It’s good to include readings into your wedding ceremony, whether it’s a religious or secular style of wedding doesn’t really matter. Obviously for those of specific religious beliefs who are having a traditional ceremony may not have too much choice when it comes to the wording. But for others there is a wealth of variety available.
From the classic inclusion of love poems :
Love
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
And in Life’s noisiest hour,
There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee,
The heart’s Self-solace and soliloquy.
You mould my Hopes, you fashion me within ;
And to the leading Love-throb in the Heart
Thro’ all my Being, thro’ my pulse’s beat ;
You lie in all my many Thoughts, like Light,
Like the fair light of Dawn, or summer Eve
On rippling Stream, or cloud-reflecting Lake.
And looking to the Heaven, that bends above you,
How oft! I bless the Lot that made me love you.
to the unique custom written vows for a ‘haunted’ wedding in October….
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Harpier cries ‘Tis time, ’tis time.
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
greet guests………
turn to father of bride….
father hands over bride…..with kiss
Now turn together so you may see
I so promise….
I so promise….
These rings you take are not to bind
But to show you are of like mind
To have and hold from this night on
In madness and in raging fun
Take these now and show the throng
How love of each other has made you strong.
Repeat after me…
Come one, come all as spirits roam
And witness love brought to our home
On Hallows night our vows are made
In brightest light and darkest shade
Dance madly to the sounds of ghouls
And witness once again these fools.
By power given to me today
By states of this fair USA
By those who wed and stand here now
I accept that these two made their vow
And stand before you for all to see
Husband and Wife in merry glee
Come you all to witness this
The final sealing with a kiss
In death as well as in this life
I now declare you man and wife!
Ladies, gentlemen, Witches, ghouls
I now present these merry fools!
Mr and Mrs…………..
………..the possibilities are endless.
Here’s some points to note:
- don’t ask a soft spoken person to read
- don’t ask a nervous person to stand up in front of a crowd
- don’t expect a child to get it perfectly right
- make it appropriate to the venue and theme
- make it non-offensive to differing faiths and belief systems
- make it truly reflect what you are trying to say to your beloved
- use other people to read when you don’t want to say a lot yourself
- vary the readings to include people you couldn’t fit into the wedding party
- don’t choose a parent unless you choose them all
- ditto for choosing children
- don’t make them long and redundant
- enjoy the time and pauses in the ceremony to take a breath.
