Wedding Readings

Wedding Ceremony Humorous Readings | Wedding Ceremony Readings

If you are not getting wedding readings through your officiant or place of worship then you are in the unlucky situation of trying to find wedding readings. This can be very tricky, especially if you have a low threshhold for sparmy poetry or your views of romance do not involve waxing poetic in a 19th century voice. You may also have a unique wedding and feel stuck with very UNunique wedding reading options.

My brother pointed out when he got married that most wedding readings fall into two categories:

Wedding Readings about How Single Life Sucks

Wedding Readings about How You Can Not Understand Marriage Until You've Been Married 40 Years

When he said this, I had to laugh! Indeed, the readings are about the horrible storms of life and how it's so miserable to be alone...a solitary soul in this vast, miserable world. Or the readings talk about the stupid, naive, innocent, fresh young love of a newlywed and only those older, wiser married couples can truly understand what love is.

So here's your homework... help me find wedding readings that you like!

If this is too smarmy for you:



HOW DO I LOVE THEE
~ By Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

and this is too overused:

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.

Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

Compliments Of Erik & Beth Kent, Co-Publishers of NJWedding.com
and founders of the Art of Marriage Foundation

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In the art of marriage the little things are the big things...

It is never being too old to hold hands.

It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.

It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude
of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.

It is speaking words of appreciation
and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience,
understanding and a sense of humour.

It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,
dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.

It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.



- by Wilferd Arlan Peterson (long version)

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Why is it that people get married?
Because we need a witness to our lives.
There’s a billion people on the planet.
What does any one life really mean?
But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything…
The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things,
All of it… all the time, every day.
You’re saying “Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it.
Your life will not go unwitnessed - because I will be your witness.”
Wife in the movie, "Shall We Dance?" 2004

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What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are
joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each
other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with
each other in silent, unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting.
George Elliott (aka Mary Anne Evans), Adam Bede

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It's you I like,
It's not the things you wear.
It's not the way you do your hair,
But it's you I like.
The way you are right now
The way down deep inside you
Not the things that hide you
Not your diplomas...
They're just beside you.
But it's you I like,
Every part of you,
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings,
Whether old or new.
I hope that you'll remember
Even when you're feeling blue,
That it's you I like,
It's you yourself, it's you
It's you I like!
Mr Rogers

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Let it be a dance we do.
May I have this dance with you?
Through the good times
And the bad times, too.
Let it be a dance.

Learn to follow, learn to lead,
Feel the rhythm, fill the need.
To reap the harvest, plant the seed.
And let it be a dance.

Morning star comes out at night,
Without the dark there is no light.
If nothing's wrong, then nothing's right.
Let it be a dance.
Ric Masten, in Looking Out/Looking In, Proctor & Towne

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on Marriage
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Kahlil Gibran

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I love "folded" potato chips. When John and I eat chips together, he never says
a word. He just smiles and hands the folded chips from his bag to me as he comes
to them. Each one of those potato chips is a love note to me.
Linda Gilden, South Carolina

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Some Things We Keep
I grew up in the forties and fifties with practical parents - a Mother who washed
aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. A Father who was happier
getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones. Their marriage was good,
their dreams focused. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat
and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, dishtowel in the other. It
was the time for fixing things - a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the
oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep. It was a way of life, and sometimes
it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to be
wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant there'd always be
more. But then my Mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth
of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there
isn't any 'more'. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes
away.....never to return. So, while we have it, it's best we love it and care for it.....
and fix it when it's broken.....and heal it when it's sick. This is true for old cars.....
and children with bad report cards.....and dogs with bad hips.....and aging parents
.....and grandparents...and marriage. We keep them because they are worth it,
because we are worth it. Some things we keep.
Unknown

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She said there are three words that save a marriage, and they're not, 'I love
you.' They're, 'Maybe you're right.' And Marcus, her husband said, 'Maybe,
gives you some wiggle room there'.
Long As We Both Shall Live a book of photos and wisdom from long-married couples by Robert Fass

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You don't marry one person; you marry three:
the person you think they are,
the person they are, and
the person they are going to become
as a result of being married to you.
Richard Needham

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www.yourfirstdance.com

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