Wedding Planning Tips and Readings

  Fun
I Wanna Grow Old With You – Adam Sandler
I wanna make you smile,
Whenever you’re sad.
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad.
All I wanna do,
Is grow old with you.

I’ll get you medicine,
When your tummy aches.
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks.
Oh it could be so nice,
Growin’ 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 when you’ve had too much to drink.
Oh I could be the man,
Who grows old with you.

I wanna grow old with you.

 Fun
Oh the Places You’ll Go – Dr Seuss
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

In the wide open air,
out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

OH! THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to great heights!

So be sure when you step.
Step with great care and great tact
and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

KIDS, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So, be your name, Suzy or Ray
you’re off to great places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So … get on your way!

 Philosophical
Marriage – Kahlil Gibran, from ‘The Prophet’
Then Almitra spoke again and said, “And what of Marriage, master?”
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But 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.

 Romantic
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
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.

Venue
Beach Wedding Poem – anon.
Standing beside this ocean’s tide,
May your love always be constant and unchanging,
Like these never-ending waves pouring beneath our feet,
Flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea;
Love came softly upon your hearts,
Just like foam comes softly upon sand,
And just as there will never be a morning without this ocean’s flow,
So there will never be a day without your love for one other,
As today you pledge yourselves together forever.
This love will be unchanging – dependable like the tides;
Waters nourish the earth and sustain life,
So too may your constant devotion nourish and sustain one other
Until the end of time.

 Romantic
How Do I Love Thee – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

 Romantic
Learn How to Love – (anon.)
Every day you live,
Learn how to love.
Take time with each other,
Restore each other’s soul with loving words.
Receive love with as much understanding
As you give it.
Find that which is within yourselves
Then you can share it with each other.
Do not fear this love,
And do not fear this marriage,
But keep open hearts and sincere minds.
Be sincerely interested in each other’s happiness,
Be, too, constant and consistent in your love,
And in your actions.
From this, as you know, comes security and strength.
All that we love deeply becomes a part of us,
So, even though you retain your individuality,
Today in a real sense you also become on
In a true unity.
That this may be deep and rewarding,
Today, the day of your marriage,
Try to commit yourselves,
Fully and freely and trustingly,
To each other, without reservations.

 Blessing
Blessing For A Marriage – James Dillet Freeman
“May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another — not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete. The valley does not make the mountain less, but more. And the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all-important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, “I love you!” and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery that is the awareness of one another’s presence — no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.”

 Traditional
Corinthians, 13:4-8, 13
If I have all the eloquence of men and women or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries and knowing everything, and if I have all the faith so as to move mountains, but am without love, I am nothing. If I give away all I possess, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but am without love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. There are in the end three things that endure: Faith, Hope and Love. The greatest of these is Love.