Wedding Ceremony Script Remembering a Loved One

Cedric waits at the front with Doro. Near the front row, on a small round table, there's one white candle, unlit, and a wooden bowl full of clementines.

Brigid walks in with both of her parents. The music stops.

Please sit down, everyone.

Good afternoon. My name is Doro. For thirty years I was best friends with Cedric's mother, Gaia. I knew Cedric before he could walk, and I'll try very hard not to tell you about the summer he only answered to the name Captain.

Thank you for being here. Brigid and Cedric are so glad to look out and see all of you, especially the ones who came a long way and the ones who came with small children, which is its own kind of long way.

Before we start, Brigid and Cedric asked for one quiet minute.

Many of you knew Gaia. If you ever went to her house, you know that she kept a bowl of clementines on the table by the front door, all year, even when they weren't in season and she had to pay too much for them. Nobody left without one. You'd be halfway down the walk and she'd call out, take one for the road. She said it to the mail carrier. She said it to a man who came to read the gas meter. She said it to me every single time for thirty years, and I always took one.

She would have loved today. She would have been in the front row with her reading glasses on top of her head, crying before anyone even walked in.

Cedric's sister, Elowen, is going to light this candle for her.

Elowen comes up and lights the candle on the small table. She stands for a moment, then goes back to her seat.

That candle is going to stay lit for the whole ceremony. And when you leave today, please take a clementine for the road. Gaia would insist.

Doro waits a few seconds before going on.

Okay. That's the quiet part. Gaia would not want us to stay there, and neither do Brigid and Cedric. The rest of today is for celebrating, so let's do that.

Brigid and Cedric met four years ago in the back row of a community choir that rehearses on Wednesday nights in a church basement on Larch Avenue.

Here's what you need to understand about that choir. It's for anyone. There's no audition. Which means there are some very good singers, and then there's the back row.

Brigid joined because a coworker dragged her. Cedric joined because Gaia had been telling him for ten years that he had a nice voice, and he finally wanted to find out if she was right. She was mostly being kind.

They figured out very quickly that they had the same strategy for the high notes. Mouth the words. Look confident. Let the people in front carry it. On the third Wednesday, during a song with a key change neither of them was ready for, they made eye contact in the middle of mouthing and both started laughing so hard they had to leave the room.

They sat on the basement steps for the rest of rehearsal. Cedric asked her if she wanted to get pie after. She said yes, if he promised never to tell the choir director why they left. He's breaking that promise right now, through me.

They've been in the back row together ever since. Brigid tells me Cedric has gotten a little better. Cedric tells me Brigid has gotten a lot better. They're both lying, but they're lying for each other, and I think that counts.

What I've seen in the two of them, the thing I most want you to know, is that they make each other braver. Brigid had never sung in front of anyone before that choir. Last December she sang one line alone at the holiday concert, and Cedric stood in the back row mouthing it with her the whole time. When Gaia got sick, Brigid was at the house three nights a week. She learned how Gaia liked her tea, and she always made sure the clementine bowl was full. Gaia told me once, on the phone, that she wasn't worried about Cedric anymore. She knew who'd be next to him.

Brigid and Cedric have written their own vows. Cedric, whenever you're ready.

Cedric reads his vows. Then Brigid reads hers.

Brigid's brother brings up the rings.

Cedric, place this ring on Brigid's finger and repeat after me.

Cedric: Brigid, I give you this ring. I'll stand next to you for every key change, and I'll never tell anyone you're mouthing the words.

Brigid, place this ring on Cedric's finger and repeat after me.

Brigid: Cedric, I give you this ring. I'll stand next to you for every key change, and I'll never tell anyone you're mouthing the words.

Cedric, do you take Brigid to be your wife, to be kind to her, to tell her the truth, and to stand beside her in the back row and everywhere else, for the rest of your life?

Cedric: I do.

Brigid, do you take Cedric to be your husband, to be kind to him, to tell him the truth, and to stand beside him in the back row and everywhere else, for the rest of your life?

Brigid: I do.

Brigid and Cedric, you've made your promises in front of your families, your friends, and most of a community choir. By the power vested in me by [the State of ___], I pronounce you husband and wife.

Cedric, you may kiss your bride.

They kiss. The choir, sitting together in the third row, starts singing, badly, and the room joins in.

Everyone, please stand up and welcome Brigid and Cedric, married.

The recessional starts. On the way out, Cedric takes one clementine from the bowl and hands it to Brigid.

Doro, Brigid, Cedric, and two witnesses sign the license next to the candle. Elowen is one of the witnesses.