CEREMONY READINGS
Here you will find a mix of readings that I have come across over the years and earmarked to provide you with some options to get started. These are not written by me, merely gathered to help you.
Your ceremony should be a reflection of you and so I encourage you to incorporate things that are meaningful to you. If you have songs, poems, quotes, shows, etc. that have a significance in your life or relationship, don't be shy to ask to have them in your ceremony.
You don't need to have reading(s) in your ceremony but they can be a nice way to incorporate people who may not otherwise have a role in your day, and bring those personalized meaningful touches in.
This list has a wide range of readings from serious to sappy to nerdy, but mostly non-traditional and secular.
Lastly, don't feel you need to limit yourself! These are readings I have seen and heard but there are millions out there that are waiting to be discovered, so if none of these feel quite right then don't be discouraged.
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Nothing is easier than saying words, and nothing is harder
than living them day by day. What you promise today, must
be renewed and re-decided tomorrow. At the end of this
ceremony, legally, you will be husband and wife, but you
must decide each day that stretches out before you, that you
want to be married.
Real love is something beyond the warmth and glow, the
excitement, and romance of being deeply in love. It is caring
as much about the welfare and happiness of your marriage
partner as about your own. But real love is not total
absorption in each other; It is looking outward in the same
directions - together.
Love makes burdens lighter; because you divide them. It
makes joys more intense because you share them. Love
makes you stronger, so you can reach out and become
involved with life in ways you dared not risk alone.
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Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good.
Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth.
It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable.
Nothing is sweeter than love,
Nothing stronger,
Nothing higher,
Nothing wider,
Nothing more pleasant,
Nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God.
Love flies, runs and leaps for joy.
It is free and unrestrained.
Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds.
Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil, attempts things beyond its strength.
Love sees nothing as impossible, for it feels able to achieve all things.
It is strange and effective, while those who lack love faint and fail.
Love is not fickle and sentimental, nor is it intent on vanities.
Like a living flame and a burning torch, it surges upward and surely surmounts every obstacle.
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They say that sometimes love starts with a spark,
And that might be true.
But if I were to wish you a love, I wouldn’t wish fire for you.
You see, fire is powerful. It burns bright, then it’s gone.
It’s beautiful and warm, but it doesn’t last long.
So instead of wishing you a love that burns,
I wish you love like a river that twists and turns.
It changes and flows, it is powerful and free.
But it consistently finds its way back to the sea.
And so, like the water, I hope your love is ever growing, ever changing.
I hope your love is powerful and free.
And may you always find each other like the river finds the sea.
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First of all, it’s a big responsibility, especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night and you have a leash on love, ain’t no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?
On cold winter nights, love is warm. It lies between you and lives and breathes and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.
Love doesn’t like being left alone for long. But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life, but you can never be mad at love for long.
Is love good all the time? No! No! Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.
Love makes messes. Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed. Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper and swat love on the nose, not so much to cause pain, just to let love know: Don’t you ever do that again!
Sometimes love just wants to go out for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise. It will run you around the block and leave you panting, breathless.
Pull you in different directions at once, or wind itself around and around you until you’re all wound up and you cannot move.
But love makes you meet people wherever you go. People who have nothing in common but love stop and talk to each other on the street.
Throw things away and love will bring them back, again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it. And in return, love loves you and never stops.
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Maybe we are supposed to meet the wrong people before we meet the right one so when they finally arrive we are truly grateful for the gift we have been given.
Maybe it's true that we don’t know what we have lost until we lose it but it is also true thatwe don’t know what we’re missing until it arrives.
Maybe the happiest of people don’t have the best of everything, but make the best of everything that comes their way.
Maybe the best kind of love is the kind where you sit on the sofa together, not saying a word, and walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you ever had.
Maybe once in a lifetime, you find someone who not only touches your heart but also your soul, someone who loves you for who you are and not
what you could be.
Maybe the art of true love is not about finding the perfect person, but about seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
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When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment.
It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to.
And yet this is exactly what most of us demand.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships.
We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb.
We are afraid it will never return.
We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.
The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even.
Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now.
Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.
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These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.
These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.
These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.
And lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.
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He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect.
But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can.
He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break.
Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don ’t analyse. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there.
Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don ’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.
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You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.
We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again.
And great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. And even loved in spite of ourselves.
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Destiny is a mysterious thing. No matter what you do or where you go, you cannot avoid it. And, no matter how hard you try, even putting forth your greatest effort, you can’t force it to happen before it's time.
This occasion we witness today is the destiny of two souls. There is not a force in the universe that could have kept you apart, and there is nothing they could have done to come together sooner.
Each of you had to live your lives, lives that were stepping stones that have led to this moment in time, this uniting of hearts and minds that shall be forever more.
This occasion we celebrate today is the destiny of two souls. Yes, destiny is a marvellous and mysterious thing.
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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.
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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.
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Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times.
It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past.
It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals.
If you have love in your life, any kind of love, it can make up for a great many things you lack.
If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.
Love is friendship caught fire.
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Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In the art of 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 finding room for the things of the spirit.
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.
It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.
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May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon the fields.
May the light of friendship guide your paths together.
May the laughter of children grace the halls of your home.
May the joy of living for one another
Trip a smile from your lips, a twinkle from your eye.
And when eternity beckons,
At the end of a life heaped high with love,
May the good Lord embrace you
With the arms that have nurtured you
The whole length of your joy-filled days.
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Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride together. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
When loved ones come home always run to greet them.
When you want treats, practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
Take naps together and stretch before rising.
Run, romp and play daily.
Be loyal.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them
gently.
Thrive on the attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do.
When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout...
Run right back and make friends.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk together.
Love each other unconditionally.
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People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square.
Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.
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A soul mate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks.
When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be.
Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise.
Our soul mate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction.
When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person.
Our soul mate is the one who makes life come to life.