Marriage Consecration to Our Lady

When Chris and I began dating in college, we consecrated our relationship to Our Lady.  Chris found some inspiration online and in his heart and wrote up a rough copy of a consecration for us to pray together.  Then it was my turn to revise.  I took his template and added a few more personal touches that made our consecration especially personal to US.  I have a devotion to Our Lady, Theotokos (Mother of God), and he has a special devotion to St. Joseph.  We both loved St. Cecilia, patron Saint of music,  which is an important aspect of our relationship and a love we share. And we wanted some of the 10 virtues of Mary to be incorporated and strived for in our relationship.

In case you aren't familiar with the 10 virtues they are:

1. Ardent charity

2. Profound humility

3. Universal mortification

4. Constant mental prayer

5. Blind obedience

6. Divine wisdom

7. Surpassing purity

8. Angelic sweetness

9. Lively faith

10. Heroic patience

Our consecration prayer is about a page and a half typed, so we generally say it together at special times throughout the year.  The two days that we always pray it each year are on our wedding anniversary and on the Feast of Our Lady, Theotokos (January 1st).  I won't share it in it's entirety with all of you because:
1. it's personal to us, and
2. my intent is to encourage you to write your own consecration with your boyfriend/girlfriend/fiance/spouse and I think it's best if the consecration is personal to you, but...

Here are a couple paragraphs to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I chose some that are more general; perhaps you would like to use parts and add your own touches to it:

Mother Mary, we deliver and consecrate to you our bodies and souls and this marriage covenant that we have entered into.  We ask that you obtain for us many graces as we embark on this journey with you, and ever keep us close to your Son and guide us along the path He has chosen for us. 

Give us the grace to ardently love each other.  May our primary goal be to serve one another, and thus lead the other closer to Christ; the perfection of love.  Lead us toward our heavenly goal as you bless us with a truer understanding of how we must serve each other.  May our love for each other grow as our love for you and your Son grows in this journey of faith. 

May your maternal eye watch over us and protect us.  You, whose love is like an ocean, engulf us in that love as you draw us ever closer to your motherly heart.  We thank you for the many blessings and graces you have obtained for us through your powerful intercession.  We beg you to hear our prayer and obtain for us, from your divine son, the favors we ask in this consecration.  

At the end, we say a short litany to several Saints whom we have special devotion to in our marriage and relationship and say the Memorare together.  At Catholic Online here you can view several consecrations to Mary as well as other prayers that might help guide you in writing the perfect, personal consecration for you, your relationship, or your family.  One of my favorite PERSONAL consecrations is this one from St. Louis de Montfort's consecration and one of our 2014 goals is to write a consecration to Jesus, through Mary for our little family.  It will likely be only a couple short paragraphs, but we hope to be able to write it, memorize it, and pray it as a family each night after we say grace at dinner.  I will share more about that when we complete it.  

Have a blessed and joyous Solemnity of our all-holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorified Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary!