Ceremony Readings

faye1978

We are having a civil ceremony and having recently been to our 1st civil ceremony wedding, we thought it was SOOOO impersonale and want to make ours more 'loving' and 'personal'. Can you have readings at a civil ceremony? And what sort of things have you guys decided on? Are they poems or what???

gill_81uk

We are having two readings. I'll paste them below.

We got a little booklet from our Registrar detailing the ceremony and different paragraphs and promises that we can choose to personalise it a bit.

Captain Correlli's Mandolin

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 root was 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.

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!

MsChazzer

Yesterday I was stressing on the stressed thread about finding people to do readings for us, yay one positive so far! She will be reading The Journey by Christine De Luca which was on the list of suggested poems our celebrant gave us. We have also asked my grandpa to read Sir Philip Sidney's My True Love Hath My Heart because he quoted it in a letter to us when we got engaged (he hasn't let us know if he's up for it yet though). Finally we're asking a friend to read a passage from Who Will Comfort Toffle? by Tove Jansson, who wrote the Moomins, it ends with two shy people getting married!

There are several books of readings and poetry suitable for weddings, have a search on the net or ask at your local library.

miss_kat

One of my firends wrote her own poem for our other friends civil ceremony. It was all about how they met and their funny little arguments and even mentioned the cats and dog!!! It was called something like 'Love over the deep fat fryer' as they met in McDonalds! The registrar had to ok it first, but the only stipulation was no religious content

faye1978

Thanks girls - when do you get the booklets? Am I a bit ahead of myself here. It's only 3 months away!

MsChazzer

We're having a humanist ceremony and you automatically get one from your celebrant. Google wedding poetry and you'll find loads on the net (some better than others), as long as it isn't religious in any way you should be ok.

sunshinejoclaire

we are having 'The Art Of A Good Marriage'
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Ceremony+reading+-+The+art+of+marriage?opendocument

crldnll

sunshinejoclaire wrote: »

we are having 'The Art Of A Good Marriage'
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Ceremony+reading+-+The+art+of+marriage?opendocument

snap! we have a picture with this reading on, and were thinking of having it two

daleigha

im having a poem i found on the internet (poet said on the website it was fine to use as long as she was credited with it!) - my little brother, who will be 7, is reading it.

a friend of mine had song lyrics, read like a reading at hers!

xx

Violetta_2

gill_81uk wrote: »

Captain Correlli's Mandolin

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 root was 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.

I really like this, it sum's up true love so well, beautiful.