Reading at my Sister's wedding - inspiration needed!

[hollyhobbie]

My sister has asked me to read at her wedding next June.
The problem is, she expects me to choose the piece! I thought the bride and groom would decide what they would like read at their wedding, but apparently they chose me because they trust what I would choose!
Has anyone got any ideas for me? What did you have read at your wedding? (I didn't have anything)
To give you a bit of background, it will be a humanist wedding, outdoors in Snowdonia, so a religious reading wouldn't be appropriate.

I read this at my dad's wedding a couple of years ago. He chose it but I loved the sentiment

Look to this day
for it is life
the very life of life
In it's breif course
lie all the realities and truths of existence,
the joy of growth,
the splendour of living,
the glory of love.
For yesterday is but a memory.
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived
makes every yesterday a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day

Apparently it is an adaptation from ancient Sanskrit. My dad's a bit of a hippy bless him.

we had "partners" by patience strong.(sorry book is in storage and my memory wouldn't do it justice.)It's not very "wordy". We had one of those too!

It was very appropriate for us as we'd met as students and socialised in the same places in Brum. It might suit your sister or it might not.

It was perfect for us.

carolcoles, wow, I read that at my brother's wedding!!!

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what you have made of yourself,
But for what you are making of me.

\link www.weddingguide.co.uk/articles/wordsmusic/poems/lovepoems1a.asp

We had this one

The Apache Wedding Blessing

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place
To enter into the days of your togetherness
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Oh I am such a wreck. Reading those poems made be cry!We had this...

This Day I Married My Best Friend
Author Unknown

This day I married my best friend
...the one I laugh with as we share life's wonderous zest,
as we find new enjoyments and experience all that's best.
...the one I live for because the world seems brighter
as our happy times are better and our burdens feel much lighter.
...the one I love with every fiber of my soul.
We used to feel vaguely incomplete, now together we are whole.

Wow! You've all done me proud!
And with all the links you provided, I think I'm well on the way to figuring something out.

HHx

I went to a wonderful wedding where they also had the Pooh one, but also "play the game" he Queen song, but read.

The Owl and The Pussycat went to sea etc. is very romantic in its way.

Be warned about the Kahlil Gibran thing though. Yes it's lovely but I was due to read it at a friends wedding (registry office ) but it wasn't allowed as it was a religious writing apparently. This was only back in July.

But taken aback! Thankfully I had a back-up - Shakespeare sonnet 'Let me not the marriage of two minds admit impediment'.

haven't read everyone elses, so probably already suggested but I had on your wedding day, my sisters read it and I still love it.

Today is a day you will always remember
The greatest in anyone's life
You'll start off the day just two people in love
And end it as Husband and Wife

It's a brand new beginning the start of a journey
With moments to cherish and treasure
And although there'll be times when you both disagree
These will surely be outweighed by pleasure

You'll have heard many words of advice in the past
When the secrets of marriage were spoken
But you know that the answers lie hidden inside
Where the bond of true love lies unbroken

So live happy forever as lovers and friends
It's the dawn of a new life for you
As you stand there together with love in your eyes
From the moment you whisper 'I do'

And with luck, all your hopes, and your dreams can be real
May success find it's way to your hearts
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys
But today is the day it all starts.

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks all!
Final bump before I print this out and post it to my sister.

We had our Welsh best man read from Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood - might be appropriate as it's in Snowdonia:
I am a draper mad with love. I love you more than all the flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino, tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill in the whole Cloth Hall of the world. I have come to take you away to my Emporium on the hill, where the change hums on wires. Throw away your little bedsocks and your Welsh wool knitted jacket, I will warm the sheets like an electric toaster, I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.

The other one was freely translated from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables:
Love is part of the soul itself - it is of the same nature.
Like the soul, it is a divine spark; like the soul, it is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable.
It is a point of fire that exists within us, which is immortal and infinite, which nothing can confine, and which nothing can extinguish.
We feel it burning even to the very marrow of our bones, and we see it shining in the very depths of heaven.
All things are contained in love, and those who love will understand how to find them there.
Without love, the sun itself would falter and grow dark.