Hellobee Boards

We did these two:

The first was split between my two SIL's:
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.

and

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

“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.”

I love both of these Pablo Neruda poems--I read the 2nd at my BFF's wedding

SONNET LXIX
Pablo Neruda

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
without you moving, slicing the noon
like a blue flower, without you walking
later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,
golden, which maybe others will not see,
which maybe no one knew was growing
like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming
suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,
since then you are, I am, we are,
and through love I will be, you will be, we’ll be.

Sonnet XVII
I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
- Pablo Neruda

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.
http://gretchenrubin.com/?s=Wedding+readings

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...

http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2016/09/readings-wedding-marriage-love-quotes/

@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!

Blessing of the Hands by Unknown

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.
These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will hold you and comfort you in grief and uncertainty.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow and joy.
These are the hands that will hold your family as one.
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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

For after today you shall say to the world –
This is my husband. This is my wife.

- Robert Fulghum

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.

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.

And imagine if, united in a common purpose, they decide that the trajectory of their lives would be better if they traveled it together.

That would be pretty epic. Don't you think?

- Bran Cedio

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: http://weddingcabaret.blogspot.com/2009/04/ceremony-reading-oh-places-youll-go-by.html?m=1

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: https://www.taylormali.com/poems-online/how-falling-in-love-is-like-owning-a-dog/

@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.

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).

I do not offer the old smooth prizes,
But offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is called riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve.
However sweet the laid-up stores,
However convenient the dwellings,
You shall not remain there.
However sheltered the port,
And however calm the waters,
You shall not anchor there.
However welcome the hospitality that welcomes you
You are permitted to receive it but a little while
Afoot and lighthearted, take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before you,
The long brown path before you,
leading wherever you choose.
Say only to one another:
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love, more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law:
Will you give me yourself?
Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

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.

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like
volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a
decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined
together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because
this is what love is.Love is not breathlessness, it is not
excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion.
That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what
is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art
and a fortunate accident.Those that truly love have roots
that grow towards each other underground, and, when all the pretty
blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one
tree and not two.
Louis de Bernieres