Sonnet 116 — Shakespeare
“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” Four centuries old and still the heavyweight champion of wedding readings — steady, defiant, romantic.
Sample ceremony
Hear how a ceremony sounds.
Couples always ask the same fair question: “But what will he actually say?” Here is a complete sample ceremony, written the way Peter writes — warm, personal, and grounded in the couple’s story.
Every ceremony Peter officiates is written from scratch. This sample exists so you can hear the voice, the pacing, and the shape of the thing before you ever book a call.
The couple below — Maya and Daniel — are fictional, and so is their farmers-market meet-cute. Your ceremony would open with your story: how you met, what you’ve weathered, the small ridiculous details your people will nod along to. Read this for the arc: a welcome, a story, a reading, a ritual, vows, rings, and a pronouncement that gives everyone goosebumps.
A note on length: this sample runs about fifteen minutes spoken aloud — right in the sweet spot for an intimate wine country ceremony. Elopements often run shorter; Signature ceremonies run as long as your story deserves.
The guests are seated among the vines. Music fades. Daniel waits with Peter at the front, breathing the way grooms do. Then Maya appears at the top of the aisle.
The Welcome
Peter — officiant
Welcome, everyone. Please, be seated — and take a breath. Look around for a second. The vines, this light, these people. This is a good place to be.
We are gathered here to witness and celebrate the marriage of Maya and Daniel — two people who found each other, chose each other, and kept choosing each other, until choosing became a promise they wanted to make in front of everyone they love. That’s you. You’re the witnesses. It’s a real job.
Their Story
Peter — officiant
Maya and Daniel met at a farmers market in Santa Rosa, both reaching for the same basket of pluots. Daniel, gallantly, let her have them. Maya, suspicious of gallantry, split the basket. They talked for forty minutes between the flower stand and the coffee cart, and by the time they said goodbye, Daniel had her number and absolutely no pluots. He considers it the best trade of his life.
Since then there have been road trips up the coast, a kitchen renovation survived together — which, as anyone who has done it knows, is the true premarital counseling — and a hundred ordinary Tuesdays that turned out to be the whole point. When Daniel proposed, it was at that same market, with the same vendor, who had been sworn to secrecy and kept it for exactly one week. Some love stories are lightning. Theirs is sunlight: steady, warm, and it just keeps showing up.
A Reading
Peter — officiant
Maya and Daniel asked me to read a few lines that have carried couples through about four hundred years of weddings — Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
“An ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” Hold onto that image. It’s the whole ceremony in one line.
The Wine Country Blending
On a small table beside Peter: a carafe and two bottles — one a bright white, one a deep red — and two glasses.
Peter — officiant
We’re in wine country, so we’re going to borrow its oldest lesson. Maya, Daniel — in front of you are two wines. Daniel’s is bold and structured, the kind of wine that walks into a room first. Maya’s is bright and joyful — sunlight, in a glass. Separately, each is complete. Neither needs the other to be good.
But watch what happens when they meet.
Maya and Daniel each pour their wine into the shared carafe, then fill two glasses from the blend.
Two lives, poured into one vessel — and what comes out isn’t a compromise. It’s a third thing: richer than either, possible only because both showed up fully as themselves. That’s what you’re doing today. Maya, Daniel — take your first sip together, as a married couple in the making.
They drink. It is, by all accounts, delicious.
The Vows
Peter — officiant
Maya and Daniel have written vows for each other.
They exchange personal vows — in a real ceremony, this is the part nobody in the front rows hears without crying. When they finish, Peter continues with the promises that make it official.
Peter — officiant
Daniel, do you take Maya to be your wife — to stand beside her in sunshine and in tempest, to split the last of the pluots and the first of everything good, for all the days of your life?
Daniel
I do.
Peter — officiant
Maya, do you take Daniel to be your husband — to stand beside him in sunshine and in tempest, to keep choosing him on the ordinary Tuesdays as surely as on the golden days, for all the days of your life?
Maya
I do.
The Rings
Peter — officiant
These rings are circles — no beginning, no end, no weak point. You’ll wear them on ordinary days, and that’s exactly the point: the promise isn’t just for today. Daniel, place the ring on Maya’s finger and repeat after me: With this ring, I marry you — and I’m yours, on purpose, every day.
Daniel repeats the line. Then Maya does the same.
The Pronouncement
Peter — officiant
Maya and Daniel, you came here as two people in love, and you leave as something more: a family, by choice and now by law. By the authority vested in me by the State of California, and with the love of everyone here as witness — I now pronounce you married. Daniel, kiss your wife.
They do. The vines approve. Peter steps back, grinning, and presents them.
Ladies and gentlemen — it is my enormous honor to introduce, for the very first time, Maya and Daniel!
What would be different in yours: everything and nothing. The welcome would name your place. The story would be yours — the real one, with the real details. The reading, the ritual, the vows, even the jokes would be built around the two of you, in words that sound like you on your best day.
Readings couples love
Words worth borrowing.
Some couples arrive with a reading they’ve loved for years; others ask Peter to bring a shortlist. A few favorites:
“On Marriage” — Kahlil Gibran
From The Prophet: “Let there be spaces in your togetherness.” For couples who want wisdom with their romance — two trees, one garden.
An original blessing
Peter often closes the reading slot with a few lines written for the couple alone — like this one: “May your love be a long table: room for everyone you love, wine that never runs out, and a reason, always, to linger one hour more.”
Something that’s already yours
A page from the novel you traded on your third date. Your grandmother’s favorite poem. Lyrics, letters, a recipe card in her handwriting. If it carries your history, it belongs in your ceremony — Peter will help you weave it in.
Rituals to make it yours
Small moments, long memories.
A unity ritual gives your guests something to watch and your ceremony a moment that’s unmistakably yours. Peter leads all of these — and helps you choose the one that fits.
The Wine Country Blending
Peter’s signature. Two wines — one chosen by each of you — poured into a single carafe and shared as your first drink of married life. Led by Peter, a California RBS-certified wine professional, it’s the ritual wine country was made for.
Unity candle
Two flames, one candle — the classic. Lovely indoors; outdoors in wine country, Peter will quietly suggest a wind plan (he has opinions, and a lighter that works).
Handfasting
An ancient Celtic ritual: your hands bound gently with ribbon or cord as you make your promises — the original “tying the knot,” and beautiful in photographs.
Sand ceremony
Two colors of sand poured into one vessel — a favorite for blending families, because children can pour a layer of their own.
Ring warming
Your rings pass through the hands of every guest before the exchange, each person holding them for a silent wish. Intimate, moving, and unforgettable for small ceremonies.
Love-letter wine box
Seal love letters and a bottle of wine into a box during the ceremony, to open on your fifth anniversary — or your first big fight, whichever comes first. (Peter’s money is on the anniversary.)
Imagine it with your names in it.
Tell Peter your date and a little about your day. He’ll reply personally within 24 hours with availability and next steps.