Please see the script below, with the words in italics that the couple will repeat after the registrar:

 

‘Good morning/afternoon everyone. On behalf of my colleague (Registrar 2’s name), and myself (Registrar 1’s name), I would like to welcome you to (Ceremony venue) on the occasion of the conversion ceremony between (Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name).

Today, (Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name) will celebrate their commitment to each other by converting their civil partnership to a marriage.

I would like to welcome you here, on this, their special day. Many of you have travelled a long way to be here today today and it means a great deal to (Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name) that you can be with them to witness their vows, and share in their happiness.

Marriage is a desire by two people to share themselves and their experiences with each other and a willingness to accept each other for who they are.

Marriage means making a commitment to developing co-operation, friendship, and mutual respect. It calls for honesty, patience, and of course humour!  Marriage is where each partner cares for the other, and supports them in all that they do.

It demands courage, the courage to be open, the courage to grow and change, and the courage to sort out together, the tasks of everyday living.

Marriage requires closeness and distance, closeness for a couple growing together and enough distance to allow each partner to be individual. A good partner in such a marriage will be loving, caring, and above all a best friend.

It is in this spirit that (Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name) are now before us. In each other’s company they have found happiness, fulfilment and love. They now wish to reaffirm their relationship with this marriage.

[1ST READING (OPTIONAL)]

It has now been (number of) years since (Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name) were became civil partners.  Their civil partnership was a promise of hope.  It was a sign that they loved each other, and that they trusted that love to sustain their future together.

Family and friends, we have now come to the heart of this ceremony – the renewing of vows of two people who love one another, as their relationship changes to a marriage.

(Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name) you have gathered about you those to whom you are closest. You have invited them here to receive their encouragement and support, and to celebrate with you at this special time.

I ask you now, in the presence of this company:

(Partner 1’s name), will you seek to trust the ebbs and flows of your love, to offer your love without conditions, having faith that it will always return and understanding that its nature may change?

I will.

(Partner 2’s name), will you seek to trust the ebbs and flows of your love, to offer your love without conditions, having faith that it will always return and understanding that its nature may change?

I will.

[2ND READING (OPTIONAL)]

[PERSONAL VOWS (OPTIONAL)]

[RINGS (OPTIONAL)]

And we now come to the exchange of rings. Traditionally, the exchange of rings is a way of sealing the vows that the couple have just made again, and an outward sign of the lifelong promise that they have made to each other.

Who has the rings?

(Partner 1’s name), please repeat after me

I give you this ring, as a token of our marriage, and a symbol of my enduring love.

(Partner 2’s name), please repeat after me

I give you this ring, as a token of our marriage, and a symbol of my enduring love.

[GUEST’S VOWS (OPTIONAL)

Will all the guests please stand.

I am now going to ask all of you, assembled here today, to lend your verbal support to this couple, and I am expecting the response: ‘We will’.

Will you, the family and friends, fully endorse, have faith in and give your lasting support to (Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name) who stand before us here today?

(We will)

[3RD READING (OPTIONAL)]

(Partner 1’s name) and (Partner 2’s name), this day is the start of a new life for you together. We hope that the feelings of love that you have for each other will deepen and grow even stronger throughout the years to come.

It now gives me great pleasure to declare that you are now husband/wife and husband/wife!

You may now kiss each other!’

[SIGNING OF THE SCHEDULE]

[COUPLE DECLARED AS THEY HAVE ASKED TO BE DECLARED ON THE PRE-CEREMONY ORGANISER]