Meaningful wedding readings

Wed­ding read­ings don’t cost any­thing and are great for adding a bit of per­spec­tive to your day. They’re also nice to read while you’re plan­ning, and if the wed­ding plan­ning is doing your head in, some of the best poems about mar­riage will help you focus on what’s really impor­tant again.

My favourite love poems tend to be about mar­riage and cre­at­ing a life together with the one you love, and have a cer­tain depth and matu­rity. Even the extract from The Vel­veteen Rab­bit has a very wise tone, and I really love this reading.

Try these for size and let me know what you think!

Favourite wed­ding read­ings for perspective:

An extract from The Vel­veteen Rabbit

Margery Williams (1881 — 1944)

‘What is REAL?’ asked the Rab­bit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nurs­ery fender, before Nana 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 some­one 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.’

‘I sup­pose you are real?’ said the Rab­bit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse only smiled.

‘Some­one made me Real,’ he said. ‘That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.’

The Art Of A Good Marriage

by 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 all 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 in 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.
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.

Wed­ding read­ings with a shorter perspective…

Chap­ter One of One Thousand

by O. J. Preston

For two peo­ple this dawn brought on a mag­i­cal day
Now hus­band and wife they head on their way
As a boat set­ting sail may their jour­ney begin
With calmest of waters, most help­ful of wind
And if they should stum­ble upon tur­bu­lent sea
May it pass them unharm­ing — leave them be.
For here are two peo­ple whom love has well bit­ten
Here opens their book which has yet to be writ­ten
As the first page unfolds and their life inks its path
May it write a true story where for­ever love lasts
Let their jour­ney be happy till death do they part
Of one thou­sand chap­ters may this be the start.

On Your Wed­ding Day

Author unknown

Today is a day you will always remem­ber
The great­est in anyone’s life
You’ll start off the day just two peo­ple in love
And end it as Hus­band and Wife
It’s a brand new begin­ning, the start of a jour­ney
With moments to cher­ish and trea­sure
And although there’ll be times when you both dis­agree
These will surely be out­weighed by plea­sure
You’ll have heard many words of advice in the past
When the secrets of mar­riage were spo­ken
But you know that the answers lie hid­den inside
Where the bond of true love lies unbro­ken
So live happy for­ever as lovers and friends
It’s the dawn of a new life for you
As you stand there together with love in your eyes
From the moment you whis­per ‘I do’
And with luck, all your hopes, and your dreams can be real
May suc­cess find it’s way to your hearts
Tomor­row can bring you the great­est of joys
But today is the day it all starts.