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Original poster

wedding reading - - for a hotel wedding(not religious) for my sister, what can I read?

32 replies

VoodootheSneezyPig · 20/07/2009 20:03

am thinking

  • about love/ or marriage
  • not too soppy?
  • rhyming might be nice/maybe not
  • maybe a tear jerker

am working through a poety anthology nothing jumping out
Help!!

thanks in advance

OP posts:
Original poster
VoodootheSneezyPig · 20/07/2009 20:17

not too slushy or complex.

heard any good readings/poems lately

OP posts:
MilleniumHandNShrimp · 20/07/2009 20:18

Oh - will try to find ours from our Humanist wedding

bigchris · 20/07/2009 20:19

something by wendy cope
or 'love is' though cant remember if its religious

MummyElk · 20/07/2009 20:22

This is one we had at our wedding, it's called An Irish Blessing (appropriate for our family) but I lOVE the words and it means a lot to us. Might work if you like it?
God is mentioned but some people only use the last two verses which work, or you could adapt the lines with god in them and add the last line about true hearts etc.
if you like it (you might not) there are other versions online so you might find a non god one.
Am waffling. you get the gist.
Either way - good luck!!!

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

sazzlelou · 20/07/2009 20:26

I'm doing a reading at my brothers wedding next month, the one i'm thinking of reading at the moment is this.....

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Louis de Bernieres

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
And when it subsides you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your roots have 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 eternal passion.
That is just being "in love" which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground,
and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches,
they find that they are one tree and not two

mollyroger · 20/07/2009 20:26

google 'Native American Indian Wdding Blessing'
we had it and is very pretty and apropriate

HairyMuff · 20/07/2009 20:28

WH Auden O tell me The Truth about Love is nice.

sazzlelou · 20/07/2009 20:29

Or my friend had this which i think is quite popular in civil ceremonies

The Art Of A Good Marriage
Wilferd Arlan Peterson

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In marriage the little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humour.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

mollyroger · 20/07/2009 20:30

''now there is no rain for each of you will be shelter for the other''

etc

PavlovtheForgetfulCat · 20/07/2009 20:30

Sazzlelou - the registrar picked that to read at our wedding !!!

sazzlelou · 20/07/2009 20:32

Actually i think my friend had a shorter version of the art of marriage

sazzlelou · 20/07/2009 20:36

Pavlov - I love it. I think its different, not too gushy and lovey dovey. I'm actually thinking of keeping it for my wedding next year

MilleniumHandNShrimp · 20/07/2009 20:36

my7 year old read this at ours

?Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."?

shoshe · 20/07/2009 20:37

I have always loved this since watching the film Carved her name with pride, maybe a bit short tho.

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

Original poster
VoodootheSneezyPig · 20/07/2009 20:54

hmmmm captain correlli resonates the best so far..

thanks for these!!!

OP posts:
Cal1 · 22/07/2009 13:48

We had a civil ceremony and we used 'Marriage' from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet. It's unusual and although it gives the feeling that you aren't one, actually it worked for us who were living apart (Army life) for the 1st 4 years of marriage.

Iklboo · 22/07/2009 13:49

We had 'I rely on you' by the late, great Hovis Presley

I rely on you
I rely on you
like a Skoda needs suspension
like the aged need a pension
like a trampoline needs tension
like a bungee jump needs apprehension
I rely on you
like a camera needs a shutter
like a gambler needs a flutter
like a golfer needs a putter
like a buttered scone involves some butter
I rely on you
like an acrobat needs ice cool nerve
like a hairpin needs a drastic curve
like an HGV needs endless derv
like an outside left needs a body swerve
I rely on you
like a handyman needs pliers
like an auctioneer needs buyers
like a laundromat needs driers
like The Good Life needed Richard Briers
I rely on you
like a water vole needs water
like a brick outhouse needs mortar
like a lemming to the slaughter
Ryan's just Ryan without his daughter
I rely on you

suwoo · 22/07/2009 13:54

Sazzle, that is lovely.

Its our anniversary today (4 years) and we both forgot , so I've emailed that to DH at work.

bleh · 22/07/2009 14:01

Well, this is actually from the movie "in her shoes", but it's rather sweet: I carry your heart by ee cummings.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

OmicronPersei8 · 22/07/2009 14:18

The apache weeding blessing mollyroger mentioned is lovely - we had it at our wedding.

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 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.

ImmaculateContraception · 22/07/2009 14:24

omicron, I like that one.

ImmaculateContraception · 22/07/2009 14:25

iklboo - what is 'derv' and why does a HGV need it?

some of that is funny, but feels a bit 'forced' to rhyme?

ImmaculateContraception · 22/07/2009 14:26

I am OP, btw, name changer extroadinaire

ImmaculateContraception · 22/07/2009 14:28

am worried a bit, as dear sister demands reading be a surprise, but is a tad... touchy...

so it has to be perfect..

off to google

midnightexpress · 22/07/2009 14:29

Rainer Maria Rilke's letters to a young poet have lovely stuff about love. Hang on and I'll see if I can find it. Here. It's a bit wordy, but I love the sense of it:

'The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.'