A round up of my favourite wedding readings of 2015

Having a wedding reading or two in your ceremony can be a fab way to personalise it and to have words said that really resonate with you or better still make you laugh you ass off! I love looking back over the year to sum up the readings that I have heard the most, readings I’ve come across for the first time and readings that simply have given me goosebumps.

So in no particular order, here’s my round up of readings from 2015 that have done all of these things and more.

He’s not perfect by Bob Marley

He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can.

He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect more than he can give.

Don’t analyse.

Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you!

***I have also heard this read as ‘She’s not perfect,’ which was really cool too.

I like you by Sandol Stoddard Warburg (the shortened version)

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it’s special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, ‘Remember when you told me something special?’
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it’s important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I’m funny and you think I’m funny too
Hah-hah!

…And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don’t always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad…
I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It’s awful when the other person isn’t…

I like you because I don’t know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can’t remember when I didn’t like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do.

Love by Roy Croft

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

A Marriage Made for Two – Anon. (A great one for cycling lovers or not!)

A successful marriage can learn a lot from bicycle riding.

You should promise each other that you will not be fair weather riders, but venture out together in the wind and the rain. Only by braving the storms as a team will you reap the rewards when the sunshine arrives.

Look after each other. A well oiled bike will run smoothly and change gear easily.

Marriage is like a tandem…keep pedalling or the one at the front shouts at you!

You should promise each other to not only enjoy new adventures and explorations, but appreciate the same old routes you know and love.

Marriage is a promise to each other to endure the climbs so that you may chase the swoops and swerves of perfect single track.

The journey may be long and may have hills ahead, but if you climb together with love and passion, you will be able to achieve everything you both desire!

Wishing you all the best from the start line of the greatest endurance event of your lives. Good luck and may each lap be a great adventure.

Perfect Penguin by Sandra Boynton

 I am love  -Anon

I am in you and all about you, every cell, every molecule, every particle lives by my life. Your breath is my breath, you see through my vision, you move as I move, your thoughts are within my mind.

You are a wonder and delight to my being, your beauty and radiance springs forth in eternal joy. I celebrate every moment of your unfolding presence. I delight in all of you, not one moment has been lost, not one breath, one thought, one glance.

I love you,

I love through you

You are all together lovely to me, not one blemish do I see.

I have never witnessed a fault, a sin, a single moment of separation.

Your are perfect, shameless and ever dwell in divine innocence

You ravish me with every glance.

I am undone in the brilliance of your smile, pleasure overtakes me when you dance in my presence. Nothing is hidden from me, nothing veiled.

I see your nakedness and delight in your beauty.

If you will open your soul today, I will be your presence, I will go before you.  I will make a way in your unfolding moments. I will embrace who you embrace, I will delight in your miraculous wonders. Wisdom from beyond time, are in you, they are in us.

Will you dance in my presence?

I love being with you!

I am.

Somewhere I have never travelled by E E Cummings

Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:

In your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which I cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me though I have closed myself as fingers,

You open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens touching skilfully, mysteriously her first rose or if your wish be to close me, I and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending;

Nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility: whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing

I do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Top tips from moi

If you love some of these readings but still are unsure of how to go about choosing that special one, read this post on picking wedding readings which might give you some ideas.

Also have a good think about who to pick as your reader, as choosing that golden person can be as important as the reading that you choose. There’s no point picking a fab reading if the person reading it is not confident enough to do it justice. Or you might really want to shake things up and have a group reading where everyone reads and takes the pressure off of just one or two people!

You may also find this round up of readings from previous years useful, as the beautiful thing about love poems is that they never go out of fashion or get too dated!

If you still can’t find a reading that says everything that you want it to say, why not write your own reading so that it says everything you want it to say! Believe it or not, the above reading ‘A marriage made for two,’ was written by a bride called Jennifer who couldn’t find a suitable reading, so she wrote her own. I’ve only attributed it to an anonymous source because I couldn’t find her surname.

Don’t forget as well, that you can change words and lines of poems if you want to really personalise them or simply don’t like them! Especially with funny poems it can be hilarious to change lines so that they actually talk about you and your love bunny and the silly/funny/annoying things that you do!

And if you are unsure about writing a poem or reading, then why not write your own love story? This can be easier than writing a reading because rather brilliantly, you already know what the story is! Check out this post for some good tips, examples and advice about including your love story in your ceremony.

Ta-dah!