Tell me your ceremony readings. Need suggestions/inspiration

Very Helpful thread! I just went through pages and pages to find it again!!

I'm still working on this one but....

"When we think of marriage, we think of that iconic moment when the bride (or groom) walks down the aisle. We tend to think of that at the moment of union, but truly, it's that moment when we first face the world together, as married partners. We walk down the aisle into an uncertain future, we have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but today is a celebration of our commitment to stand together, no matter what twists and turns unfurl on the road ahead."

I had a hard time finding readings I liked too. Most were too dramatic, cheesy, all about "eternal love" blah blah. Then FH and I each found one that really spoke to us (referring to the journey before the marriage) and we couldn't pick one so we sent both to our officiant - we'll see what she does with them.

The one I picked is "Union" by Robert Fulghum

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 promises and agreements in an informal way. All those conversations that were held riding in a car or over a meal or during long walks — all those sentences that began with "When we're married" and continued with "I will and you will and we will"- 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 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, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world,

this- is my husband, this- is my wife.

And he picked "To Love is Not to Possess" by James Kavanagh

To love is not to possess,

To own or imprison,

Nor to lose one’s self in another.

Love is to join and separate,

To walk alone and together,

To find a laughing freedom

That lonely isolation does not permit.

It is finally to be able

To be who we really are

No longer clinging in childish dependency

Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,

It is to be perfectly one’s self

And perfectly joined in permanent commitment

To another–and to one’s inner self.

Love only endures when it moves like waves,

Receding and returning gently or passionately,

Or moving lovingly like the tide

In the moon’s own predictable harmony,

Because finally, despite a child’s scars

Or an adult’s deepest wounds,

They are openly free to be

Who they really are–and always secretly were,

In the very core of their being

Where true and lasting love can alone abide

@celia. I'm obsessed with your wedding dogs board! I now need to break it to my FH we need to get our ring bearer (our beagle) his own wedding cake... Hehe

Depending on your age, you could have someone read the lyrics to 'the sunscreen song". If you're younger than 32, never mind.

I went to a wedding where the brides mother read an excerpt from the Velveteen Rabbit. I don't remember the specifics but the book can't be all that long if you want to look it up. It was very fitting because the excerpt was a part where the bunny was asking about what love was and also the bride and groom met volunteering for an animal rescue org. that specialized in rabbits.

Following

I use Union a lot; I usually put it right before the vows.

My FH is not comfortable with this idea or reading our vows to those present. We're planning on having a sneak away moment to read them peaceful in the garden of the venue to each other. Hoping the photographer can take a few shots of this moment. Our ceremony is mostly strict to the point.

@Janette; one of my couples actually drew in close and whispered them to each other. It was lovely.

Your officiant will likely have you repeat or agree to some basic vows; in many states, that is a requirement of a legal ceremony.

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.

My FH told me he had dibs on this one...brat

We're both geeks, so our readings have a science-y flavor:

1st Reading from “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan:?

”Our ancestors groped in darkness to make sense of their surroundings. Powerless before nature, they invented rituals and myths, some desperate and cruel, others imaginative and benign. As long as there have been humans, we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions, and by the depth of our answers.

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”

Second Reading: excerpts from “Scientific Romance” by Tim Pratt (it's a pretty long in its full form):?

“If starship travel from our

Earth to some far

star and back again

at velocities approaching the speed

of light made you younger than me

due to the relativistic effects

of time dilation,

I'd show up on your doorstep hoping

you'd developed a thing for older men,

and I'd ask you to show me everything you

learned to pass the time

out there in the endless void

of night.

"If the alien invaders come

and hover in stern judgment

over our cities, trying to decide

whether to invite us to the Galactic

Federation of Confederated

Galaxies or if instead

a little genocide is called for,

I think our love could be a powerful

argument for the continued preservation

of humanity in general, or at least,

of you and me

in particular.

"If I became lost in

the multiverse, exploring

infinite parallel dimensions, my

only criterion for settling

down somewhere would be

whether or not I could find you:

and once I did, I'd stay there even

if it was a world ruled by giant spider-

priests, or one where killer

robots won the Civil War, or even

a world where sandwiches

were never invented, because

you'd make it the best

of all possible worlds anyway,

and plus

we could get rich

off inventing sandwiches.

"If the Singularity comes

and we upload our minds into a vast

computer simulation of near-infinite

complexity and perfect resolution,

and become capable of experiencing any

fantasy, exploring worlds bound only

by our enhanced imaginations,

I'd still spend at least 1021 processing

cycles a month just sitting

on a virtual couch with you,

watching virtual TV,

eating virtual fajitas,

holding virtual hands,

and wishing

for the real thing."

Hofzak? While I like both of these, I'd experiment; read them aloud to someone who has not seen them. Many readings that are marvelous on paper are very confusing to hear, especially if your reader is not expert at deploying them.