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Ceremony Stuff - Readings / Vows

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DMBFiredancer

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I've read alot of past threads with readings/ vow ideas but I was wondering what you guys are using during the ceremony....here's some of my ideas so far


(I am also just thinking of putting random Dave Matthews quotes from different songs together to make a reading of my own...once I do that I will share)


Bride and Groom, Please face each other and take each other's hands, so that you may see the gift that they are to you.

These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.

These are the hands that will work along side yours as together you build your future.

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 temporarily comes your way.
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. (i'd change or delete this one)

These are the hands that will give you support and encouragement to chase down your dreams.

These are the hands that will hold you tight as you struggle through difficult times.

These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.

These are the hands that will lift your chin and brush your cheek as they raise your face to look into eyes that are filled with overwhelming love for you.

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.
-------------------------
On Marriage
Kahlil Gibran (ive heard this one before and liked it)

...let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.


Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.


Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
-----------
UNTITLED
~ By Christina Rossetti ~

What is the beginning? Love.
What the course. Love still.
What the goal. The goal is Love.
On a happy hill
Is there nothing then but Love?
Search we sky or earth
There is nothing out of Love
Hath perpetual worth;
All things flag but only Love,
All things fail and flee;
There is nothing left but Love
Worthy you and me.
-------------------------
-------------

This one is used alot...but its special to me because I am a huge ER fan. When Abby and Luka get married, Abby tried to remember part of it....I may just read it the way she did in the episode
(fast forward to about 7:10 if you want to cry!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_udXIzYtxs


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)
--------------------------------------------------
To Love is Not to Possess
James Kavanaugh

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.
 

DMBFiredancer

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Jan 12, 2008
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Darn - i watched that youtube and now my eyes resemble Niagra Falls!....silly me!!!!
I dont think I could get through reading something like that without losing it!
(although my friends say they were surprised at how well they were able to keep it together and not cry)
 

wannaBMrsH

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Sep 27, 2008
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1,049
These are great!

We are doing a catholic wedding so all the readings would have to be from the bible.

But since we are having a private reception, we are going to do the hands one during the reception.

I''ve always loved it and it''s meaningful to us because we are always talking about his big massive hands and what he calls my tiny ones.
 

PearlDahhhling

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We had my sister in law read the blessing of the hands one right before we exchanged rings and then we had my MOH read "Union" by Robert Fulghum before we exchanged vows. Both were really perfect and romantic without being overly poem-y.
 

honey22

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Great thread! I am having this reading at my wedding. It''s makes me cry everytime I read it. I saw it here ages ago on PS, before we were engaged, and I just knew it was the one for our wedding. It just touches me in a way I can''t explain.


Union - Robert Fulghum
You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point 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.” Look at one another and remember this moment in time. 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.
 

DMBFiredancer

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595
honey22 - thats a lovely one! there''s so many beautiful ones to choose from!

we are having a non-church wedding outdoors with a friend as an officiant (she has done weddings before and we are meeting next week to discuss how we want things to flow)

does this seem typical?

processional
introduction by officiant
reading 1
reading 2
officiant speaks about marriage
our vows (FI wants to write our own --eeek! i''m nervous that i''ll be a sobbing wreck!)
exchange of rings (have to figure out what to say here, too)
officiant pronounces us hubby and wife
SMOOCH
recessional


am i missing anything? we are not doing a unity candle or sand ceremony or anything...the only thing i was thinking of adding was each of us giving the other''s mom a rose...where would that fit in?
 

jstarfireb

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I did the same kind of wedding and had the exact same order of things. Except we skipped the "officiant speaks about marriage" part, and we added a vocal solo sung by a friend in between the readings. We used the Kahlil Gibran reading as one of ours! Don''t you just love having the flexibility to create your own unique ceremony?
 

glueck

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we are using 2 children''s stories

This is the first one...its abridged. I laughed and cried as I 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

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

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

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 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.

The second reading will be just before the vows....answering the question "how long is forever."

„The Shepherd Boy“
There was once on a time a shepherd boy whose fame spread far and wide because of the wise answers which he gave to every question. The King of the country heard of it likewise, but did not believe it, and sent for the boy. Then he said to him, "If thou canst give me an answer to three questions which I will ask thee, I will look on thee as my own child, and thou shalt dwell with me in my royal palace." The boy said, "What are the three questions?" The King said, "The first is, how many drops of water are there in the ocean?" The shepherd boy answered, "Lord King, if you will have all the rivers on earth dammed up so that not a single drop runs from them into the sea until I have counted it, I will tell you how many drops there are in the sea." The King said, "The next question is, how many stars are there in the sky?" The shepherd boy said, "Give me a great sheet of white paper," and then he made so many fine points on it with a pen that they could scarcely be seen, and it was all but impossible to count them; any one who looked at them would have lost his sight. Then he said, "There are as many stars in the sky as there are points on the paper; just count them." But no one was able to do it. The King said, "The third question is, how many seconds of time are there in eternity." Then said the shepherd boy, "In Lower Pomerania is the Diamond Mountain, which is two miles and a half high, two miles and a half wide, and two miles and a half in depth; every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on it, and when the whole mountain is worn away by this, then the first second of eternity will be over."
The King said, "Thou hast answered the three questions like a wise man, and shalt henceforth dwell with me in my royal palace, and I will regard thee as my own child."
 

mayachel

Brilliant_Rock
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Messages
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Great thread, I was crying by the time I was half way through the first reading, with the hands. I think we will definitely need this in ours.
 

DMBFiredancer

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Jan 12, 2008
Messages
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Date: 7/2/2009 7:31:13 PM
Author: mayachel
Great thread, I was crying by the time I was half way through the first reading, with the hands. I think we will definitely need this in ours.


So glad I am not the only crier. Ive been crying alot today reading this kind of stuff. I am hoping to get it ALL out of my system before the walk down the aisle
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
I ADORE THE HANDS READING.

I have one that I loved from my ceremony too. Let me see if I can find it for you since you asked for ideas.

HONEY... I BAWLED during my ceremony and don't give a hoot.

Okay so I found our vows, but not that reading yet.

Here are the vows though:

John's to me:
Layla.
You reached out to me and opened my heart when I had closed myself to the idea of love.
You are my partner, my best friend, my confidante, and my heart.
You’ve given me joy and confidence, and made me truly understand the meaning of the words soul mate.
I look forward to the rest of our lives, Love. To growing old with you, to laughing with you, loving you, and enjoying the remainder of our lives together.
Nine years, we’ve been together. And in those nine years I’ve learned more about love and happiness then I ever thought possible. I’ve learned more about what it means to love, and be loved in turn, than I had ever imagined. And what truly amazes me is as much as I loved you since the day I met you, each day I spend with you that love deepens. And today we stand here together, and I couldn’t dream of a life with anyone else.
Layla, I promise to love you and hold you close, to be a comfort and a safe haven in your life.
I promise to support you when you need help, and to turn to you when I need help.
I promise to make you smile when you’re sad, and to laugh with you when you’re happy.
And I promise to be cherish you forever.

I, John, take you, Layla, to be my beloved wife. For the rest of my life.



Mine to John:


When we met, nine years ago, you promised so much … and I remember how much I wanted to believe and how afraid I was. You’ve kept all your promises to me, love. Even the ones that may seem silly to others, but are still so important to me. At the beginning, I didn’t know we were playing for keeps… and then one day I realized we weren’t playing, and it was forever. We looked into each other, saw the real person standing there, and were home. You are my home love, never think otherwise.


You are my best friend, my partner, and my heart.
You make me laugh when I am ready to cry.
You make me smile and relax even when I’m stressed (which we both know is all the time).
You make me a better person just by being in my life
I vow to always be here for you
To make your problems my own.
I vow to help you with the tough decisions
And to always speak my feelings. I vow to support our dreams
And to shelter you in troubling times.
I vow to apologize when I am wrong,
and to forgive when we misunderstand.
I vow to trust you, and to be worthy of you trust.
I vow to believe in you, and to faithfully love you forever
With all of my heart.
I’ve known for many years that you are a part of me,
And that we will share our lives together. And with you at my side I look forward to lies ahead with hope in my heart.
Come, John, spend your life with me, and my life is yours.
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225

From Union by Robert Fulghum:


We had our officiant incorporate this passage into our ceremony.



You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point 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.” Look at one another and remember this moment in time. 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.
 

marlie

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Joined
Jun 30, 2009
Messages
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i ADORE that children''s book reading glueck! i love that it''s so simple and honest. i just read it to my fiance and got choked up. it just sounded like us!
 
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