Officiating My First Wedding

So about 6 years ago I went online and got my minister approval so that I could marry people, specifically two friends. Well long story short, they broke up and the wedding obviously never happened, but I still had my "license". Fast forward to May of last year and my little and only sister got engaged. Then about 4 months ago my sister asked me if I would officiate the wedding!

I was so honored to have been asked to do it, but was hit with my fear of public speaking right when what was being asked of me fully sunk in. Over the months, I would imagine the wedding and my speech and I could feel the nervousness. The one thing that kept going through my head was something I always say to people, "you're only nervous because something great is about to happen." But that did nothing to calm my nerves, not to mention my dislike of flying and dreading that as well.

I never ended writing out my whole speech, but I did it in my head and made an outline with the verses I would use. My mother's side is very religious as my grandfather was a evangelical christian pastor, though I am on my own spiritual path where I open to all kinds of ideas and beliefs and am still finding my groove in that realm (and think I always will). This made being asked to do the wedding all the more interesting. But my sister wanted it to be Christian based so I used 3 basic quotes about love from the bible, but to add my little spin, I used a quote from the Gospel of Thomas which is not officially recognized by the church, but contains what I call 'Jesus' mic drops'. So that was neat. Also to homage to my grand father, I used one of his old bible for the ceremony and that was special to my family.

I was shaking before it all started, but wow, it was amazing! Once I got passed my first nervousness, it rolled out so easily and was the most incredible public speaking adventure I had been on. The nerves were well worth that special day that will be in memory and heart forever. I talked about we all lived together and I saw there love grow and how patient he was with my sister, who may be "crazy" at times, but it is only because she is so passionate and loved deeply. It was a beautiful wedding and was so proud of it all! Congrats Courtney and Taylor!