Readings for weddings involving kids...sort of

[zoebartlett]

As some of you know, I''m an elementary teacher and I''m recently engaged. I was thinking of what types of readings I might want to have at our non-religious ceremony. I had two ideas and I''m not sure if they''re any good. They''re both a little different -- not your typical readings. What do you think of the following?

1. I was thinking of having my second graders write some wedding related advice for my FI and me and then use the kids'' words as a reading during the ceremony. Depending on how I word my "assignment" to my students, I could get some pretty cute, creative, and funny responses. I''m a little hesitant to do this though because what if parents hear what their kids did at school and have a problem with it (it doesn''t exactly align with our curriculum)? Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not? If you were doing this, how would you phrase the writing assignment to ensure great material to use during our ceremony?

2. I was thinking of using exerpts from children''s books as readings, but I can''t think of a single book to use. Any ideas?

What do you think?

I suppose I could have put this in the BWW forum but I wanted to hear what you guys had to say, and I know some of you might not read that one.

TIA!

 

[jcrow]

i've heard of a velveteen rabbit excerpt read. let me see if i can do a search for it...'

eta:

excerpt from 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 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 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 all loose in the 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.”

 

[jcrow]

another idea:

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in) - e.e. cummings

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)

 

[zoebartlett]

Thanks jcrow! I'll look into that. I should mention that while we want our ceremony to be very meaningful, we aren't going an ultra-traditional route. We want a nice, simple ceremony, nothing really too formal.

eta: it looks like we were posting at the same time. thanks for the e.e. cummings poem. I really like it!

 

[monarch64]

I''m a total sucker for the Velveteen Rabbit...J.Crow''s posting of the excerpt brought tears to my eyes! e.e. cummings is wonderful as well...I can''t think of other suggestions besides Winnie the Pooh right now and that''s probably a little younger reading than your elementary students are doing. I love the idea of incorporating such a reading, though, whatever excerpt you chose would not only be meaningful and likely a familiar favorite of most guests, but including your profession and your students into your ceremony sounds just priceless.

 

[KimberlyH]

The Owl and the Pussycat
by Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey,
and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
Contemporary Illustrator: Donna L. Derstine

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married;
too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand on the edge of the sand
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

 

[KimberlyH]

Not exactly a reading that involves kids, but if I were to get married again (to my DH of course) I would use this:

Touched By An Angel
By Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love''s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

 

[Lil0818]

Other suggestions:
Winnie the Pooh
The Little Prince
Guess How Much I Love You

p.s. I love the idea of incorporating children''s books into the readings, program, etc. We are having a non-religious ceremony and one of our readers will be reading from The Little Prince (the first gift FI gave me and my favorite book). We are also using Winnie the Pooh in our program - “If ever there is tomorrow when we''re not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we''re apart, I''ll always be with you.” - we are using this when we recognize grandparents who are no longer with us.

 

[monarch64]

Zoe, I''m trying to brainstorm on how you could use your first idea of a little creative writing assignment...I''m not a teacher nor am I a parent so I just don''t know how it would be received, BUT, I think it''s a cool idea. What about this: are you having flower girls/ring bearer, or is there a child in your family or child of a close friend who will be there who is a ham and would like to do a reading? If so maybe you could ask them for their best marital advice, and to recite it, (obviously approved by you and your FI in advance, lol), or ... still brainstorming, bear with me...

Could you have your second graders write about what friendship means, or what it means to love someone? You may be able to glean some good material that way for a reading.

BTW, love the last poster''s suggestion of The Little Prince, one of my all time faves as well!

 

[therighttime]

This is a children''s book... you can order it from amazon... it think it would make a cute reading at a wedding, especially since you are a teacher. It''s quite long though so you would probably want to just use your favorite parts. It might be cute if a younger relative read it.

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
Hah-hah!
I like you because you know where I''m ticklish
And you don''t tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
You know how to be silly
That''s why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it''s time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it''s a quarter past silly
Sometimes we don''t say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY
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 every day
If you go away, then I go away too
or if I stay home, you send me a postcard
You don''t just say Well see you around sometime, bye
I like you a lot because of that
If I go away, I send you a postcard too
And I like you because if we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me
And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don''t always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is 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
If I break my arm, and if you break your arm too
Then it''s fun to have a broken arm
I tell you about mine, you tell me about yours
We are both sorry
We write our names and draw pictures
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too
I like you because I don''t know why but
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 4th of July I like you because it''s the 4th of July
On the fifth of July, I like you too
If you and I had some drums and some horns and some horses
If we had some hats and some flags and some fire engines
We could be a HOLIDAY
We could be a CELEBRATION
We could be a WHOLE PARADE
See what I mean?
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it 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 guess I don''t know why I really like you
Why do I like you
I guess I just like you
I guess I just like you because I like you.

 

[monarch64]

therightime: LOVE IT.

 

[zoebartlett]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Therighttime, I actually have that book (and I had given it to an ex-boyfriend a while a number of years ago). I hesitated about using it but it is great and right along the lines of what I''m looking for. I''ll go look through it again. Thanks so much!

 

[zoebartlett]

I just posted this in the BWW forum and I thought I''d update this thread after completing 2 writing projects with my kids (students) today.

I love them! https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-readings-if-fi-approves.63453/

 

[tiffanytwisted]

This is from The Little Prince
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox...
So the little prince tamed the fox...[and the fox said], "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose---"said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.