African Wedding

Walaya and Tonnjo

We are here today to participate in a most joyous occasion, to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, by acknowledging the wedding of Tonnjo and Walaya.

You are now taking into your care and keeping the happiness of the one person in all the world whom you love. You are adding to your life not only the affection of each other, but also the companionship and blessing of a deep trust as well. You are agreeing to share strength, responsibilities and love.

Marriage is not only a commitment between lovers, it is also an agreement between two friends. Allow each other time to be an individual, respect each other’s wishes as well as their dreams.

Vows

On this special day,

I Tonnjo/Walaya give to you

In the presence of God and these witnesses

My sacred promise to stay by your side as your faithful Husband/wife

In sickness and in health,

In joy and in sorrow,

As well as through the good times and the bad.

I further promise to love you without reservation,

Comfort you in times of distress,

Encourage you to achieve higher goals, laugh with you and cry with you,

Grow with you in mind and spirit,

Always be open and honest with you,

And cherish you for as long as we both shall live.

Ring Passages

My I have the rings please.

This ring by its shape, is a symbol of the undying love that exists between you. The substance of which it is composed is a symbol of purity, which shall ever characterize your mind and hearts in all your relationships together.

The wedding ring is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual bond which unites two loyal hearts in endless love.

Repeat after me

I give this ring in token and in pledge/ of my constant faith and abiding love/ with all that I am/ and all that I will become.

Prayers and Blessings

Father, we thank you for this beautiful day and thank you for Tonnjo and Walaya. We thank you Lord you have brought them safely thus far on their journey. We pray that as you joined their hand and hearts together to become husband and wife that you will bless them. We pray that you will give them strength and courage as they face all the tasks and decisions that lie before them. We also pray Lord that you bless these rings that he and she wear and may they ever strive to walk in your peace living together in unity, love, and happiness with good purpose to do your will. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Sand Ceremony

Tonnjo and Walaya, today you join your separate lives together.

The two separate bottles of sand symbolize your separate lives, separate

Families and separate sets of friends. They represent all that you are and

All that you’ll ever be as an individual. They also represent your lives

Before today. As these two containers of sand are poured into the third

Joined together as one. Just as these grains of sand can never be

Separated and poured again into their individual containers, so will your

Marriage be

Lighting of the candles

Inasmuch as you, Tonnjo and Walaya have consented together in wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God, and these present, and have pledged your faith, each to the other, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the state of Indiana and as a minister of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I now pronounce you husband and wife. I now pronounce you husband and wife.

You may now kiss your bride.

Jumping the Broom

Walaya and Tonnjo will now jump the broom, a ritual with roots in Africa.

As they jump the broom they physically and spiritually cross the threshold in to the land of matrimony.

In honoring this ritual, Walaya and Tonnjo jump together symbolizing

A love that has no end.