Ceremony Readings?

[JessicaLovesBrian]

So, I realized, I have to really put some thought into the ceremony!!

Our officiant has "pre-written" ceremonies he can do, but we can modify them, change the readings, etc.

I like the readings he has suggested, but I want to keep my options open in case I come across something I like better.

What readings are you using (or did you use)? Ideas?

[tvt]

Sorry I can't help you, but I'm glad you started this thread!

[Christine]

working on that now-here's the ones we are looking at

here is the traditional
1 Corinthians 13:1-8; 13
If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and, with full knowledge, comprehend all mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.
Love never fails. Prophecies will cease, tongues will be silent, knowledge will pass away…There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

[Christine]

here is a very nice one

“I Will Tell Thee What It Is to Love”
Charles Swain, nineteenth century

Love? I will tell thee what it is to love!
It is to build with human thoughts a shrine,
Where Hope sits brooding like a beauteous dove;
Where Time seems young and Life a thing divine.
All tastes, all pleasures, all desires combine
To consecrate this sanctuary of bliss.
Above, the stars in the cloudless beauty shine;
Around, the streams their flowery margins kiss;
And if there’s heaven on earth, that heaven is surely this.

Yes, this love, the steadfast and the true,
The immortal glory which hath never set;
The best, the brightest boon the heart e’er knew;
Of all life’s sweets the very sweetest yet!
O’ who but can recall the eve they met
To breathe, in some green walk, their first young now?
While summer flowers with moonlight dews were wet,
And winds sighed soft around the mountain’s brow,
And all the rapture then which is but memory now!

[Christine]

and this is the one I really want but we're not sure yet

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

[gkashmira]

We have three readings one is very short, one is long and silly (below) and one one is medium. I love this one (I think we removed a stanza or two but I don't have the document with me):

“I Like you” by Sandol Stoddard Warburg

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

That’s because
You really like me
You really like me
Don’t you
And I really like you back
And you like me back
And I like you back
And that’s the way we keep on going
Everyday

And I like you because
When I’m feeling sad
You don’t always cheer me up right away
Sometimes its better to be sad
You can’t stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time

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
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up then you are really sorry
You don’t just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that
You say maybe it was something you ate
You say the same thing happened to me one time
And the same thing did

If you find two four-leaf clovers
You give me one
If I find four
I give you two
If we only find three
We keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck
And sometimes we don’t

I like you because
I don’t know why
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
So many reasons

On the fourth of July I like you because
It’s the fourth of July
On the Fifth of July
I like you too
Even if it was the nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth of July
Even if it was August
Even if was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January

I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
That’s how it would happen every time
I don’t know why

I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
That’s how it would happen every time

[Christa]

Kash - that is so cute! I've never heard/read that before. Very unique & I am sure a wonderful representation of your relationship. Sweet!

[gkashmira]

Originally Posted by A10CALGAL

Kash - that is so cute! I've never heard/read that before. Very unique & I am sure a wonderful representation of your relationship. Sweet!

My FI found it actually (hilariously enough going through this million page thread on indiebride.com). We also have some more serious stuff in our ceremony but that's sort of the ice-breaker that our goofy friend is going to read. Here's a rundown for other brides who may be looking for readings:

"The Wedding Prayer" by Robert Louis Stevenson (slightly changed):

Behold our family and friends here assembled.
We are thankful for this place in which we dwell,
For the love that unites us,
For the peace accorded us this day,
For the hope with which we expect the morrow,
For the health, the work, the food,
And the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
For our friends in all parts of the earth.
Thank you.

The Dalia Lama said about happiness:
When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.

“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.
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. ....

I don't know where this is from:
You have known each other for three years,
through the first glance of acquaintance to this moment 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.”
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.

Here are our vows (Officiant speaks, we repeat - Dan first then me):
I ___ take you _____ as my wife.

I choose you above all others, to share my life with me.

I promise to love you just as you are, to laugh with you in joy, to grieve with you in sorrow, and to speak the truth to you.

I promise to be faithful to you, and to cherish our marriage and friendship for as long as I live.

[Janet]

Here are our two readings:

Louis de Bernieres’ “Corelli’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 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 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 blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

poem by Pablo Neruda

And now you’re mine. Rest with your dream in my dream.
Love and pain and work should all sleep, now.
The night turns on its invisible wheels,
And you are pure beside me as a sleeping ember.

No one else, Love, will sleep in my dreams. You will go,
We will go together, over the waters of time.
No one else will travel through the shadows with me,
Only you, ever green, ever sun, ever moon.

Your hands have already opened their delicate fists
And let their soft drifting signs drop away;
Your eyes closed like two gray wings, and I move
After, following the folding water you carry, that carries
Me away. The night, the world, the wind spin out their destiny.
Without you, I am your dream, only that, and that is all.

[CourtneyV]

Sorry guys, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this stuff! Are these readings are for your officiant to say??