Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togevah today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam…

Anyone familiar with the 1987 movie classic Princess Bride will recognize this quote as uttered by the high church clergyman at the unfortunate wedding of the evil Prince Humperdink to Buttercup, Wesley’s true love. Princess Bride is a witty and highly entertaining story of true love and adventure, and a favorite of Christopher, long before he met Beth, and not surprisingly of her, too. I toyed with the idea of beginning my part of their wedding ceremony with this quote, but I was not confident of my ability to deliver it flawlessly and I knew it would have to be right if I used it at all in the presence of such experts. Christopher knows whole chunks of dialogue from this movie by heart.

I think what Christopher appreciates the most about this movie is its depiction of true love as something that comes along only once in a lifetime, and something he was willing to hold out for, since he had not yet found someone who fulfilled this kind of passion in him prior to meeting Beth.

This is true love – you think this happens every day?

So it was for that reason we let Marti’s dyslexic version of the wedding date, April 22, 1202, stand on the front of the program she designed. 1202 somehow seemed like an appropriate date for the fictitious story in the movie to have taken place. Years from now, they can look at the program they saved and smile when they remember that.

You can’t hurt me. Wesley and I are joined by the bonds of love. And you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords.

You can’t help but watch this movie with a smile on your face. It’s such a delightful fantasy, but it holds the truth just under the surface. Quotes like “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something,” and “We are men of action, lies do not become us,” reveal an integrity not altogether silly. This hidden truth is what makes this movie rewarding.

Can you move at all? Move? You’re alive. If you want I can fly.

“You truly love each other and so you might have been truly happy,” says the evil Prince Humperdink when he thinks he can put an end to this couple’s dream of being together. “Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the storybooks say.” But of course, true love always wins, and so we hold out this hope for Chris and Beth as we do for all marriages we know. Marriage can exist without true love, but what a bore. A good marriage can make true love truer. And God knows we need more marriages like this – marriages that point in so many different ways to Christ and His love for us as His church.

“Is this a kissing book?” says the young boy in the beginning of the movie, as his uncle prepares to read him this story. Throughout the story, the kid keeps butting in at the kissing parts until the very end, because by then, even he has been charmed.

Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.