Elopement Ceremony Script (About 3 Minutes)

No music. Fia and Ludo walk the last few yards up to the overlook together, holding hands. Nuno and Oriel, their two witnesses, stand off to one side. Minna waits with her back to the view.

Okay. You made it. Catch your breath for a second. There's no rush up here.

Fia and Ludo, it's just the five of us, a lot of wind, and one hawk that's been circling since we got here. You picked this spot on purpose, so I'm going to keep this simple and say it to you instead of to a crowd.

When we talked on the phone last month, I asked you why this trail. Ludo told me about the first time you hiked it together. He took a wrong turn at the second fork and walked you a mile and a half toward a parking lot. Fia didn't say anything until he figured it out himself.

Then she sat down on a rock, pulled that dented green thermos out of her pack, and poured him half of what was left. Cold coffee, she said. It was, apparently, terrible coffee.

You've carried that same thermos up here every October since. Nuno tells me the dent came from the year Ludo dropped it on the switchbacks, and the sticker on the bottom is from a gas station in a town neither of you can remember the name of.

I asked Oriel what she'd want me to say about you two. She said you're the only couple she knows who can sit in a car for an hour without talking and both come out of it in a good mood. Nobody has to fill the space. I think that's why you wanted to do this up here.

That's a pretty good picture of a marriage. Someone's going to take the wrong turn. Someone's going to wait it out. And whoever has something left in the thermos is going to pour half of it out for the other one.

Fia and Ludo have written their own vows. Fia, go ahead.

Fia reads her vows from a folded index card. Then Ludo says his from memory.

Oriel takes the rings out of a zipped jacket pocket and hands them to Minna.

Ludo, put this ring on Fia's hand and repeat after me.

Ludo: Fia, this is my promise. Wrong turns and all, I'm yours.

Fia, put this ring on Ludo's hand and repeat after me.

Fia: Ludo, this is my promise. Wrong turns and all, I'm yours.

Ludo, do you take Fia to be your wife, to be honest with her, to look after her, and to walk next to her for the rest of your life?

Ludo: I do.

Fia, do you take Ludo to be your husband, to be honest with him, to look after him, and to walk next to him for the rest of your life?

Fia: I do.

By the power vested in me by [the State of ___], and in front of these two witnesses, I pronounce you married.

You can kiss now.

They kiss. Nuno and Oriel clap, which sounds very small up here.

Nuno, Oriel, and one hawk, here they are. Fia and Ludo, married.

Fia pours coffee out of the thermos into two cups, and they drink it at the overlook before the hike down.

Minna, Fia, Ludo, Nuno, and Oriel sign the license on a flat rock, using Oriel's backpack to keep the paper from blowing away.