Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Other subjects

Got to read a passage at a wedding - any idea's?

48 replies

SpringChicken · 20/09/2004 11:46

My DB is getting married in April and i have been asked to read a passage/verse in the church.

Anyone got any idea's? We are not an overly religious family and i don't think i would feel comfortable reading something to religious.

OP posts:
angrymum · 20/09/2004 11:50

st paul to the corinthians is the classic wedding reading.I had it at mine and I think lots of people do, does that put you off??!!!
It's the " what am I without love, a clanging cymbal or a ringing bell" one.it was in 4 weddings and a funeral.Need to go and look it up.

edam · 20/09/2004 11:51

I read an Apache wedding blessing at my friends' wedding ? will look it up for you. And had a poem by John Donne at mine, which I've always loved. Mind a blank at the moment but this is the excuse I need to go off and Google ? back soon!

edam · 20/09/2004 11:58

Apache 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 for 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,
and enter into the days of your togetherness

And may your days together be good and long
upon the earth.

Geordie · 20/09/2004 12:02

hiya,

there is also a lovely passage about the nature of love from captains C's manolin (the book). I will post it later on.

G

edam · 20/09/2004 12:05

Don't know if you've come across John Donne, but he was a 17th century poet, famous for his somewhat saucy love poems. You could always use just one or two verses from either of these works (I blush in retrospect to think I made my poor FIL read all three verses). I particularly love The Sun Rising as it's basically about not wanting to get out of bed .

The Good Morrow, by John Donne

I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?
'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear ;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ;
Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west ?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die

The Sun Rising

BUSY old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run ?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school-boys and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices ;
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

     Thy beams so reverend, and strong 
     Why shouldst thou think ? 

I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long.
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay."

     She's all states, and all princes I ; 
     Nothing else is ; 

Princes do but play us ; compared to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world's contracted thus ;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere ;
This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.

SpringChicken · 20/09/2004 12:09

Thanks. This has been a big help already!

Keep the idea's coming.

OP posts:
littlemissbossy · 20/09/2004 12:10

www.weddingchannel.com have loads to choose from, but this one's nice and non-religious

To you I give my heart ?..

I stand beside you strong and sure
my dearest, dearest friend,
And as we make our sacred vows
My thoughts of you transcend.
I give you my heart, my hopes, my dreams

Accept these gifts of mine
They are so precious and fragile
They need your care divine.
Treat my trust with gentleness

Treat me with loving care
I can but grow with patience and love
As long as you are there.

by Ruth Van Gramberg

ks · 20/09/2004 12:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

SoupDragon · 20/09/2004 12:24

We had excerpts from the Love and Marriage passages from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

I partcularly like the ending of the Love one

"Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips"

Cadbury · 20/09/2004 12:31

you took the words write out of my mouth soupy!

Angeliz · 20/09/2004 12:36

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Angeliz · 20/09/2004 12:36

My freind had that at (below) at her Wedding and it was beautiful+

Marina · 20/09/2004 12:49

How about "Love Poem" by Vivian de Sola Pinto...not heard it used before, think it's touching and quite unusual:

As I sat at my old desk, writing
In golden evening sunshine,
My wife came in suddenly
And, standing beside me,
Said, "I love you"
(this year she will be sixty-three and I shall be sixty-eight)
Then I looked at her and saw
Not the grey-haired woman but the girl I married in 1922:
Poetry shining through that faithful prose,
A fresh flower in bloom.
I said, "You are a rose"
(thinking how awful it would have been if I had missed her)
and I kissed her.

Lots of other nice ideas here SC!

Rowlers · 20/09/2004 13:04

Marina, I love that. Nice and simple and not too gooey. Everyone will understand it too.

Mum2Ela · 20/09/2004 13:10

We had Captain Correllis Mandolin as Angeliz wrote below, and this:

?US TWO? (TAKEN FROM WINNIE THE POOH)

Wherever I am, there?s always Pooh,
There?s always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
?Where are you going today?? says Pooh
?Well that?s very odd ?cos I was too.
Lets go together.? Says Pooh, says he.
?Let?s go together,? says Pooh.

?What?s twice eleven?? I said to Pooh,
(?Twice what?? said Pooh to Me)
?I think it out to be twenty-two.?
?Just what I think myself,? said Pooh.
?It wasn?t an easy sum to do,
But that?s what it is,? said Pooh, said he.
?That?s what it is,? said Pooh.

?Let?s look for dragons,? I said to Pooh.
?Yes, let?s,? said Pooh to Me.
We crossed the river and found a few ?
?Yes, those are dragons all right,? said Pooh.
?As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.
That?s what they are,? said Pooh, said he.
?That?s what they are,? said Pooh.

?Let?s frighten the dragons,? I said to Pooh.
?That?s right,? said Pooh to Me.
?I?m not afraid,? I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted, ?Shoo!
Silly old dragons!? ? and off they flew.
?I wasn?t afraid,? said Pooh said he,
?I?m never afraid with you.?

So wherever I am, there?s always Pooh,
There?s always Pooh and Me.
?What would I do?? I said to Pooh,
?If it wasn?t for you,? and Pooh said: ?True,
It isn?t much fun for One, but Two
Can stick together,? says Pooh, says he.
?That?s how it is,? says Pooh.

lilibet · 20/09/2004 13:13

there are lots of readings on here

If it's not in a church some registrars can be funny about words like Soul, Heaven, God and Spirit as it is supposed to be strictly non religious.

yurtgirl · 21/09/2004 13:07

Message withdrawn

bundle · 21/09/2004 13:15

we had a bit from Grace Notes by Bernard Mclaverty because there's a lovely passage about a baby being born (dd1 was 4 mths when we married) is a bit like never having heard music in your life before that date. we also had this, by ee cummings:

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

poppyknot · 21/09/2004 13:40

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours

It was used as a code poem during WW2 but is simple and beautiful

and of course...Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Sonnet 116
William Shakespeare

We had these at our (non religious) wedding.

Northerner · 21/09/2004 13:43

Angeliz that Captain Corelli's Mandarin one is wonderful. Never heard that before, but it is so true.

CathB · 21/09/2004 14:17

We had "A birthday" by Christina Rossetti which was non religous enought to be acceptable in a Register office. Its the one that ends "its the birthday of my life, my love is come to me". My maid of honour nearly blubbed though!

Love the Winnie the pooh though!

lilibet · 21/09/2004 14:30

poppyknot - we are having that!!!!!!

I thought that it was my secret!!

yoyo · 21/09/2004 14:34

So many wonderful refections on love and marriage. A favourite of mine read at the funeral of a very dear friend who had a long and fantastically happy marriage is "A Marriage" by R.S. Thomas.

We met
under a shower
of bird-notes.
Fifty years passed,
love's moment
in a world in
servitude to time.
She was young;
I kissed with my eyes
closed and opened
them on her wrinkles.
'Come,' said death,
choosing her as his
partner for
the last dance. And she,
who in life
had done everything
with a bird's grace,
opened her bill now
for the shedding
of one sigh no
heavier than a feather.

Not really suitable for a wedding but too beautiful not too share.

donnie · 21/09/2004 14:54

Eliz barrett browning's sonnets or something by Emily Bronte perhaps.You could go for a Shakespeare sonnet although I'd avoid the usual cliches there!

clary · 21/09/2004 23:32

Springchicken I was going to suggest the John Donne poem I read at my sister's wedding but I see Edam has got there before me (the good morrow). It's a bit tricky as the last line of each verse is longer than the others but I learned it and thought about it so I could read it with some meaning IYSWIM (bit opaque, is JD).

The tricky thing I found was that most love poems are addressed from the chap to the lady or vice versa, rather than a comment from a third party. A lot of people have that Shakespeare one about the marriage of true minds but I personally think it ends a bit nastily.

I like that Captain Corelli, not thought of that before. Or St PAul, always a classic, make sure your version says "through a glass darkly" not some revised version nonsense.

Swipe left for the next trending thread