Awesome wedding readings for bad-ass couples #Ceremony Advice#ceremony#readings Updated Nov 9 2016 (Posted Jul 2 2008) Ariel arielmstallings Thanks to Neil Girling for submitting this photo to the Offbeat Bride Flickr pool. I've started my search for some offbeat readings for my wedding in October… Have you compiled a list anywhere of readings from modern literature, songs, etc that are a little edgier and more current than the traditional? –Buster If you're looking for readings that have a few less thou shalts than your typical wedding material, here are a few of my very favorites, which include references to science-fiction vampires, insomnia, and red right ankles. From "First Poems," Rainer Maria Rilke Understand, I'll slip quietly Away from the noisy crowd When I see the pale Stars rising, blooming over the oaks. I'll pursue solitary pathways Through the pale twilit meadows, With only this one dream: You come too. Our Union, by Hafiz From "Love Poems from God," Daniel Ladinsky (ed), c2002 Our union is like this: You feel cold so I reach for a blanket to cover our shivering feet. A hunger comes into your body so I run to my garden and start digging potatoes. You asked for a few words of comfort and guidance and I quickly kneel by your side offering you a whole book as a gift. You ache with loneliness one night so much you weep, and I say here is a rope, tie it around me, Hafiz will be your companion for life. Related Post This children's picture book about friendship is a surprisingly great ceremony reading I knew I wanted a reading included in our ceremony. Nothing too long. Nothing too sappy. Nothing too clichéd. And I wanted to find something that would allow my two… Read More Red Right Ankle by the decemberists this is the story of your red right ankle and how it came to meet your leg and how the muscle bone and sinews tangled and how the skin was softly shaped and how it whispered 'oh, adhere to me for we are bound by symmetry and whatever differences our lives have been we together make a limb' this is the story of your red right ankle Related Post 30 geek movie love quotes Slogging through traditional love quotes can be taxing, especially when you just want something that tingles that geek-loving robot heart of yours. We root for the geeky underdog to get… Read More To Love is Not to Possess, by James Kavanaugh To love is not to possess, To own or imprison, Nor to lose one's self in another. Love is to join and separate, To walk alone and together, To find a laughing freedom That lonely isolation does not permit. It is finally to be able To be who we really are No longer clinging in childish dependency Nor docilely living separate lives in silence, It is to be perfectly one's self And perfectly joined in permanent commitment To another–and to one's inner self. Love only endures when it moves like waves, Receding and returning gently or passionately, Or moving lovingly like the tide In the moon's own predictable harmony, Because finally, despite a child's scars Or an adult's deepest wounds, They are openly free to be Who they really are–and always secretly were, In the very core of their being Where true and lasting love can alone abide. Related Post How to find and include readings in your wedding ceremony? When it comes to "elements to include in a wedding," one of the first things that many people think of are readings. And there's a good reason why -- so… Read More The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn't interest me what planets are square in your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed down from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving, to hide it, fade it, or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human. It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the moon in God's presence. It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children. It doesn't interest me who you know, or how you came here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in empty moments. Adrienne Rich, 21 Love Poems Whenever in this city, screens flicker with pornography, with science-fiction vampires, victimized hirelings bending to the lash, we also have to walk…if simply as we walk through the rainsoaked garbage, the tabloid cruelties of our own neighborhoods. We need to grasp our lives inseparable from those rancid dreams, that blurt of metal, those disgraces, and the red begonia perilously flashing from a tenement sill six stories high, or the long-legged young girls playing ball in the junior highschool playground. No one has imagined us. We want to live like trees, sycamores blazing through the sulfuric air, dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding, our animal passion rooted in the city. Related Post Sweet and silly wedding readings from children's books If you and your partner are both kids-at-heart looking for a wedding reading to highlight your sweet and silly sides, these passages from children's books just might be perfect! Read More From The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias! And the difference between them. The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along. We are the mirror as well as the face in it. We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity. We are pain and what cures pain, both. We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours. I want to hold you close like a lute, so we can cry out with loving. You would rather throw stones at a mirror? I am your mirror, and here are the stones. Love 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 belongings That no one else had looked Quite far enough to find I love you because you Are helping me to make Of the lumber of my life Not a tavern But a temple. Out of the works Of my every day Not a reproach But a song. 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. You have done it By being yourself. From The Irrational Season By Madeleine L'Engle But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature. To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take.If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected. 'The Book of Love' by Stephen Merritt (The Magnetic Fields) From the album 69 Love Songs The book of love is long and boring No one can lift the damn thing It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing But I, I love it when you read to me And you, you can read me anything The book of love has music in it In fact that's where music comes from Some of it is just transcendental Some of it is just really dumb But I, I love it when you sing to me And you you can sing me anything The book of love is long and boring And written very long ago It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes And things we're all too young to know But I, I love it when you give me things And you, you ought to give me wedding rings I, I love it when you give me things And you, you ought to give me wedding rings Related Post Sweet, serious, and non-gaggy: a few of y'all's very favorite wedding readings about love When we're doing our wedding profiles, we noticed some trends in nontraditional readings… readings that clearly Offbeat Brides tend to adore. Read More …and that's just the tip of the iceberg! We've got more readings here, and I'd love to invite my readers to share their favorite modern, non-"thou shalt" readings in the comments … Ariel Author of three editions of the Offbeat Bride book and the forthcoming From Shitshow To Afterglow, Ariel Meadow Stallings acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites. She lives in Seattle with her son, and if she's not reading or writing books, chances are good that she's dancing or happy-crying. She writes weekly essays for her new publication, The Afterglow. PREVIOUS Chris & Baxter's Old-Timey Gothic Karaoke Wedding NEXT Accommodating Deaf wedding guests Show/Hide comments [ 200 ] there are loads on http://weddingwords.vox.com if you want to search by themed tags Reply Sadly, this website is closed, fyi to all. The search continues for the right words… Reply I was able to access the site using the way back machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20100927200020/http://weddingwords.vox.com/ Reply My two favorite bands in this post?! Ariel, you just made the OBB even more awesome. The Magnetic Fields have another great song along the same lines – It's Only Time Why would I stop loving you a hundred years from now? It's only time. It's only time. What could stop this beating heart once it's made a vow? It's only time. It's only time. If rain won't change your mind, let it fall. The rain won't change my heart at all. Lock this chain around my hand, throw away the key. It's only time. It's only time. Years falling like grains of sand mean nothing to me. It's only time. It's only time. If snow won't change your mind let it fall. The snow won't change my heart, not at all. (I'll walk your lands) I'll walk your lands (And swim your sea) And swim your sea Marry me. Marry me. (Then in your hands) Then in your hands (I will be free) I will be free Marry me. Marry me. Why would I stop loving you a hundred years from now? Reply Oh, this is our first dance song! And my fiance picked Book of Love for his reading which even though I love the song, I thought might not be quite appropriate. I feel a bit relieved that others have used it before us! Reply aww, i walked down the aisle to 'the book of love'. i am a huge stephen merritt/the magnetic fields. my ladies walked to 'nothing matters when we're dancing' and one of our "featured songs" was a cover of 'strange powers'. Reply i might walk down an aisle just to be able to do it to "the book of love" that would be so lovely. Reply I would highly recommend Mike Doughty's version of Book of Love for wedding songs. So darned perfect. Reply Can I add one that we're using? Feel free to take it off the comments if this is the wrong place to post, but we found it hard to find a lovely reading that relates to offbeat mountain bikers! Feel free to use: A Marriage Made for Two A successful marriage can learn a lot from bicycle riding. You should promise each other that you will not be fair weather riders, but venture out together in the wind and the rain. Only by braving the storms as a team will you reap the rewards when the sunshine arrives. Look after each other. A well oiled bike will run smoothly and change gear easily. Marriage is like a tandem…keep pedalling or the one at the front shouts at you! You should promise each other to not only enjoy new adventures and explorations, but appreciate the same old routes you know and love. Marriage is a promise to each other to endure the climbs so that you may chase the swoops and swerves of perfect singletrack. The journey may be long and may have hills ahead, but if you climb together with love and passion, you will be able to achieve everything you both desire! Wishing you all the best from the start line of the greatest endurance event of your lives. Good luck and may each lap be a great adventure. ** Our friend is reading this for us. We actually wrote it ourselves, using some of the lovely comments guests had written with their RSVP's. Reply AHHH! This is perfect. We've just started planning our ceremony. We're not religious and we're having problems finding something that suits our families as well… Plus, we're currently restoring an old tandem bike that we're going to ride off on after the ceremony!!! Reply This is awesome. I am going to write something similar about snowboarding for our wedding!! Reply This is awesome. I am going to write something similar about snowboarding for our wedding!! Reply I love this! We are both mountain bikers & snowboarders did you write something similar about snowboarding in the end? I'd love to read it if you are happy to share it?! Also, can anyone recommend anything else outdoorsy, maybe linked to the beautiful mountains??!! x Reply I'm reading for my best friends wedding and came across this one in my search! "Blessing For A Marriage", by James Dillet Freeman (back to top of page) "May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another — not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete. The valley does not make the mountain less, but more. And the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all-important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery that is the awareness of one another's presence — no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another." Reply this is so lovely, thanks lisa!! this is a BEAUTIFUL blessing! thanks for posting it … my brother is officiating my ceremony & i wanted something he could say instead of the typical prayer or blessing. This is so beautiful and I am definitely having this at my wedding. Thank you so much for posting. <3 Thanks, perfect for us as a mountain biking couple 🙂 Reply This is fantastic! May we use for our wedding? Reply Oh my goodness this is amazing! It would be so great to use something like this for my FFIL to read! He is a bicycle enthusiast! You are a great writer! Reply Hi! I love your offbeat biking love writing. We're getting married in two weeks! Would it be possible to use part/all of your poem? We are both cyclists (road, mountain, and motorcycles). If so, how would you like to be credited if people asked for the author? Reply I still like Sonnet 136 by Willy Shakespeare. Also, there is a reverend who blogs and wrote something quite lovely recently about taking risks in terms of love and the lifespan of a relationship. Reply This is absolutely beautiful. Made me tear up! I am considering it for the wedding… Reply Hi! The link will not work, does anyone have the text for the Strangers Passage? Thanks! Reply Hey, look at me there in the blue tie getting married! Our reading was from "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" & was the "Green Ribbon." Reply Excuse me, I just died from that Rilke poem. Rilke! He is some kind of Teutonic super-genius. Reply When we started looking for wedding readings I especially had a very hard time – I'd start going through the Neruda and Rilke poems and, though they were often lovely, my eyes just glazed over and I couldn't foster any personal connection with any of them. But we finally found some GREAT things – here's what we read when we got married a few weeks ago! READING ONE: From Colin's grandmother, a Miss Manners lover, the following excerpt. "While exclusionary interest in one other human being, which is what we call courtship, is all very exciting in the stages of discovery, there is not enough substance in it for a lifetime, no matter how fascinating the people or passionate the romance. The world, on the other hand, is chock full of interesting and curious things. The point of the courtship — marriage — is to secure someone with whom you wish to go hand in hand through this source of entertainment, each making discoveries, and then sharing some and merely reporting others. Anyone who tries to compete with the entire world, demanding to be someone's sole source of interest and attention, is asking to be classified as a bore. "Why don't you ever want to talk to me?" will probably never start a satisfactory marital conversation. "Guess what?" will probably never fail." READING TWO: My Dad – the only one who actually chose his own reading – read from Da Vinci's notebooks some Notes on the Construction of Arches, interspersed with his own commentary on how this actually is all about marriage. (I don't yet have a transcript of his words, alas, which were really the best part.) "WHAT IS AN ARCH? The arch is nothing else than a force originated by two weaknesses, for the arch in buildings is composed of two segments of a circle, each of which being very weak in itself tends to fall; but as each opposes this tendency in the other, the two weaknesses combine to form one strength. OF THE KIND OF PRESSURE IN ARCHES. As the arch is a composite force it remains in equilibrium because the thrust is equal from both sides; and if one of the segments weighs more than the other the stability is lost, because the greater pressure will outweigh the lesser. ON THE STRENGTH OF THE ARCH. The way to give stability to the arch is to fill the spandrils with good masonry up to the level of its summit." READING THREE: My dear friend Katie read a selection from the Massachusetts State Supreme Court ruling on Gay Marriage, and we briefly mentioned how awe-inspiring it was that in our very city, in only two days, EVERYONE was about to get the right to marry. The cheer our guests let up was a joy to hear. "Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition. Tangible as well as intangible benefits flow from marriage. The benefits accessible only by way of a marriage license are enormous, touching nearly every aspect of life and death. It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has long been termed a civil right." READING FOUR: Colin's sister read an excerpt from "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," included partially because the HHGttG being a crucially formative book for me when I was a child, and partially because it is awesome: "They looked at each other for a moment. The moment became a longer moment, and suddenly it was a very long moment, so long one could hardly tell where all the time was coming from. For Arthur, who could usually contrive to feel self-conscious if left alone for long enough with a Swiss Cheese plant, the moment was one of sustained revelation. He felt on the sudden like a cramped and zoo-born animal who awakes one morning to find the door to his cage hanging quietly open and the savannah stretching grey and pink to the distant rising sun, while all around new sounds are waking. He wondered what the new sounds were as he gazed at her openly wondering face and her eyes that smiled with a shared surprise. He hadn't realized that life speaks with a voice to you, a voice that brings you answers to the questions you continually ask of it, had never consciously detected it or recognized its tones till it now said something it had never said to him before, which was "Yes"." And those were our readings. =) Reply Hello Jess! Can you please tell me who wrote the first one" From Colin's Grandmother"? What is that from? Who is Colins Grandmother? Reply I loved the grandmother reading too! Where'd it come from????? IT'S FANTASTIC! Reply It says that his grandmother is a "Miss Manners lover", which a google search confirms is where that piece is from. Reply The excerpt from "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" brought me to tears! I've been looking for readings that are personal and non-traditional about honoring and obeying, and he LOVED that book. When looking for readings I had no idea where to start, THANK YOU! Reply Hi Jess I realise it was a very long time ago you posted your comment. I'm looking to do a reading for my brothers wedding and I love the one your Dad did. You mentioned that he added some of his own words, which were excellent, but you hadn't posted them yet. If you still have them, and are happy to share them, I'd love to read them. Thanks for your time Laura Reply My friends had the Da Vinci and thier wedding, and it was basically perfect for them – one is a bit of a history buff, the other an engineer, and it was just so beautiful and perfect that I couldn't even. Reply My personal favorite love poem has always been Jim Daniels's "You Bring Out the Boring White Guy in Me." Reply Thanks, Ariel! This is just what I needed. When I started looking for an offbeat-but-meaningful reading for our ceremony, I went to wikiquote and looked up "marriage." Almost every one of the results were NEGATIVE! How frustrating. Ok, I'm off to present the Madeleine L'Engal passage to dear fiance! Reply If you're looking for something more secular that could cloak itself easily in a traditional ceremony, give Plato a once-over. My siblings-in-law used passages from Plato's "Symposium." It brought something different and unexpected to their otherwise traditional church wedding. It's the only thing I remember about the ceremony…that counts for something, right? Reply I love that first one, I am going to have to hide it away for our rehearsal dinner. Reply I didn't know that was L'Engle–I came across it as an option for opening words, so that is what we are using it for, although modified a little. I also think that we're going to use that Magnetic Fields song for either the processional or the signing. Reply We used: Reading # 1: Wedding Ritual (adapted from StarTrek: Celebrations by Maureen McTigue) With fire and steel did the gods forge the man’s heart. So fiercely did it beat, so loud was the sound, that the gods cried out: “On this day we have brought forth the strongest heart in all the heavens. None can stand before it without trembling at its strength.†But then the man’s heart weakened, its steady rhythm faltered, and the gods said: “Why do you weaken so? We have made you the strongest in all of creation.†And the heart said…"I…am alone." And the gods knew that they had erred. So they went back to their forge and brought forth another heart. But the second heart beat stronger than the first, and the first was jealous of its power. Fortunately, the second heart was tempered by wisdom. "If we join together, no forces can stop us." And when the two hearts began to beat together, they filled the heavens with a ferocious sound–and to this very day, no one can oppose the beating of these two hearts. Reading #2: "A Picnic on the Earth" by Shuntaro Tanikawa Let’s jump rope here, you and I. Right here! Let’s have lunch here, you and I. Here I will love you. Your eyes will reflect the blue of the sky And your back will be dyed the color of mugwort. Let’s learn, you and I, the names of the constellations. Here let us dream of things distant. Here let’s gather shellfish. Let’s pick a little starfish From the sea of the dawning sky. At breakfast let’s throw it back And let the night recede. Here I’ll go on saying “I’m home!†While you keep saying, “Welcome back!†I’ll come back here again and again. Here let’s drink hot tea. Let’s sit here, you and I, and be caressed for a while By the cool breeze. Reply I have friends who used "The Places You'll Go" by Dr Seuess 😀 Reply My Dad will be reading that! 😀 Reply My favorite quote that I have had memorized forever: To love very much is to love inadequately: We love- That is all. Love cannot be modified without being nullified. Love is a short word but it contains everything. Love means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being. We feel love as we feel the warmth of our blood, we breathe love as we breathe the air, we hold it in ourselves as we hold our thoughts. Nothing more exists for us. Love is not a word. It is a wordless state indicated by four letters. Guy De Maupassant Reply I love this… Reply Fantastic! I am madly taking notes as we speak. Now I just need to find more readers…. Reply I just got married on June 21 and these are the two readings we used. Though I LOVE all the ones you posted. The Journey One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice — though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do — determined to save the only life you could save. ~ Mary Oliver ~ It's not as much about love, but in a second marriage, it was very appropriate! Other one was: Crusoe by George Bilgere When you’ve been away from it long enough You begin to forget the country Of couples, with all its customs And mysterious ways. Those two Over there, for instance: late thirties, Attractive and well-dressed, reading At the table, drinking some complicated Coffee drink. They haven’t spoken Or even looked at each other in thirty minutes But the big toe of her right foot, naked In its sandal, sometimes grazes The naked ankle bone of his left foot, The faintest signal, a line thrown Between two vessels as they cruise Through this hour, this vacation, this life, Through the thick novels they’re reading, Her toe saying to his ankle, Here’s to the whole improbable story Of our meeting, of our life together And the oceanic richness Of our mingled narrative With its complex past, with its hurts And secret jokes, its dark closets And delightful sexual quirks, Its occasional doldrums, its vast Future we have already peopled With children. How safe we are Compared to that man sitting across the room, Marooned with his drink And yellow notebook, trying to write A way off his little island. Reply George Bilgere was my English prof! Reply The reading I love that we will use somehow at our ceremony is this one: Loving the wrong person We’re all seeking that special person who is right for us, but if you’ve been through enough relationships, you begin to suspect there’s no right person, just different flavors of wrong. Why is this? Because you yourself are wrong in some way, and you seek out partners who are wrong in some complementary way. But it takes a lot of living to grow fully into your own wrongness. It isn’t until you finally run up against your deepest demons, your unsolvable problems – the ones that make you truly who you are – that you’re ready to find a life-long mate. You’re looking for the wrong person. But not just any wrong person: the right wrong person – someone you lovingly gaze upon and think, “This is the problem I want to have.†– Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions. Reply i love it!!! Reply I love that!! Reply I am planning on playing this song or reading the lyrics… Dreaming my Dreams The Cranberries All the things you said to me today Changed my perspective in every way These things count to mean so much to me Into my faith you and your baby It's out there If you want me I'll be here It's out there I'll be dreaming my dreams with you And there's no other place that I'd lay down my face I'll be dreaming my dreams with you It's out there If you want me, I'll be here I'll be dreaming my dreams with you And there's no other place that I'd lay down my face I'll be dreaming my dreams with you Reply Oh! Reply Other Lives and Dimensions and Finally a Love Poem, by Bill Hicok My left hand will live longer than my right. The rivers of my palms tell me so. Never argue with rivers. Never expect your lives to finish at the same time. I think praying, I think clapping is how hands mourn. I think staying up and waiting for paintings to sigh is science. In another dimension this is exactly what's happening, it's what they write grants about: the chromodynamics of mournful Whistlers, the audible sorrow and beta decay of "Old Battersea Bridge." I like the idea of different theres and elsewheres, an Idaho known for bluegrass, a Bronx where people talk like violets smell. Perhaps I am somewhere patient, somehow kind, perhaps in the nook of a cousin universe I've never defiled or betrayed anyone. Here I have two hands and they are vanishing, the hollow of your back to rest my cheek against, your voice and little else but my assiduous fear to cherish. My hands are webbed like the wind-torn work of a spider, like they squeezed something in the womb but couldn't hang on. One of those other worlds or a life I felt passing through mine, or the ocean inside my mother's belly she had to scream out. Here when I say "I never want to be without you," somewhere else I am saying "I never want to be without you again." And when I touch you in each of the places we meet in all of the lives we are, it's with hands that are dying and resurrected. When I don't touch you it's a mistake in any life, in each place and forever. Reply Whee! Our first dance was 'Book of Love' by the Magnetic Fields! Reply We used the Roy Croft one for our wedding last month. We did it as part of our vows, though, each of us reading a line of the poem to each other and then adding our self-written vows at the end. (We hated the idea of repeating after the minister.) Everyone loved it. So did we. It was perfect for us. 🙂 Reply We didn't have this as a reading–I actually incorporated it into my vows–but it would make a REALLY nice reading. From the book "I like you" by Sandol Stoddard: I like you And I know why I like you because You are a good person To like I like you because When I tell you something special You know it's special And you remember it A long long time You say Remember when you told me Something special And both of us remember When I think something is important You think it's important too When I say something funny You laugh I think I'm funny and You think I'm funny too I like you because You know where I'm ticklish And you don't tickle me there except Just a little tiny bit sometimes But if you do then I know where to tickle you too You know how to be silly That's why I like you Boy are you ever silly I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you I like you because You know when it's time to stop being silly Maybe day after tomorrow Maybe never Oops too late It's quarter post silly We fool around the same way all the time Sometimes we don't say a word We snurkle under fences We spy secret places If I am a goofus on the roofus Hollering my head off You are one too If I pretend I am drowning You pretend you are saving me If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag Then you are getting to jump That's because You really like me You really like me Don't you And I really like you back And you like me back And I like you back And that's the way we keep on going Every day If you go away then I go away too Or if I stay home You send me a postcard You don't just say Well see you around Some time Bye I like you a lot because of that If I go away I send you a postcard too And I like you because If we go away together And if we are in Grand Central Station And if I get lost then you are the one that is yelling for me Hey where are you Here I am And I like you because When I am feeling sad You don't always cheer me up right away Sometimes it is better to be sad You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute You want to think about things It takes time I like you because if I am mad at you Then you are mad at me too It's awful when the other person isn't They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose I like you because if I think I am going to throw up then you are really sorry You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that You say maybe it was something you ate You say same thing happened to me one time And the same thing did If you find two four-leaf clovers You give me one If I find four I give you two If we only find three We keep on looking Sometimes we have good luck And sometimes we don't If I break my arm and If you bread your arm too Then it is fun to have a broken arm I tell you about mine You tell me about yours We are both sorry We write our names and draw pictures We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too I like you because I don't know why but Everything that happens Is nicer with you I can't remember when I didn't like you It must have been lonesome then I like you because because I forget why I like you But I do So many reasons On the Fourth of July I like you because It's the Fourth of July On the Fifth of July I like you too If you and I had some drums And some horns and some horses If we had some hats and some Flags and some fire-engines We could be a HOLIDAY We could be a CELEBRATION We could be a WHOLE PARADE See what I mean? Even if it was the nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth of July Even if it was August Even if it was way down at the bottom of November Even if it was no place particular in January I would go on choosing you And you would go on choosing me Over and over again That's how it would happen every time I don't know why I guess I don't know why I like you really Why do I like you I guess I just like you I guess I just like you Because I like you [sorry that was hella long] Reply Thank you so much! I saw that a while ago when I was browsing one day and couldn't find it again. I love it. Reply oh my god. I HAVE to use that!! there are so many things in there that exactly relate to my relationship…. like it was written for me! lol…. okay I am a nerd but THANK SO MUCH!!!!!! Reply That is wonderful!!!!!!!!!! Reply THANK YOU for introducing this to me! 🙂 I LOVE IT! It is right up my alley! I may end up using this for my ceremony as well, and I'm definitely buying the book! It is perfect! <3 Reply We used this as a reading! It was read by a friend with theatrical flair. Very fun. Reply Love that! Thank you for sharing!! Reply Did you use the entire thing for your vows?? Or some? Cause I would love to use all of it ^_^ lol Reply our wedding was themed to edward monkton's lovely love story, and that was our reading. The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, HIS cage. Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur. The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur's cage with kind words and loving thoughts. I like this Dionsaur, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny. He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now. I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice. She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur. But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. He is also overly fond of Things. Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of Things? But her mind skips from here to there so quickly, thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on Shopping. Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping? I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for Things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual. I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thought and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either. Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old. Look at them. Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs. And that, my frends, is how it is with love. Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place. Reply We're using this as one of our readings! Our MOH and BM are going to go back and forth reading it! Reply we are using this one as well at the end for a reading in lieu of a blessing! And instead of the more traditional opening words that make me want to puke we are opening with the Kavanaugh poem, no intro or "friends and family we are here today" stuff, just straight into the poem. Reply thank you for posting these! Reply Thanks for posting this site. My son has asked me to speak at his wedding, and there are some great resources here . . . Nothing corny, just great poems and passages. Reply With so many great ones, I thought to possibly add another. BTW: LOVE (!) 'I think I like you' Sounds just like me rambling on. I'm so glad to be reminded why we're having this wedding to begin with. OK, here's mine. It's from the song 'Love Rain Down On Me' by Jill Scott featuring Mos Def. I took Mos Def's part and changed part of it. Other than obvious he/she differences what I changed is in parentatheses. Love rain down on me X3 I stretch my arms towards the sky like blades of tall grass A rhythm bounces between my shoulders like carnival jumps I sat still in hopes it would help my wings grow So then I’d really be fly And then she arrived Like daybreak inside a railway tunnel, like the new moon, like a diamond in the mines Like high noon to a drunkard, sudden She made my heart beat in a now-now time signature Her skinny canvas were ultraviolet brush strokes She was the suns painting; she was a deep cognac color (Straight from the sniffer of God’s brandy) Her (My) eyes sparkled like lights along the new city (Only when reflected in your beauty ocean) Her lips pursed as if her breath was too sweet and full for her mouth to hold (My lips are pursed waiting for your sweet breath to fill my mouth) I said, you are the beautiful distress of mathematics (that I never took the time to learn) I said, for you I will peel open the clouds like new fruit Give you lightning and thunder as (well as myself) a dowry I will make the sky shit (pour) all of its stars like rain And I will clasp the constellations across your waist (shoulders) (To ease your load of the world) (And when you return to me at night) And I will make the heavens your (a) quilt (Draped over the bed that we will share) And they will be pleased to cover you (as they twinkle and shine) They will be pleased to cover you (lover of mine) (They will be pleased) May I please, cover you Please, (love you) Reply don't forget depeche mode. I want somebody to share Share the rest of my life Share my innermost thoughts Know my intimate details Someone wholl stand by my side And give me support And in return Shell get my support She will listen to me When I want to speak About the world we live in And life in general Though my views may be wrong They may even be perverted Shell hear me out And wont easily be converted To my way of thinking In fact shell often disagree But at the end of it all She will understand me I want somebody who cares For me passionately With every thought and With every breath Someone wholl help me see things In a different light All the things I detest I will almost like I dont want to be tied To anyones strings Im carefully trying to steer clear of Those things But when Im asleep I want somebody Who will put their arms around me And kiss me tenderly Though things like this Make me sick In a case like this Ill get away with it Reply I love this song. It is part of our recessional music. I used to sing it in the bathtub when I was 8. My parents loved that I loved their music. Thanks for posting this. Reply Anyone have any ideas about a reading for a wedding ceremony from an ancient greek or roman myth? Something from Ovid or someone else in that vein? Thanks! Reply i just wanted to say i had "the invitation" hanging in my house for years and when it came time to choose something to read at my cousins wedding, nothing seemed more appropriate or supportive. now that i am getting married, i am a bit unsettled that i didnt hold onto this reading for myself! these are true words that will never disappoint… Reply From Marge Piercy's book, "The Art of Blessing the Day" ====================== The day I forget to write the day I forget to feed the cats the day I forget to love you the day I forget your name and then my own. Until then I will not cease this spinning pattern: part weave of skeins of soft wool to keep us warm, to clothe our too open flesh, to decorate us — and part dance, through woods where roots trip me, a dance through meadows of rabbit holes and old ribs of plowing hidden under thick grass. Until then I will whirl through my ragged days. Like a spindle, like a dreydl I will turn in the center of my intricate weave spelling your name in my dance in my weaving, in my work, your hidden name which is simply, finally, love. =============== This poem is called "All lovers have secret names" Reply Love this so much! Thank you. Reply Our wedding isn't for six months (from today, actually!), but we've already written our ceremony. We chose a range of readings, but my favorite is from the movie 'Serenity' when two of our favorite Joss Whedon characters are talking: Capt. Malcolm Reynolds- It ain't all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well I suppose you do, since you already know what I'm about to say. River Tam- I do. But I like to hear you say it. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds- Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the world. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her a home. Reply […] http://offbeatbride.com/2008/07/wedding-readings#more-859 […] Reply […] http://offbeatbride.com/2008/07/wedding-readings#more-859 […] Reply There are so many beautiful readings here. One that seems very obvious to me is The Cure's Lovesong: Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am home again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am whole again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am young again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am fun again How ever far away, i will always love you How ever long i stay, i will always love you Whatever words i say, i will always love you I will always love you Quietly into the night… Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am free again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am clean again However far away,i will always love you How ever long i stay, i will always love you What ever words i say, i will always love you I will always love you Reply We are definitely thinking of having The Cure's Lovesong. We are also having a bit more of a funny reading. The lyrics from The Two Of Us by The Mr T Experience: Now there are two of us, instead of only one, two times as many things get left half undone. We're twice as half-asleep when the new day has begun and maybe twice as on the run, 'cause some of them will still be making fun of us. They'll say the two of you will never be one of us. But even if that's true, they'll have twice as much to do when there are two of us, and one of them is you. They'll find the two of us much harder to restrain, outsmarted by our impressive double brain If one of us runs dry, still another will remain, and it's twice as hard to pull the chain of two of us, against a ton of them: but two of us outnumber every single one of them. Two lives are semi-rough with half the rent and twice the stuff. There are two of us, and that should be enough. Look at everybody. Everybody's always falling apart or breaking up. But the two of us never will be one of those, and I should know– I have had a run of those Our love's not guaranteed, but it's growing like a weed. There are two of us, I think that's all we need. Reply That's awesome! I just got my partner to read it aloud (without telling him what it was or why) and he found it hard not to laugh. I think we may have found at least one of our readings 🙂 Reply We went for "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News… 😀 Reply if you weren't already married, i think i would propose to you… Reply Sometimes I think I've been planning my readings my whole life the way other folks plan the tulle, funky reception ideas or number of kids (I mean, depending on the person). Anyhow, here's one I love. Tony Kushner, from “An Epithalamion†2. Encircled by this breathing world within this close sphere of warm summer night ringed by this congress of friends here assembled we make declaration of our love and our union in public declaring what’s privately ours. From this crowd of hearts, shared heat and blood. 3. I am yours, who I love, not a dream by life, not fantasy, immortality, eternity, but the present moment and all-too- mortal flesh; to what is hardest; love is hardest; hard and simple and what is best in life. Love care honor growth—fine simple things and I make a vow of them to you. I too vow these to you who I also love and also to the careful protecting and preserving of dreams. Circle within circle, concentrically guarded, in the pliable element of the innermost heart, a garden blossoms in a golden ring; the dream of dawn in paradise shines there. Love is imagination’s spur and food. I promise you a future, impossible things, Justice and freedom and life without loss, a practical pillow, a home, in fact, a sheltering and withstanding spirit and always a room for your dreaming. 4. Light is the Wedding of Matter and Spirit, wave and particle, it is neither and both, and is in itself the blood of creation. It floods across galaxies and has no end, it describes and transforms with a single motion. May our love be as light. VI. And Then… Together, old and content, the day is warm and nearly over, the first breeze of evening plays in your hair. The sun sinks behind us, silhouetting the city. An old hand is ringing down the curtain. We cross the bridge that goes east into night. Reply I love the ancient Greek story about soulmates. Basically, the gods created humans to have two heads, four arms, and four legs, but one heart. All people were truly happy, and the gods became jealous, so they split every human so that they only had one head, two arms, two legs, and half a heart. We are destined to find our other half, or soulmate, to become complete again. The actual wording of the myth is beautiful (I butchered it just now). Another myth I particularily love is Eros and Psyche. Basically, Eros represents the physical, and Psyche the mind. For true love to exist, there needs to be both. I love the statue of eros and psyche with his wings all flung out, and her in his arms <3 !!! Reply I love the first myth, too! If anyone is looking for a set out "script" for the myth, Aristophanes explains it in his speech in Plato's Symposium, and I think "The Origin of Love" song in Hedwig and the Angy Inch is absolutely beautiful. I haven't heard the second myth, but that sounds gorgeous. Reply there's a song about the first myth actually, its called The Origin of Love from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch Reply If you are looking for particularily unique love poems, you might also try a metaphysical poet. They have this amazing way of comparing things so obscurely, but making it sound SO RIGHT. Eg- in "Valediction of Forbidden Mourning," John Donne compares his love to the foot of a compass (drawing tool), and himself to the wandering end. No mater how far he goes (the poem is about him leaving on a long journey), her foot brings him in a full circle, and make him end where he began. LOVE IT! Reply We had the Sandol Stoddard one at our wedding. It was awesome. My friend is an actor and he read it brilliantly. We also had these: "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" Robert Fulgham "All of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school. These are the things I learned.. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Give them to someone who feels sad. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day. Take a nap every afternoon. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together." and this: “When we find someone Whose weirdness Is compatible with ours We join up with them And fall into Mutually satisfying weirdness That is called True love†We also had this printed on the first page of our orders of service: “This guy is walking down the street, when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey, you, can you help me out? I'm in a hole here'. The doctor writes out a prescription, throws it into the hole and moves on. A priest walks past. The guy calls out, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?'. The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. The guy shouts up, 'Hey, it's me, can you help me out?' The friend jumps into the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid, now we're both down here?' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out'.†Leo McGarry – The West Wing Reply Writer Dan Savage explaining marriage to his 6-year-old son: (From act II of the This American Life Episode “A Little Bit of Knowledge†— It's a great story about how Dan and his boyfriend explain marriage and gay marriage to their son.) "There's something in your heart that makes you go out into the world and find someone new, someone you've met before, and that's the person you fall in love with." “Why?†“Because that's how new families are made and someday you'll meet the person you want to make a new family with and that's the person you're supposed to marry.†“Why?†“Because marriage is a promise that you make to that other person, a promise to stay in love with them forever, to be related forever, and that you'll always be together.†I'm not sure if/how I'll use this for my wedding, but it's my favorite definition of marriage so far. Reply One of my favorite readings is a hilarious and sentimental poem by Ogden Nash, "Tin Wedding Whistle". I first heard it at one of the first weddings I photographed — a Scottish groom and a Jewish bride under a chuppah made of cornstalks on the family farm. Very OBB long before OBB existed…I'm sure she would have fit right in here! Anyway, it is as follows: Tin Wedding Whistle Ogden Nash Though you know it anyhow Listen to me, darling, now, Proving what I need not prove How I know I love you, love. Near and far, near and far, I am happy where you are; Likewise I have never larnt How to be it where you aren't. Far and wide, far and wide, I can walk with you beside; Furthermore, I tell you what, I sit and sulk where you are not. Visitors remark my frown Where you're upstairs and I am down, Yes, and I'm afraid I pout When I'm indoors and you are out; But how contentedly I view Any room containing you. In fact I care not where you be, Just as long as it's with me. In all your absences I glimpse Fire and flood and trolls and imps. Is your train a minute slothful? I goad the stationmaster wrothful. When with friends to bridge you drive I never know if you're alive, And when you linger late in shops I long to telephone the cops. Yet how worth the waiting for, To see you coming through the door. Somehow, I can be complacent Never but with you adjacent. Near and far, near and far, I am happy where you are; Likewise I have never larnt How to be it where you aren't. Then grudge me not my fond endeavor, To hold you in my sight forever; Let none, not even you, disparage Such a valid reason for a marriage. Reply LOVE this poem! I'm also a fan of Ogden Nash's "To My Valentine": More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you. I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love. I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oaths, That's how you're love by me. Reply There are some really beautiful readings on here, so many I'd love to use but feel slightly hypocritical as this is my partner's second marriage so all the 'marriage is forever' stuff doesn't really ring true. Anyone got any ideas? Reply BLESSING FOR A MARRIAGE ~ James Dillet Freeman ~ May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another – not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence – no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another. Reply This one is from the Velveteen Rabbit a link to the full online text http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/williams/rabbit/rabbit.html I think we edited it down a bit from this though it seems really long now that I look at it again, and my whole ceremony was 15 minutes. No need to make people sit quietly in chairs for hours when really they want to hang out and have fun. ——- For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn't know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have had broader views, put on airs and pretended he was connected with Government. Between them all the poor little Rabbit was made to feel himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who was kind to him at all was the Skin Horse. The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it. "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." Reply Oh and some family members who are definitely off beat did a reading of the Owl and the Pussy Cat by Edward Lear. A lot of the vernacular from this childrens poem has changed meaning over time, making it a "safe" yet utterly envelope pushing depending on HOW it is read. http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/pussy.html Reply OMG!! I haven't heard this in forever! My mom used to read this to me as a kid!! I'm totally going to make her read it at the wedding! hahaha great poem and hilarious. Reply Love the MTX song. I'm not sure how we're going to use it but The Groovie Ghoulies will be part of our wedding for sure. My boy sang this song to me when we first got together and I was down about him going back to base. Till Death Do Us Party: Here's how it is, I know the score, don't count on anything for sure. Leave no regrets, and waste no time. What's mine is yours and yours is mine. 'Til death do us party, let us make a pact. No one will come between us, no one will turn us back. No one will get in our way, no one will bring us down. No one will make us feel like we're not worthy of the crown. I look at things surrounding me, and I like everything I see. If it was gone, I wouldn't care, when I look over you're right there. 'Til death do us party. 1-2-3-5 No one here gets out alive! 6-7-9-10 Re-incarnate, do it again! Reply And hand in hand, by the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, they danced by the light of the moon Amen. I love The Owl and the Pussycat and was wondering how to incoorporate it into the wedding. I made us a picture book once where I was the pusscat and he was the owl (his totem animal). I really want to repeat the theme. Reply ZOMG!!! I was looking for a reading for our wedding and have to thank Jess for posting the one taken from the Massachusetts Supreme Court. My partner and I have decided to get married in Mass even though our license won't be valid in our home state of Florida. This makes it bittersweet for us, but just the thought that for the short time we are there, we will have the same rights as our friends, family, neighbors and coworkers have is too much for us to refuse the opportunity. 🙂 Reply Read more comments 1 2 3 › Join the conversation Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published. 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I was able to access the site using the way back machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20100927200020/http://weddingwords.vox.com/ Reply
My two favorite bands in this post?! Ariel, you just made the OBB even more awesome. The Magnetic Fields have another great song along the same lines – It's Only Time Why would I stop loving you a hundred years from now? It's only time. It's only time. What could stop this beating heart once it's made a vow? It's only time. It's only time. If rain won't change your mind, let it fall. The rain won't change my heart at all. Lock this chain around my hand, throw away the key. It's only time. It's only time. Years falling like grains of sand mean nothing to me. It's only time. It's only time. If snow won't change your mind let it fall. The snow won't change my heart, not at all. (I'll walk your lands) I'll walk your lands (And swim your sea) And swim your sea Marry me. Marry me. (Then in your hands) Then in your hands (I will be free) I will be free Marry me. Marry me. Why would I stop loving you a hundred years from now? Reply
Oh, this is our first dance song! And my fiance picked Book of Love for his reading which even though I love the song, I thought might not be quite appropriate. I feel a bit relieved that others have used it before us! Reply
aww, i walked down the aisle to 'the book of love'. i am a huge stephen merritt/the magnetic fields. my ladies walked to 'nothing matters when we're dancing' and one of our "featured songs" was a cover of 'strange powers'. Reply
i might walk down an aisle just to be able to do it to "the book of love" that would be so lovely. Reply
I would highly recommend Mike Doughty's version of Book of Love for wedding songs. So darned perfect. Reply
Can I add one that we're using? Feel free to take it off the comments if this is the wrong place to post, but we found it hard to find a lovely reading that relates to offbeat mountain bikers! Feel free to use: A Marriage Made for Two A successful marriage can learn a lot from bicycle riding. You should promise each other that you will not be fair weather riders, but venture out together in the wind and the rain. Only by braving the storms as a team will you reap the rewards when the sunshine arrives. Look after each other. A well oiled bike will run smoothly and change gear easily. Marriage is like a tandem…keep pedalling or the one at the front shouts at you! You should promise each other to not only enjoy new adventures and explorations, but appreciate the same old routes you know and love. Marriage is a promise to each other to endure the climbs so that you may chase the swoops and swerves of perfect singletrack. The journey may be long and may have hills ahead, but if you climb together with love and passion, you will be able to achieve everything you both desire! Wishing you all the best from the start line of the greatest endurance event of your lives. Good luck and may each lap be a great adventure. ** Our friend is reading this for us. We actually wrote it ourselves, using some of the lovely comments guests had written with their RSVP's. Reply
AHHH! This is perfect. We've just started planning our ceremony. We're not religious and we're having problems finding something that suits our families as well… Plus, we're currently restoring an old tandem bike that we're going to ride off on after the ceremony!!! Reply
I love this! We are both mountain bikers & snowboarders did you write something similar about snowboarding in the end? I'd love to read it if you are happy to share it?! Also, can anyone recommend anything else outdoorsy, maybe linked to the beautiful mountains??!! x Reply
I'm reading for my best friends wedding and came across this one in my search! "Blessing For A Marriage", by James Dillet Freeman (back to top of page) "May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another — not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete. The valley does not make the mountain less, but more. And the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all-important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery that is the awareness of one another's presence — no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another." Reply
this is a BEAUTIFUL blessing! thanks for posting it … my brother is officiating my ceremony & i wanted something he could say instead of the typical prayer or blessing.
This is so beautiful and I am definitely having this at my wedding. Thank you so much for posting. <3
Oh my goodness this is amazing! It would be so great to use something like this for my FFIL to read! He is a bicycle enthusiast! You are a great writer! Reply
Hi! I love your offbeat biking love writing. We're getting married in two weeks! Would it be possible to use part/all of your poem? We are both cyclists (road, mountain, and motorcycles). If so, how would you like to be credited if people asked for the author? Reply
I still like Sonnet 136 by Willy Shakespeare. Also, there is a reverend who blogs and wrote something quite lovely recently about taking risks in terms of love and the lifespan of a relationship. Reply
Hey, look at me there in the blue tie getting married! Our reading was from "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" & was the "Green Ribbon." Reply
When we started looking for wedding readings I especially had a very hard time – I'd start going through the Neruda and Rilke poems and, though they were often lovely, my eyes just glazed over and I couldn't foster any personal connection with any of them. But we finally found some GREAT things – here's what we read when we got married a few weeks ago! READING ONE: From Colin's grandmother, a Miss Manners lover, the following excerpt. "While exclusionary interest in one other human being, which is what we call courtship, is all very exciting in the stages of discovery, there is not enough substance in it for a lifetime, no matter how fascinating the people or passionate the romance. The world, on the other hand, is chock full of interesting and curious things. The point of the courtship — marriage — is to secure someone with whom you wish to go hand in hand through this source of entertainment, each making discoveries, and then sharing some and merely reporting others. Anyone who tries to compete with the entire world, demanding to be someone's sole source of interest and attention, is asking to be classified as a bore. "Why don't you ever want to talk to me?" will probably never start a satisfactory marital conversation. "Guess what?" will probably never fail." READING TWO: My Dad – the only one who actually chose his own reading – read from Da Vinci's notebooks some Notes on the Construction of Arches, interspersed with his own commentary on how this actually is all about marriage. (I don't yet have a transcript of his words, alas, which were really the best part.) "WHAT IS AN ARCH? The arch is nothing else than a force originated by two weaknesses, for the arch in buildings is composed of two segments of a circle, each of which being very weak in itself tends to fall; but as each opposes this tendency in the other, the two weaknesses combine to form one strength. OF THE KIND OF PRESSURE IN ARCHES. As the arch is a composite force it remains in equilibrium because the thrust is equal from both sides; and if one of the segments weighs more than the other the stability is lost, because the greater pressure will outweigh the lesser. ON THE STRENGTH OF THE ARCH. The way to give stability to the arch is to fill the spandrils with good masonry up to the level of its summit." READING THREE: My dear friend Katie read a selection from the Massachusetts State Supreme Court ruling on Gay Marriage, and we briefly mentioned how awe-inspiring it was that in our very city, in only two days, EVERYONE was about to get the right to marry. The cheer our guests let up was a joy to hear. "Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition. Tangible as well as intangible benefits flow from marriage. The benefits accessible only by way of a marriage license are enormous, touching nearly every aspect of life and death. It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has long been termed a civil right." READING FOUR: Colin's sister read an excerpt from "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," included partially because the HHGttG being a crucially formative book for me when I was a child, and partially because it is awesome: "They looked at each other for a moment. The moment became a longer moment, and suddenly it was a very long moment, so long one could hardly tell where all the time was coming from. For Arthur, who could usually contrive to feel self-conscious if left alone for long enough with a Swiss Cheese plant, the moment was one of sustained revelation. He felt on the sudden like a cramped and zoo-born animal who awakes one morning to find the door to his cage hanging quietly open and the savannah stretching grey and pink to the distant rising sun, while all around new sounds are waking. He wondered what the new sounds were as he gazed at her openly wondering face and her eyes that smiled with a shared surprise. He hadn't realized that life speaks with a voice to you, a voice that brings you answers to the questions you continually ask of it, had never consciously detected it or recognized its tones till it now said something it had never said to him before, which was "Yes"." And those were our readings. =) Reply
Hello Jess! Can you please tell me who wrote the first one" From Colin's Grandmother"? What is that from? Who is Colins Grandmother? Reply
It says that his grandmother is a "Miss Manners lover", which a google search confirms is where that piece is from. Reply
The excerpt from "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" brought me to tears! I've been looking for readings that are personal and non-traditional about honoring and obeying, and he LOVED that book. When looking for readings I had no idea where to start, THANK YOU! Reply
Hi Jess I realise it was a very long time ago you posted your comment. I'm looking to do a reading for my brothers wedding and I love the one your Dad did. You mentioned that he added some of his own words, which were excellent, but you hadn't posted them yet. If you still have them, and are happy to share them, I'd love to read them. Thanks for your time Laura Reply
My friends had the Da Vinci and thier wedding, and it was basically perfect for them – one is a bit of a history buff, the other an engineer, and it was just so beautiful and perfect that I couldn't even. Reply
My personal favorite love poem has always been Jim Daniels's "You Bring Out the Boring White Guy in Me." Reply
Thanks, Ariel! This is just what I needed. When I started looking for an offbeat-but-meaningful reading for our ceremony, I went to wikiquote and looked up "marriage." Almost every one of the results were NEGATIVE! How frustrating. Ok, I'm off to present the Madeleine L'Engal passage to dear fiance! Reply
If you're looking for something more secular that could cloak itself easily in a traditional ceremony, give Plato a once-over. My siblings-in-law used passages from Plato's "Symposium." It brought something different and unexpected to their otherwise traditional church wedding. It's the only thing I remember about the ceremony…that counts for something, right? Reply
I didn't know that was L'Engle–I came across it as an option for opening words, so that is what we are using it for, although modified a little. I also think that we're going to use that Magnetic Fields song for either the processional or the signing. Reply
We used: Reading # 1: Wedding Ritual (adapted from StarTrek: Celebrations by Maureen McTigue) With fire and steel did the gods forge the man’s heart. So fiercely did it beat, so loud was the sound, that the gods cried out: “On this day we have brought forth the strongest heart in all the heavens. None can stand before it without trembling at its strength.†But then the man’s heart weakened, its steady rhythm faltered, and the gods said: “Why do you weaken so? We have made you the strongest in all of creation.†And the heart said…"I…am alone." And the gods knew that they had erred. So they went back to their forge and brought forth another heart. But the second heart beat stronger than the first, and the first was jealous of its power. Fortunately, the second heart was tempered by wisdom. "If we join together, no forces can stop us." And when the two hearts began to beat together, they filled the heavens with a ferocious sound–and to this very day, no one can oppose the beating of these two hearts. Reading #2: "A Picnic on the Earth" by Shuntaro Tanikawa Let’s jump rope here, you and I. Right here! Let’s have lunch here, you and I. Here I will love you. Your eyes will reflect the blue of the sky And your back will be dyed the color of mugwort. Let’s learn, you and I, the names of the constellations. Here let us dream of things distant. Here let’s gather shellfish. Let’s pick a little starfish From the sea of the dawning sky. At breakfast let’s throw it back And let the night recede. Here I’ll go on saying “I’m home!†While you keep saying, “Welcome back!†I’ll come back here again and again. Here let’s drink hot tea. Let’s sit here, you and I, and be caressed for a while By the cool breeze. Reply
My favorite quote that I have had memorized forever: To love very much is to love inadequately: We love- That is all. Love cannot be modified without being nullified. Love is a short word but it contains everything. Love means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being. We feel love as we feel the warmth of our blood, we breathe love as we breathe the air, we hold it in ourselves as we hold our thoughts. Nothing more exists for us. Love is not a word. It is a wordless state indicated by four letters. Guy De Maupassant Reply
I just got married on June 21 and these are the two readings we used. Though I LOVE all the ones you posted. The Journey One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice — though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do — determined to save the only life you could save. ~ Mary Oliver ~ It's not as much about love, but in a second marriage, it was very appropriate! Other one was: Crusoe by George Bilgere When you’ve been away from it long enough You begin to forget the country Of couples, with all its customs And mysterious ways. Those two Over there, for instance: late thirties, Attractive and well-dressed, reading At the table, drinking some complicated Coffee drink. They haven’t spoken Or even looked at each other in thirty minutes But the big toe of her right foot, naked In its sandal, sometimes grazes The naked ankle bone of his left foot, The faintest signal, a line thrown Between two vessels as they cruise Through this hour, this vacation, this life, Through the thick novels they’re reading, Her toe saying to his ankle, Here’s to the whole improbable story Of our meeting, of our life together And the oceanic richness Of our mingled narrative With its complex past, with its hurts And secret jokes, its dark closets And delightful sexual quirks, Its occasional doldrums, its vast Future we have already peopled With children. How safe we are Compared to that man sitting across the room, Marooned with his drink And yellow notebook, trying to write A way off his little island. Reply
The reading I love that we will use somehow at our ceremony is this one: Loving the wrong person We’re all seeking that special person who is right for us, but if you’ve been through enough relationships, you begin to suspect there’s no right person, just different flavors of wrong. Why is this? Because you yourself are wrong in some way, and you seek out partners who are wrong in some complementary way. But it takes a lot of living to grow fully into your own wrongness. It isn’t until you finally run up against your deepest demons, your unsolvable problems – the ones that make you truly who you are – that you’re ready to find a life-long mate. You’re looking for the wrong person. But not just any wrong person: the right wrong person – someone you lovingly gaze upon and think, “This is the problem I want to have.†– Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions. Reply
I am planning on playing this song or reading the lyrics… Dreaming my Dreams The Cranberries All the things you said to me today Changed my perspective in every way These things count to mean so much to me Into my faith you and your baby It's out there If you want me I'll be here It's out there I'll be dreaming my dreams with you And there's no other place that I'd lay down my face I'll be dreaming my dreams with you It's out there If you want me, I'll be here I'll be dreaming my dreams with you And there's no other place that I'd lay down my face I'll be dreaming my dreams with you Reply
Other Lives and Dimensions and Finally a Love Poem, by Bill Hicok My left hand will live longer than my right. The rivers of my palms tell me so. Never argue with rivers. Never expect your lives to finish at the same time. I think praying, I think clapping is how hands mourn. I think staying up and waiting for paintings to sigh is science. In another dimension this is exactly what's happening, it's what they write grants about: the chromodynamics of mournful Whistlers, the audible sorrow and beta decay of "Old Battersea Bridge." I like the idea of different theres and elsewheres, an Idaho known for bluegrass, a Bronx where people talk like violets smell. Perhaps I am somewhere patient, somehow kind, perhaps in the nook of a cousin universe I've never defiled or betrayed anyone. Here I have two hands and they are vanishing, the hollow of your back to rest my cheek against, your voice and little else but my assiduous fear to cherish. My hands are webbed like the wind-torn work of a spider, like they squeezed something in the womb but couldn't hang on. One of those other worlds or a life I felt passing through mine, or the ocean inside my mother's belly she had to scream out. Here when I say "I never want to be without you," somewhere else I am saying "I never want to be without you again." And when I touch you in each of the places we meet in all of the lives we are, it's with hands that are dying and resurrected. When I don't touch you it's a mistake in any life, in each place and forever. Reply
We used the Roy Croft one for our wedding last month. We did it as part of our vows, though, each of us reading a line of the poem to each other and then adding our self-written vows at the end. (We hated the idea of repeating after the minister.) Everyone loved it. So did we. It was perfect for us. 🙂 Reply
We didn't have this as a reading–I actually incorporated it into my vows–but it would make a REALLY nice reading. From the book "I like you" by Sandol Stoddard: I like you And I know why I like you because You are a good person To like I like you because When I tell you something special You know it's special And you remember it A long long time You say Remember when you told me Something special And both of us remember When I think something is important You think it's important too When I say something funny You laugh I think I'm funny and You think I'm funny too I like you because You know where I'm ticklish And you don't tickle me there except Just a little tiny bit sometimes But if you do then I know where to tickle you too You know how to be silly That's why I like you Boy are you ever silly I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you I like you because You know when it's time to stop being silly Maybe day after tomorrow Maybe never Oops too late It's quarter post silly We fool around the same way all the time Sometimes we don't say a word We snurkle under fences We spy secret places If I am a goofus on the roofus Hollering my head off You are one too If I pretend I am drowning You pretend you are saving me If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag Then you are getting to jump That's because You really like me You really like me Don't you And I really like you back And you like me back And I like you back And that's the way we keep on going Every day If you go away then I go away too Or if I stay home You send me a postcard You don't just say Well see you around Some time Bye I like you a lot because of that If I go away I send you a postcard too And I like you because If we go away together And if we are in Grand Central Station And if I get lost then you are the one that is yelling for me Hey where are you Here I am And I like you because When I am feeling sad You don't always cheer me up right away Sometimes it is better to be sad You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute You want to think about things It takes time I like you because if I am mad at you Then you are mad at me too It's awful when the other person isn't They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose I like you because if I think I am going to throw up then you are really sorry You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that You say maybe it was something you ate You say same thing happened to me one time And the same thing did If you find two four-leaf clovers You give me one If I find four I give you two If we only find three We keep on looking Sometimes we have good luck And sometimes we don't If I break my arm and If you bread your arm too Then it is fun to have a broken arm I tell you about mine You tell me about yours We are both sorry We write our names and draw pictures We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too I like you because I don't know why but Everything that happens Is nicer with you I can't remember when I didn't like you It must have been lonesome then I like you because because I forget why I like you But I do So many reasons On the Fourth of July I like you because It's the Fourth of July On the Fifth of July I like you too If you and I had some drums And some horns and some horses If we had some hats and some Flags and some fire-engines We could be a HOLIDAY We could be a CELEBRATION We could be a WHOLE PARADE See what I mean? Even if it was the nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth of July Even if it was August Even if it was way down at the bottom of November Even if it was no place particular in January I would go on choosing you And you would go on choosing me Over and over again That's how it would happen every time I don't know why I guess I don't know why I like you really Why do I like you I guess I just like you I guess I just like you Because I like you [sorry that was hella long] Reply
Thank you so much! I saw that a while ago when I was browsing one day and couldn't find it again. I love it. Reply
oh my god. I HAVE to use that!! there are so many things in there that exactly relate to my relationship…. like it was written for me! lol…. okay I am a nerd but THANK SO MUCH!!!!!! Reply
THANK YOU for introducing this to me! 🙂 I LOVE IT! It is right up my alley! I may end up using this for my ceremony as well, and I'm definitely buying the book! It is perfect! <3 Reply
Did you use the entire thing for your vows?? Or some? Cause I would love to use all of it ^_^ lol Reply
our wedding was themed to edward monkton's lovely love story, and that was our reading. The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, HIS cage. Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur. The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur's cage with kind words and loving thoughts. I like this Dionsaur, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny. He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now. I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice. She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur. But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. He is also overly fond of Things. Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of Things? But her mind skips from here to there so quickly, thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on Shopping. Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping? I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for Things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual. I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thought and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either. Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old. Look at them. Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs. And that, my frends, is how it is with love. Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place. Reply
We're using this as one of our readings! Our MOH and BM are going to go back and forth reading it! Reply
we are using this one as well at the end for a reading in lieu of a blessing! And instead of the more traditional opening words that make me want to puke we are opening with the Kavanaugh poem, no intro or "friends and family we are here today" stuff, just straight into the poem. Reply
Thanks for posting this site. My son has asked me to speak at his wedding, and there are some great resources here . . . Nothing corny, just great poems and passages. Reply
With so many great ones, I thought to possibly add another. BTW: LOVE (!) 'I think I like you' Sounds just like me rambling on. I'm so glad to be reminded why we're having this wedding to begin with. OK, here's mine. It's from the song 'Love Rain Down On Me' by Jill Scott featuring Mos Def. I took Mos Def's part and changed part of it. Other than obvious he/she differences what I changed is in parentatheses. Love rain down on me X3 I stretch my arms towards the sky like blades of tall grass A rhythm bounces between my shoulders like carnival jumps I sat still in hopes it would help my wings grow So then I’d really be fly And then she arrived Like daybreak inside a railway tunnel, like the new moon, like a diamond in the mines Like high noon to a drunkard, sudden She made my heart beat in a now-now time signature Her skinny canvas were ultraviolet brush strokes She was the suns painting; she was a deep cognac color (Straight from the sniffer of God’s brandy) Her (My) eyes sparkled like lights along the new city (Only when reflected in your beauty ocean) Her lips pursed as if her breath was too sweet and full for her mouth to hold (My lips are pursed waiting for your sweet breath to fill my mouth) I said, you are the beautiful distress of mathematics (that I never took the time to learn) I said, for you I will peel open the clouds like new fruit Give you lightning and thunder as (well as myself) a dowry I will make the sky shit (pour) all of its stars like rain And I will clasp the constellations across your waist (shoulders) (To ease your load of the world) (And when you return to me at night) And I will make the heavens your (a) quilt (Draped over the bed that we will share) And they will be pleased to cover you (as they twinkle and shine) They will be pleased to cover you (lover of mine) (They will be pleased) May I please, cover you Please, (love you) Reply
don't forget depeche mode. I want somebody to share Share the rest of my life Share my innermost thoughts Know my intimate details Someone wholl stand by my side And give me support And in return Shell get my support She will listen to me When I want to speak About the world we live in And life in general Though my views may be wrong They may even be perverted Shell hear me out And wont easily be converted To my way of thinking In fact shell often disagree But at the end of it all She will understand me I want somebody who cares For me passionately With every thought and With every breath Someone wholl help me see things In a different light All the things I detest I will almost like I dont want to be tied To anyones strings Im carefully trying to steer clear of Those things But when Im asleep I want somebody Who will put their arms around me And kiss me tenderly Though things like this Make me sick In a case like this Ill get away with it Reply
I love this song. It is part of our recessional music. I used to sing it in the bathtub when I was 8. My parents loved that I loved their music. Thanks for posting this. Reply
Anyone have any ideas about a reading for a wedding ceremony from an ancient greek or roman myth? Something from Ovid or someone else in that vein? Thanks! Reply
i just wanted to say i had "the invitation" hanging in my house for years and when it came time to choose something to read at my cousins wedding, nothing seemed more appropriate or supportive. now that i am getting married, i am a bit unsettled that i didnt hold onto this reading for myself! these are true words that will never disappoint… Reply
From Marge Piercy's book, "The Art of Blessing the Day" ====================== The day I forget to write the day I forget to feed the cats the day I forget to love you the day I forget your name and then my own. Until then I will not cease this spinning pattern: part weave of skeins of soft wool to keep us warm, to clothe our too open flesh, to decorate us — and part dance, through woods where roots trip me, a dance through meadows of rabbit holes and old ribs of plowing hidden under thick grass. Until then I will whirl through my ragged days. Like a spindle, like a dreydl I will turn in the center of my intricate weave spelling your name in my dance in my weaving, in my work, your hidden name which is simply, finally, love. =============== This poem is called "All lovers have secret names" Reply
Our wedding isn't for six months (from today, actually!), but we've already written our ceremony. We chose a range of readings, but my favorite is from the movie 'Serenity' when two of our favorite Joss Whedon characters are talking: Capt. Malcolm Reynolds- It ain't all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well I suppose you do, since you already know what I'm about to say. River Tam- I do. But I like to hear you say it. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds- Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the world. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her a home. Reply
There are so many beautiful readings here. One that seems very obvious to me is The Cure's Lovesong: Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am home again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am whole again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am young again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am fun again How ever far away, i will always love you How ever long i stay, i will always love you Whatever words i say, i will always love you I will always love you Quietly into the night… Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am free again Whenever i'm alone with you You make me feel like i am clean again However far away,i will always love you How ever long i stay, i will always love you What ever words i say, i will always love you I will always love you Reply
We are definitely thinking of having The Cure's Lovesong. We are also having a bit more of a funny reading. The lyrics from The Two Of Us by The Mr T Experience: Now there are two of us, instead of only one, two times as many things get left half undone. We're twice as half-asleep when the new day has begun and maybe twice as on the run, 'cause some of them will still be making fun of us. They'll say the two of you will never be one of us. But even if that's true, they'll have twice as much to do when there are two of us, and one of them is you. They'll find the two of us much harder to restrain, outsmarted by our impressive double brain If one of us runs dry, still another will remain, and it's twice as hard to pull the chain of two of us, against a ton of them: but two of us outnumber every single one of them. Two lives are semi-rough with half the rent and twice the stuff. There are two of us, and that should be enough. Look at everybody. Everybody's always falling apart or breaking up. But the two of us never will be one of those, and I should know– I have had a run of those Our love's not guaranteed, but it's growing like a weed. There are two of us, I think that's all we need. Reply
That's awesome! I just got my partner to read it aloud (without telling him what it was or why) and he found it hard not to laugh. I think we may have found at least one of our readings 🙂 Reply
Sometimes I think I've been planning my readings my whole life the way other folks plan the tulle, funky reception ideas or number of kids (I mean, depending on the person). Anyhow, here's one I love. Tony Kushner, from “An Epithalamion†2. Encircled by this breathing world within this close sphere of warm summer night ringed by this congress of friends here assembled we make declaration of our love and our union in public declaring what’s privately ours. From this crowd of hearts, shared heat and blood. 3. I am yours, who I love, not a dream by life, not fantasy, immortality, eternity, but the present moment and all-too- mortal flesh; to what is hardest; love is hardest; hard and simple and what is best in life. Love care honor growth—fine simple things and I make a vow of them to you. I too vow these to you who I also love and also to the careful protecting and preserving of dreams. Circle within circle, concentrically guarded, in the pliable element of the innermost heart, a garden blossoms in a golden ring; the dream of dawn in paradise shines there. Love is imagination’s spur and food. I promise you a future, impossible things, Justice and freedom and life without loss, a practical pillow, a home, in fact, a sheltering and withstanding spirit and always a room for your dreaming. 4. Light is the Wedding of Matter and Spirit, wave and particle, it is neither and both, and is in itself the blood of creation. It floods across galaxies and has no end, it describes and transforms with a single motion. May our love be as light. VI. And Then… Together, old and content, the day is warm and nearly over, the first breeze of evening plays in your hair. The sun sinks behind us, silhouetting the city. An old hand is ringing down the curtain. We cross the bridge that goes east into night. Reply
I love the ancient Greek story about soulmates. Basically, the gods created humans to have two heads, four arms, and four legs, but one heart. All people were truly happy, and the gods became jealous, so they split every human so that they only had one head, two arms, two legs, and half a heart. We are destined to find our other half, or soulmate, to become complete again. The actual wording of the myth is beautiful (I butchered it just now). Another myth I particularily love is Eros and Psyche. Basically, Eros represents the physical, and Psyche the mind. For true love to exist, there needs to be both. I love the statue of eros and psyche with his wings all flung out, and her in his arms <3 !!! Reply
I love the first myth, too! If anyone is looking for a set out "script" for the myth, Aristophanes explains it in his speech in Plato's Symposium, and I think "The Origin of Love" song in Hedwig and the Angy Inch is absolutely beautiful. I haven't heard the second myth, but that sounds gorgeous. Reply
there's a song about the first myth actually, its called The Origin of Love from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch Reply
If you are looking for particularily unique love poems, you might also try a metaphysical poet. They have this amazing way of comparing things so obscurely, but making it sound SO RIGHT. Eg- in "Valediction of Forbidden Mourning," John Donne compares his love to the foot of a compass (drawing tool), and himself to the wandering end. No mater how far he goes (the poem is about him leaving on a long journey), her foot brings him in a full circle, and make him end where he began. LOVE IT! Reply
We had the Sandol Stoddard one at our wedding. It was awesome. My friend is an actor and he read it brilliantly. We also had these: "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" Robert Fulgham "All of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school. These are the things I learned.. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Give them to someone who feels sad. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day. Take a nap every afternoon. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together." and this: “When we find someone Whose weirdness Is compatible with ours We join up with them And fall into Mutually satisfying weirdness That is called True love†We also had this printed on the first page of our orders of service: “This guy is walking down the street, when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey, you, can you help me out? I'm in a hole here'. The doctor writes out a prescription, throws it into the hole and moves on. A priest walks past. The guy calls out, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?'. The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. The guy shouts up, 'Hey, it's me, can you help me out?' The friend jumps into the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid, now we're both down here?' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out'.†Leo McGarry – The West Wing Reply
Writer Dan Savage explaining marriage to his 6-year-old son: (From act II of the This American Life Episode “A Little Bit of Knowledge†— It's a great story about how Dan and his boyfriend explain marriage and gay marriage to their son.) "There's something in your heart that makes you go out into the world and find someone new, someone you've met before, and that's the person you fall in love with." “Why?†“Because that's how new families are made and someday you'll meet the person you want to make a new family with and that's the person you're supposed to marry.†“Why?†“Because marriage is a promise that you make to that other person, a promise to stay in love with them forever, to be related forever, and that you'll always be together.†I'm not sure if/how I'll use this for my wedding, but it's my favorite definition of marriage so far. Reply
One of my favorite readings is a hilarious and sentimental poem by Ogden Nash, "Tin Wedding Whistle". I first heard it at one of the first weddings I photographed — a Scottish groom and a Jewish bride under a chuppah made of cornstalks on the family farm. Very OBB long before OBB existed…I'm sure she would have fit right in here! Anyway, it is as follows: Tin Wedding Whistle Ogden Nash Though you know it anyhow Listen to me, darling, now, Proving what I need not prove How I know I love you, love. Near and far, near and far, I am happy where you are; Likewise I have never larnt How to be it where you aren't. Far and wide, far and wide, I can walk with you beside; Furthermore, I tell you what, I sit and sulk where you are not. Visitors remark my frown Where you're upstairs and I am down, Yes, and I'm afraid I pout When I'm indoors and you are out; But how contentedly I view Any room containing you. In fact I care not where you be, Just as long as it's with me. In all your absences I glimpse Fire and flood and trolls and imps. Is your train a minute slothful? I goad the stationmaster wrothful. When with friends to bridge you drive I never know if you're alive, And when you linger late in shops I long to telephone the cops. Yet how worth the waiting for, To see you coming through the door. Somehow, I can be complacent Never but with you adjacent. Near and far, near and far, I am happy where you are; Likewise I have never larnt How to be it where you aren't. Then grudge me not my fond endeavor, To hold you in my sight forever; Let none, not even you, disparage Such a valid reason for a marriage. Reply
LOVE this poem! I'm also a fan of Ogden Nash's "To My Valentine": More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you. I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love. I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oaths, That's how you're love by me. Reply
There are some really beautiful readings on here, so many I'd love to use but feel slightly hypocritical as this is my partner's second marriage so all the 'marriage is forever' stuff doesn't really ring true. Anyone got any ideas? Reply
BLESSING FOR A MARRIAGE ~ James Dillet Freeman ~ May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another – not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence – no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another. Reply
This one is from the Velveteen Rabbit a link to the full online text http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/williams/rabbit/rabbit.html I think we edited it down a bit from this though it seems really long now that I look at it again, and my whole ceremony was 15 minutes. No need to make people sit quietly in chairs for hours when really they want to hang out and have fun. ——- For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn't know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have had broader views, put on airs and pretended he was connected with Government. Between them all the poor little Rabbit was made to feel himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who was kind to him at all was the Skin Horse. The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it. "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." Reply
Oh and some family members who are definitely off beat did a reading of the Owl and the Pussy Cat by Edward Lear. A lot of the vernacular from this childrens poem has changed meaning over time, making it a "safe" yet utterly envelope pushing depending on HOW it is read. http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/pussy.html Reply
OMG!! I haven't heard this in forever! My mom used to read this to me as a kid!! I'm totally going to make her read it at the wedding! hahaha great poem and hilarious. Reply
Love the MTX song. I'm not sure how we're going to use it but The Groovie Ghoulies will be part of our wedding for sure. My boy sang this song to me when we first got together and I was down about him going back to base. Till Death Do Us Party: Here's how it is, I know the score, don't count on anything for sure. Leave no regrets, and waste no time. What's mine is yours and yours is mine. 'Til death do us party, let us make a pact. No one will come between us, no one will turn us back. No one will get in our way, no one will bring us down. No one will make us feel like we're not worthy of the crown. I look at things surrounding me, and I like everything I see. If it was gone, I wouldn't care, when I look over you're right there. 'Til death do us party. 1-2-3-5 No one here gets out alive! 6-7-9-10 Re-incarnate, do it again! Reply
And hand in hand, by the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, they danced by the light of the moon Amen. I love The Owl and the Pussycat and was wondering how to incoorporate it into the wedding. I made us a picture book once where I was the pusscat and he was the owl (his totem animal). I really want to repeat the theme. Reply
ZOMG!!! I was looking for a reading for our wedding and have to thank Jess for posting the one taken from the Massachusetts Supreme Court. My partner and I have decided to get married in Mass even though our license won't be valid in our home state of Florida. This makes it bittersweet for us, but just the thought that for the short time we are there, we will have the same rights as our friends, family, neighbors and coworkers have is too much for us to refuse the opportunity. 🙂 Reply