Non- cheesy wedding readings HELP

[hihihi87]

Hi lovely people, we are Getting married next week and we still haven't managed to come across anything that we like. My sister will be doing a reading and everything she's suggesting sounds cheesy.

So we've had a look and all I can say is .. cringe 😬

Can anyone recommend a good reading? That's romantic but not too much 😂

I'm not sure why I'm stressing. Most likely People aren't even going to listen 😂

TIA xxx

Wow , I had no idea that you could not have religious readings . Does this apply to all faiths?

Yes, I was seeing if anyone had suggested this.

I went to a wedding where they read Cinderella from Roald Dahl’s revolting rhymes… where she bins off of the prince for a normal bloke and loves happily ever after. That was fun.

Why? Because it's the law (assuming you are getting married in England). You have to submit any readings/music beforehand for approval. Not sure what would happen if you had a reading approved then on the day your reader launched into Corinithians. I have a vision of an elderly registrar wrestling a reader to the ground.

We went with Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy. It is very to the point and particularly appealed as DH was a chef at the time.

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

We had this one. Love it, and so true.

Yes any religious material of any denomination.
My friend was told she couldn't have the Beachboys 'God only knows' to walk in/out to but whether that was a particularly strict registrar or just where the line is always drawn I have no idea.

Ah - I did Union as the reading at my best friends wedding! I liked it, liked that it talked about normal day to day life!

I love this poem. There is a wonderful song setting of this by Hubert Parry - so ecstatically wonderful to sing.

I went to a wedding this year which had Brian Bilston’s “Cuppa” - but maybe this is on the side of cheesy??

This is my favourite wedding reading......

All I Know About Love by Neil Gaiman
This is everything I have to tell you about love: nothing.
This is everything I've learned about marriage: nothing.

Only that the world out there is complicated,
and there are beasts in the night, and delight and pain,
and the only thing that makes it okay, sometimes,
is to reach out a hand in the darkness and find another hand to squeeze,
and not to be alone.

It's not the kisses, or never just the kisses: it's what they mean.
Somebody's got your back.
Somebody knows your worst self and somehow doesn't want to rescue you
or send for the army to rescue them.

It's not two broken halves becoming one.
It's the light from a distant lighthouse bringing you both safely home
because home is wherever you are both together.

So this is everything I have to tell you about love and marriage: nothing,
like a book without pages or a forest without trees.

Because there are things you cannot know before you experience them.
Because no study can prepare you for the joys or the trials.
Because nobody else's love, nobody else's marriage, is like yours,
and it's a road you can only learn by walking it,
a dance you cannot be taught,
a song that did not exist before you began, together, to sing.
And because in the darkness you will reach out a hand,
not knowing for certain if someone else is even there.
And your hands will meet,
and then neither of you will ever need to be alone again.

And that's all I know about love.

We had Destiny. I loved it, and also found most wedding poems gave me the ick but this I loved.

Destiny

Destiny is a mysterious thing.

No matter what you do or where you go, you cannot avoid it.

And, no matter how hard you try, even putting forth your greatest effort, you can’t force it to happen before its time.

This occasion we witness today is the destiny of two souls.

There is not a force in the universe that could have kept you apart,

and there is nothing you could have done to come together sooner.

Each of you had to live your lives -

lives that were stepping stones,

that have led to this moment in time,

this uniting of hearts and minds that shall be forever more.

This occasion we celebrate today is destiny of two souls.

Yes, destiny is a marvellous and mysterious thing.

We had the lyrics to The Book of Love read. Worked really well.

We also had Let's Stay Together as our vows which could work as a reading too

We had this one and Shakespeare's sonnet 116 at ours.

DC also read one called "Your Personal Penguin" which I had as a surprise to DH as he hates penguins.

Another vote for Famous Seamus. We've earmarked it for our wedding.

We had this and so did our daughter/ my step daughter so beautiful ♥️

carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
BY E. E. CUMMINGSS_
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 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)

It is forbidden in this country to have any readings or music that are religious in content or context at civil marriages/civil partnerships. There is a clear distinction between religious and civil marriage.

You will be asked to submit the readings in advance so that the registrars can check they are not religious, or that music does not contain any religious lyrics or come from a religious context (so, for example, you cannot have an instrumental version of a hymn). You also cannot have vows from a religious liturgy because they are religious in context.

So it shouldn't get as far as someone starting to read a religious reading. However, if this were to happen, the registrar is obliged to stop it and yes, this does happen when people try to get around the rules.

The ruling does indeed apply to all faiths, not just Christianity. Nothing religious is allowed, whichever faith it is from.

I Love You
By Roy Croft

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.

I love you for
the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for
putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
And passing over all the foolish, weak things
that you can’t help dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out into the light
All the beautiful things
that no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

Richard Bach

Maybe:
Maybe
by Unknown
Maybe we are supposed to meet the wrong people before we meet the right one so when they finally arrive we are truly grateful for the gift we have been given.
Maybe it's true that we don’t know what we have lost until we lose it but it is also true that we don’t know what we’re missing until it arrives.
Maybe the happiest of people don’t have the best of everything, but make the best of everything that comes their way.
Maybe the best kind of love is the kind where you sit on the sofa together, not saying a word, and walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you ever had.
Maybe once in a lifetime, you find someone who not only touches your heart but also your soul, someone who loves you for who you are and not what you could be.
Maybe the art of true love is not about finding the perfect person, but about seeing an imperfect person perfectly.

We had
I Rely on You by 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 aprehension
I rely on you
I rely on you
Like a camera needs a shutter
Like a golfer needs a putter
Like a gambler needs a flutter
Like a buttered scone involves butter
I rely on you
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
I rely on you
Like a handyman needs pliers
Like an auctioneer needs buyers
Like a laundromat needs dryers
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
You will need a reader who speaks with Northern flat vowels and pronounced scone to rhyme with gone to make it work though .

How about this?

Nice thread
Im looking for readings / Quotes too

@OttersMayHaveShiftedInTransit I love that! I have conjured an image of said Godmother and it made me smile 😊

I knew I wanted her to doing a reading and as soon as I found it I knew it perfect for her to read perform.

I love this! And I hate cheesy stuff, beautiful