These Native American Wedding Blessings Are Meaningful and Beautiful

Beautiful and full of environmental significance, a Native American wedding blessing is the perfect way to honor indigenous ancestry, a wedding site formerly inhabited by American Indian tribes or as an alternative to other types of ceremony readings. In keeping with other Native American wedding customs, Indian wedding blessings vary by tribe, but are unified in their reverence for the land, elements of nature and celestial bodies like the sun and the moon.

Choose a sweet Native American wedding blessing to serve as one of your ceremony readings.

This Apache blessing is a popular Native American wedding blessing.

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the
journey ahead and through all the years,
May happiness be your companion and
your days together be good and long upon the earth.
Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and
remind yourselves often of what brought you together.
Give the highest priority to the tenderness,
gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.
When frustration, difficulties and fear assail your relationship,
as they threaten all relationships at one time or another,
remember to focus on what is right between you,
not only the part which seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms when
clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives - remembering that
even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there.
And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your
life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.

A short Shoshone wedding blessing that could also be a part of your wedding vows.

Fair is the white star of twilight, and the sky clearer
at the day's end, but she is fairer, and she is dearer
She, my heart's friend.
Fair is the white star of twilight, and the moon roving
to the sky's end; but she is fairer, better worth loving
She, my heart's friend.

A Native American prayer without attribute, this is the perfect Native American wedding blessing for an outdoor wedding.

Great Spirit,
Give us hearts to understand
Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give,
Never to destroy want only for the furtherance of greed,
Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty,
Never to take from her what we cannot use.
Give us hearts to understand
That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion,
That to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty,
That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench,
That as we care for her she will care for us.
Give us hearts to understand
We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.
We have abused our power.
Great Spirit,
Whose dry lands thirst,
Help us to find the way to refresh your lands.
Great Spirit,
Whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,
Help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.
Great Spirit,
Whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse,
Help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.
Great Spirit,
Whose creatures are being destroyed,
Help us to find a way to replenish them
Great Spirit,
whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption,
Help us to find the way to restore our humanity.

Traditional Navajo prayer is a soulful Native American wedding blessing.

As I walk, as I walk
The universe is walking with me
In beauty it walks before me
In beauty it walks behind me
In beauty it walks below me
In beauty it walks above me
Beauty is on every side
As I walk, I walk with Beauty.

A beautiful Cherokee prayer in both languages for anyone who’s up for a multilingual ceremony.

Ga lu lo hi gi ni du da
Sky our grandfather
Nu da wa gi ni li si
Moon our grandmother
E lo hi gi ne tse
Earth our Mother
Ga li e li ga
I am thankful
Si gi ni gé yu
We love each other
O sa li he li ga
We are grateful

This personalizable love song comes from Inuit indigenous tribes.

You are my <husband/wife>
My feet shall run because of you
My feet shall dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love because of you.

A nice way to end any wedding ceremony, this Cherokee prayer is sweet and calming.

God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honor all you created as we pledge
our hearts and lives together.
We honor mother-earth - and ask for our marriage to
be abundant and grow stronger through the seasons;
We honor fire - and ask that our union
be warm and glowing with love in our hearts;
We honor wind - and ask we sail through life
safe and calm as in our father's arms;
We honor water - to clean and soothe our relationship -
that it may never thirst for love;
With all the forces of the universe you created,
we pray for harmony and true happiness as
we forever grow young together. Amen.