Reading for a wedding...

[Kell]

I've been asked to do a reading at a wedding next summer and have been told I can choose what to read.

 

I'd like to choose something literary that talks about love, marriage, companionship in a positive and slightly romantic way, but without being slushy. Something that's just a couple of minutes long would be perfect.

 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful!

[Janet]

Shakespeare's Sonnet (116, I think) is often used.

 

A few suggestions...

THE KEY TO LOVE

 

The key to love is understanding…..

The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word

But those unspoken gestures

The little things that say so much by themselves.

 

The key to love is forgiveness…..

To accept each others faults and pardon mistakes

Without forgetting, but with remembering

What you learn from them.

 

The key to love is sharing…..

Facing your good fortunes as well as the bad, together

Both conquering problems, forever searching for ways

To intensify your happiness.

 

The key to love is giving…..

Without thought of return

But with the hope of just a simple smile

And by giving in but never giving up.

 

The key to love is respect…..

Realising that you are two separate people, with different ideas

That you don’t belong to each other

That you belong with each other, and share a mutual bond.

 

The key to love is inside us all…..

It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients

That will take you to its threshold

 

It is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work…..

But the rewards are more than worth the effort….

And that is the key to love.

Author Unknown

 

 

If you don't mind a religious one, we had the traditional "the greatest of these is love" one at our wedding.

 

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

 

Ephesians 3.14-end

 

If I were to get married again, I might go for an amusing one!

 

Yes, I'll Marry You

 

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,

And here's the reason why;

So I can push you out of bed

When the baby starts to cry,

And if we hear a knocking

And it's creepy and it's late,

I hand you the torch you see,

And you investigate.

 

Yes I'll marry you, my dear,

You may not apprehend it,

But when the tumble-drier goes

It's you that has to mend it,

You have to face the neighbour

Should our labrador attack him,

And if a drunkard fondles me

It's you that has to whack him.

 

Yes, I'll marry you,

You're virile and you're lean,

My house is like a pigsty

You can help to keep it clean.

That sexy little dinner

Which you served by candlelight,

As I do chipolatas,

You can cook it every night!

 

It's you who has to work the drill

and put up curtain track,

And when I've got PMT it's you who gets the flak,

I do see great advantages,

But none of them for you,

And so before you see the light,

I do, I do, I do!

Pam Ayres

Edited June 22, 2008 by Janet

[happyanddandy]

My husband gave me 'The Oxford Book of Marriage' edited by Helge Rubinstein when we got married. It's a book of extracts of readings, sayings, poems and essays about marriage andmight be useful. There are copies at Amazon Marketplace or I expect the library could get it for you

[Guest]

When I get married I want sonnet 116 read:

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever-fixéd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

 

*(The 'e' in fixed should have one of those accents above it to split the word into two syllables - fix-edd, not fickst).

Edited June 22, 2008 by Guest
Fixéd your fickst! - Ooh, ta very much, luv!-prospero

[Spooncat]

We had a really good short but not too mushy reading at our wedding - I will dig it out and get back to you

[Guest ii]

Shakespeare's Sonnet (116, I think) is often used.

 

When I get married I want sonnet 116 read:

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever-fix

[Guest]

You know I'm gonna have to check my Ladybird Book of Sonnets now...

 

ETA: You're evil.

[Guest ii]

You're evil.

 

I prefer honest.

[Louiseog]

"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 your 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." -By Margery Williams, from The Velveteen rabbit

[Amanda]

Try some of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She has quite a few well known love poems, the following being one of the better known. Hers may be almost too personal, more from one lover to another, but give them a look-see. Maybe you will find something you like.

 

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.

[Kate]

Try some of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She has quite a few well known love poems, the following being one of the better known. Hers may be almost too personal, more from one lover to another, but give them a look-see. Maybe you will find something you like.

 

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.

 

Wow that is beautiful

[aromaannie]

"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 your 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." -By Margery Williams, from The Velveteen rabbit

 

 

That was read at a wedding I went to last year!

[~Andrea~]

I love that Velveteen Rabbit quote. That's the second time I've come across it now, sounds like a lovely story.