We adapted the ceremony from “Conversations With God, Book 3,” by Neale Donald Walsh. I’ll share it with you here:

“Terry and Tanya have not come here today to make a solemn promise or to exchange a sacred vow.

They have come here to make public their love for each other; to declare their choice to live as partners and grow together - out loud and in your presence, out of their desire that we will all come to feel a very real and intimate part of their decision, and thus make it even more powerful.

They’ve also come here today in the further hope that their ritual of bonding will help bring us all closer together. If you are here today with a partner, let this ceremony be a reminder - a rededication of your own loving bond.

We’ll begin by asking the question: Why get married? Terry and Tanya have answered this question for themselves, and they’ve told me the answer. Now I want to ask them one more time, so they can be sure of their answer and firm in their commitment to the truth they share.

You have told me it is your firm understanding that you are not entering into this marriage for reasons of security . . .
. . .  that the only real security is not in owning or possessing, nor in being owned or possessed . . .
. . . not in demanding or expecting, and not even in hoping, that what you think you need in life will be supplied by the other . . .
. . . but rather, in knowing that everything you need in life, all the love, all the wisdom, all the insight, all the power, all the knowledge, all the understanding, all the nurturing, all the compassion, and all the strength . . . resides within you . . .

. . . and that you are not marrying the other in hopes of getting these things, but in hopes of giving these gifts, that the other might have them in even greater abundance.
Is that your firm understanding today?

(We say, “It is.”)

And Terry and Tanya, you have told me it is your firm understanding you are not entering into this marriage as a means of in any way limiting, controlling, hindering, or restricting each other from any true expression of that which is the highest and best within you - including your spirituality, your love of life, your love of people, your love of creativity, your love of work, or any aspect of your being which genuinely represents you, and brings you joy. Is that still your firm understanding?

(We say, “It is.”)

Finally, Terry and Tanya, you have said to me that you do not see marriage as producing obligations but rather as providing opportunities . . .
. . . opportunities for growth, for full Self-expression, for lifting your lives to their highest potential, for quieting every false thought or small idea you ever had about yourself, and for ultimate union with all that is through the communion of your two souls . . .
. . . that this is a journey through life with one you love as an equal partner, sharing equally both the authority and the responsibilities inherent in any partnership, bearing equally what burdens there be, basking equally in the glories.
Is that the vision you wish to enter into now?

(We say, “It is.”)

Terry, please repeat after me.
I, Terry . . . ask you, Tanya . . . to be my partner, my lover, my friend, and my wife . . . I announce my intention to give you my deepest friendship and love . . . not only when your moments are high . . . but when they are low . . . not only when you remember clearly Who You Are . . . but when you forget . . . not only when you are acting with love . . . but when you are not . . . I further announce . . . before our friends and loved ones . . . that I will seek always to see the Truth within you . . . and seek always to share . . . the Truth within me . . . even, and especially . . . in whatever moments of darkness may come.
It is my intention to share my life with you. . . in a partnership of the Soul.

(Minister turns to Tanya)Tanya, do you choose to grant Terry’s request that you be his wife?(I answer, “I do.”)

Now Tanya, please repeat after me.
I, Tanya . . . ask you, Terry . . . to be my partner, my lover, my friend, and my husband . . . I announce my intention to give you my deepest friendship and love . . . not only when your moments are high . . . but when they are low . . . not only when you remember clearly Who You Are . . . but when you forget . . . not only when you are acting with love . . . but when you are not . . . I further announce . . . before our friends and loved ones . . . that I will seek always to see the Truth within you . . . and seek always to share . . . the Truth within me . . . even, and especially . . . in whatever moments of darkness may come.
It is my intention to share my life with you. . . in a partnership of the Soul.

(Minister turns to Terry.)

Terry, do you choose to grant Tanya’s request that you be her husband?

(He answers, “I do.”)

And so now, inasmuch as you, Tanya, and you, Terry, have announced the truths that are already written in your hearts, and have witnessed the same in the presence of your friends, family and your Higher Power, we observe joyfully that you have declared yourself to be . . . husband and wife.