Ceremony Readings For Your Wedding

Asking someone to read at your wedding is a beautifully personal request. It’s a way of keeping those you love included without inviting the guest-zilla to take over!

Maybe you’ve already got a reading in mind or perhaps you’d like your guest to take the lead on finding the piece. If you’re choosing the latter they’ll probably be grateful for a little guidance on the style of reading you are hoping for.

When it comes to choosing your reading there are no hard and fast rules if it is a Celebrant lead ceremony. However, if you are having a Civil Ceremony you need to be aware that they can refuse anything that may be considered religious. As an example a couple I know were told they could not have the lyrics of ‘God only Knows What I be without you’ by the Beach boys as a reading.

Finding the right reading for you is part of the Complete Celebrant Package and the Ceremony Creation Only package offer by Uniquely You Ceremonies. I also offer speech training for those feeling a little nervous of public speaking. Please visit the website for more info or drop an email to Hello@UniquelyYouCeremonies.co.uk

Below are a few tasters to get you started – Enjoy!

The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nanna came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

A lovely love story – Edward Monkton

The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, his cage.

Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur.

The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words and loving thoughts.

I like this Dinosaur thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny. He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now.

I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice. She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur. But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. He is also overly fond of things. Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of things?

But her mind skips from here to there so quickly thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on shopping. Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?

I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual.

I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old. Look at them. Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

And that, my friends, is how it is with love.

Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernières

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.

An Irish Blessing

May God be with you and bless you.

May you see your children’s children.

May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings.

May you know nothing but happiness.

From this day forward.

The Art of Marriage - Wilferd Arlan Peterson

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In marriage the little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humour. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner; it is being the right partner.

Love Sonnet 17 - Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of the carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I live you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

The Wedding Singer - Tim Herlihy

I want to make you smile whenever you're sad

Carry you around when your arthritis is bad

All I want to do is grow old with you

I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches

Build you a fire if the furnace breaks

Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you

I'll miss you, kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold

Need you, feed you, even let you hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink

Put you to bed if you've had too much to drink

I could be the man who grows old with you

I want to grow old with you.

The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.

How I Met Your Mother

I love everything about her, and I’m not a guy who says that lightly. I’m a guy who has faked love his entire life.

I thought love was just something idiots thought they felt, but this woman has a hold on my heart that I could not break if I wanted to, and there have been times that I wanted to.

It has been overwhelming and humbling and even painful at times, but I could not stop loving her any more than I could stop breathing.

I am hopelessly, irretrievably in love with her.

Ruth (1:16-17)

Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you

or to turn back from following you!

Where you go, I will go;

Where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people,

and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die

-there will I be buried.

May the Lord do thus and so to me,

and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”

A Blessing for the Journey (buddhist Prayer)

Let us vow to bear witness to the wholeness of life,

realising the completeness of each and every thing.

Embracing our differences,

I shall know myself as you,

and you as myself.

May we serve each other

for all our days,

here, there, and everywhere.

Let us vow to open ourselves to the abundance of life.

Freely giving and receiving, I shall care for you,

for the trees and stars,

as treasures of my very own.

May we be grateful

for all our days,

here, there, and everywhere.

Let us vow to forgive all hurt,

caused by ourselves and others,

and to never condone hurtful ways.

Being responsible for my actions,

I shall free myself and you.

Will you free me, too?

May we be kind

for all our days,

here, there, and everywhere.

Let us vow to remember that all that appears will disappear.

In the midst of uncertainty,

I shall sow love.

Here! Now! I call to you:

Let us together live

The Great Peace that we are.

May we give no fear

for all our days,

here, there, and everywhere.

The Princess and the Frog - Never Knew I needed - NeYo

For the way you changed my plans For being the perfect distraction For the way you took the idea that I had Of everything that I wanted to have And made me see there was something missing.

For the ending of my first beginning And for the rare and unexpected friend For the way you're something that I'd never choose But at the same time, something I don't wanna lose And never wanna be without ever again.

The way you smile and how you comfort me I must admit you were not a part of my book But now if you open it up and take a look You're the beginning and the end of every chapter. Undeniably happier Sitting with you right here, right here next to me.

You're the best thing I never knew I needed

So when you were here I had no idea.

You are the best thing I never knew I needed

So now it's so clear, I need you here always.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

"Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches...I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids...

I love you. Okay? Want it louder? I love you. Spell it out, should I? I ell-oh-vee-ee why-oh-you. Want it backward? You love I."