https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:56:16 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671585 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:26:33 +0000 Mrs. Goose 2671585@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love this one. I read it in a speech for my best friend's wedding and I asked my sister to read something as a surprise at my wedding ceremony and she chose the same one. </p> <p>Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like<br /> volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a<br /> decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined<br /> together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because<br /> this is what love is.Love is not breathlessness, it is not<br /> excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion.<br /> That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what<br /> is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art<br /> and a fortunate accident.Those that truly love have roots<br /> that grow towards each other underground, and, when all the pretty<br /> blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one<br /> tree and not two.<br /> Louis de Bernieres </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671546 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 17:43:44 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2671546@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The Apache Wedding Blessing</p> <p>Now you will feel no rain, For each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, For each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness, For each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two bodies, But there is one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, To enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.</p> <p> - See more at: <a href="http://www.prayers-for-special-help.com/apache-wedding-blessing.html#sthash.J6Yv9kKf.dpuf" rel="nofollow">http://www.prayers-for-special-help.com/apache-wedding-blessing.html#sthash.J6Yv9kKf.dpuf</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671478 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 15:04:27 +0000 jape14 2671478@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>at our wedding, we did the Robert Fulghum reading mentioned above, ee cummings "i carry your heart," and a selection of a few verses of Whitman's Song of the Open Road (see below).</p> <p>I do not offer the old smooth prizes,<br /> But offer rough new prizes,<br /> These are the days that must happen to you:<br /> You shall not heap up what is called riches,<br /> You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve.<br /> However sweet the laid-up stores,<br /> However convenient the dwellings,<br /> You shall not remain there.<br /> However sheltered the port,<br /> And however calm the waters,<br /> You shall not anchor there.<br /> However welcome the hospitality that welcomes you<br /> You are permitted to receive it but a little while<br /> Afoot and lighthearted, take to the open road,<br /> Healthy, free, the world before you,<br /> The long brown path before you,<br /> leading wherever you choose.<br /> Say only to one another:<br /> Camerado, I give you my hand!<br /> I give you my love, more precious than money,<br /> I give you myself before preaching or law:<br /> Will you give me yourself?<br /> Will you come travel with me?<br /> Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671444 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:47:32 +0000 youboots 2671444@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@yoursilverlining: I just sent this to them </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671438 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:40:29 +0000 gentlelunette 2671438@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MediaNaranja: that second one is so beautiful. Isn't that what Patch Adams reads over the grave of his girlfriend (in the movie "Patch Adams", obviously. Lol!). I wept like a baby during that scene. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671435 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:38:36 +0000 gentlelunette 2671435@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I read this at my friends wedding:</p> <p>From Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery<br /> "It was a happy and beautiful bride who came down the old, homespun-carpeted stairs that September noon - the first bride of Green Gables, slender and shining-eyed, in the mist of her maiden veil, with her arms full of roses. Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, won after years of patient waiting. It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her - if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood - then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other's keeping and both were unafraid."</p> <p>And this has always been one of my favourites:</p> <p>ON LOVE<br /> ~ By Thomas Kempis ~</p> <p>Love is a mighty power,<br /> a great and complete good.<br /> Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth.<br /> It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders<br /> all bitterness sweet and acceptable.</p> <p>Nothing is sweeter than love,<br /> Nothing stronger,<br /> Nothing higher,<br /> Nothing wider,<br /> Nothing more pleasant,<br /> Nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God.</p> <p>Love flies, runs and leaps for joy.<br /> It is free and unrestrained.<br /> Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds.<br /> Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil,<br /> attempts things beyond its strength.</p> <p>Love sees nothing as impossible,<br /> for it feels able to achieve all things.<br /> It is strange and effective,<br /> while those who lack love faint and fail.</p> <p>Love is not fickle and sentimental,<br /> nor is it intent on vanities.<br /> Like a living flame and a burning torch,<br /> it surges upward and surely surmounts every obstacle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671433 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:36:44 +0000 bookwormmama 2671433@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did two readings that were not religious. The first was a shortened version of "Oh, the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss...I was working on a library degree and planning on working with children and I loved the message. I can't find our version but I believe it was similar to the one on this site: <a href="http://weddingcabaret.blogspot.com/2009/04/ceremony-reading-oh-places-youll-go-by.html?m=1" rel="nofollow">http://weddingcabaret.blogspot.com/2009/04/ceremony-reading-oh-places-youll-go-by.html?m=1</a></p> <p>We also did one called "Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog" by Taylor Mali. We had gotten a dog before our wedding and he was our first baby, so it was a fun way to incorporate him. Here's the link: <a href="https://www.taylormali.com/poems-online/how-falling-in-love-is-like-owning-a-dog/" rel="nofollow">https://www.taylormali.com/poems-online/how-falling-in-love-is-like-owning-a-dog/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671429 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:32:43 +0000 MamaG 2671429@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@JenGirl: @youboots: We used the Robert Fulghum piece at our destination wedding... it was perfect for us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671422 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:20:51 +0000 JenGirl 2671422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way. All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those conversations that began with, “When we’re married”, and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” – all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” – and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding.</p> <p>The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.”</p> <p>Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another – acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another these past few years. Shortly you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same.</p> <p>For after today you shall say to the world –<br /> This is my husband. This is my wife.</p> <p>- Robert Fulghum</p> <p>SPACE IS BIG. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the pharmacist, but that's just peanuts to space.</p> <p>So imagine the stunning feat of probability involved when one person, traveling the chaos of life, manages to find another like-minded individual in this planet's teeming masses. Imagine if, despite all the forces arrayed against them, they somehow manage to fall in ever-increasing love.</p> <p>And imagine if, united in a common purpose, they decide that the trajectory of their lives would be better if they traveled it together.</p> <p>That would be pretty epic. Don't you think?</p> <p>- Bran Cedio </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671364 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:58:42 +0000 HappyBaker 2671364@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I read this at my cousin's wedding- </p> <p>You are holding up a ceiling<br /> with both arms. It is very heavy,<br /> but you must hold it up, or else<br /> it will fall down on you. Your arms<br /> are tired, terribly tired,<br /> and, as the day goes on, it feels<br /> as if either your arms or the ceiling<br /> will soon collapse.</p> <p>But then,<br /> unexpectedly,<br /> something wonderful happens:<br /> Someone,<br /> a man or a woman,<br /> walks into the room<br /> and holds their arms up<br /> to the ceiling beside you.</p> <p>So you finally get<br /> to take down your arms.<br /> You feel the relief of respite,<br /> the blood flowing back<br /> to your fingers and arms.<br /> And when your partner's arms tire,<br /> you hold up your own<br /> to relieve him again.</p> <p>And it can go on like this<br /> for many years<br /> without the house falling. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671359 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:56:22 +0000 Anagram 2671359@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I wish I had a copy of our officiant's ceremony, because he had a lot of really interesting and beautiful facts about marriage and how to set up a successful one that I really appreciated. We randomly found a nondenominational officiant online and he was so amazing--so many guests afterward mentioned how good he was. There were also a few readings included, as well as little anecdotes and really nice, formal but not too traditional or soppy, vows. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671357 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:54:07 +0000 yoursilverlining 2671357@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had our reader read a portion of the MA supreme court ruling on same sex marriage (we were married pre-SCOTUS ruling), Goodridge v. Dept of Health. </p> <p>It's got some very, very lovely language in the opinion about the civil reasons for marriage and sanctity of marriage without any religious references or flowery pesudo-religious language. Except from what our reader read:</p> <p>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. Because it fulfils 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." </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671353 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:52:03 +0000 littlejoy 2671353@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsA: I totally was coming here to share that one. It's so beautiful! We had it at our wedding, and it made me cry like a baby! </p> <p>Blessing of the Hands by Unknown</p> <p>These are the hands of your partner, young and strong and full of love, holding your hands as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever.<br /> These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future.<br /> These are the hands that will hold you and comfort you in grief and uncertainty.<br /> These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow and joy.<br /> These are the hands that will hold your family as one.<br /> These are the hands that will give you strength. And these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671343 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:43:04 +0000 Alba4 2671343@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MediaNaranja: My brotherread Sonnet XVII by Neruda at our wedding. I lived in Chile and love Neruda, so it meant something special to me. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671338 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:36:26 +0000 youboots 2671338@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cole: @KayKay: perfect, thanks!</p> <p>Has anyone heard a passage from The Giving Tree read? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671337 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:35:41 +0000 youboots 2671337@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsA: this one seems just right for them. They are not overly mushy romantic people. It speaks to practical love. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671334 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:30:58 +0000 KayKay 2671334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This pdf (linked in the page, you have to enter your email address) has a lot of really good ones after they crowd-sourced on a podcast...</p> <p><a href="http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2016/09/readings-wedding-marriage-love-quotes/" rel="nofollow">http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2016/09/readings-wedding-marriage-love-quotes/</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671333 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:29:47 +0000 Synchronicity 2671333@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsA: we had this one read, too. I love it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671332 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:28:49 +0000 Cole 2671332@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If you scroll most of the way down this page there is a place to download a ton of readings, mostly secular. I love the author who compiled the list so hopefully there is something helpful there for you.<br /> <a href="http://gretchenrubin.com/?s=Wedding+readings" rel="nofollow">http://gretchenrubin.com/?s=Wedding+readings</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671331 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:27:48 +0000 MrsA 2671331@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had friends read The Blessing of the Hands at our wedding and I still think back on it:</p> <p>Blessing of the Hands by Unknown</p> <p>These are the hands of your partner, young and strong and full of love, holding your hands as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever.<br /> These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future.<br /> These are the hands that will hold you and comfort you in grief and uncertainty.<br /> These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow and joy.<br /> These are the hands that will hold your family as one.<br /> These are the hands that will give you strength. And these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671328 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:24:00 +0000 MediaNaranja 2671328@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I love both of these Pablo Neruda poems--I read the 2nd at my BFF's wedding :)</p> <p>SONNET LXIX<br /> Pablo Neruda</p> <p>Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,<br /> without you moving, slicing the noon<br /> like a blue flower, without you walking<br /> later through the fog and the cobbles,</p> <p>without the light you carry in your hand,<br /> golden, which maybe others will not see,<br /> which maybe no one knew was growing<br /> like the red beginnings of a rose.</p> <p>In short, without your presence: without your coming<br /> suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,<br /> gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:</p> <p>since then I am because you are,<br /> since then you are, I am, we are,<br /> and through love I will be, you will be, we’ll be.</p> <p>Sonnet XVII<br /> I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz<br /> or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:<br /> I love you as certain dark things are loved,<br /> secretly, between the shadow and the soul.<br /> I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries<br /> hidden within itself the light of those flowers,<br /> and thanks to your love, darkly in my body<br /> lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.<br /> I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,<br /> I love you simply, without problems or pride:<br /> I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving<br /> but this, in which there is no I or you,<br /> so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,<br /> so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.<br /> - Pablo Neruda </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671321 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:16:47 +0000 youboots 2671321@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mediagirl: thank you. These are lovely. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671319 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:13:39 +0000 mediagirl 2671319@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did these two:</p> <p>The first was split between my two SIL's:<br /> From "The Irrational Season" by Madeleine L'Engle<br /> 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. </p> <p>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.</p> <p>and</p> <p>A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway</p> <p>“At night, there was the feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together.” </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671317 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:09:36 +0000 youboots 2671317@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is one of my favorites that was read at our wedding.</p> <p>May the road rise up to meet you.<br /> May the wind always be at your back.<br /> May the sun shine warm upon your face,<br /> and rains fall soft upon your fields.<br /> And until we meet again,<br /> May God hold you in the palm of His hand. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/wedding-reading-help#post-2671316 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:08:25 +0000 youboots 2671316@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We introduced two of our friends and they are having a destination wedding in Mexico soon, yay!</p> <p>They asked my husband to officiate the wedding and we are getting started putting together the ceremony. I'd like to suggest some readings that are not from the Bible. I'm sure a religious reference or two is fine but they don't go to church. Any favorites? </p>