READINGS
In preparing for a ceremony, I get to know the couple, and work hard to bring the sentiments, reflections, and passages that capture the romance and promises of their relationship. The right reading can add much to the couple's special moment. Here are some that I draw from...
In preparing for a ceremony, I get to know the couple, and work hard to bring the sentiments, reflections, and passages that capture the romance and promises of their relationship. The right reading can add much to the couple's special moment. Here are some that I draw from...
A Journey by Nikki Giovanni
It’s a journey that I propose. I am not the guide, I will be your companion. Though the rail has been ridden before, we must provide our own guide posts. I am not afraid of rough spots, nor a space yet to discovered. It’s a journey that I want to begin now, with you.
A Marriage by Mark Twain
A marriage makes of two fractional lives a whole. It gives to two purposeless lives a work and doubles the strength of each to perform it. It gives to two questioning natures a reason for living and something to live for. It gives a new gladness to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers, a new beauty to the earth, and a new mystery to life.
Always There by Unknown
I’ll change each breath into a wild wind so it’ll take me back into your world. I’ll put together all the whispers into one tender yell for it to find you in the place where you have hidden your dreams. Now I know that days just exist for one purpose: so I can come back to you each golden night. I know of no words with greater significance. What matters is that I will be there, always there, by your side.
Blessing for a Marriage by James Dillet Freeman
May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you patience and understanding. May you need one another - not to fill your emptiness, but to help you to know your fullness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice each other, but not compel one another. May you embrace, but not encircle each other. May you succeed in all ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you have the awareness to make the move back to each other. May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence. 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.
I Carry Your Heart with Me by E.E. Cummings
I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. Anywhere I go you go, my dear, and whatever is done by me is your doing, my darling. I fear no fate, for you are my fate. You are whatever a moon has always meant, and whatever a sun will always be. Here is the deepest secret no one knows. This is the wonder that keeps the stars in their orbit. I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart.
I Love You in Quiet Ways by Whitney Hanson
I love you in quiet ways. In the way the morning sun leans into your hair. In the way laughter finds its home between us. I love you in the pause between heartbeats, in the way every small, ordinary day becomes something extraordinary because you're in it. Today, I don't just choose you – I recognize you. You are the place my heart already knew how to find. And every path, every dream was leading me here, to the moment where love is not something we chase, but something we live.
Irish Blessing by Unknown
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be at your back, the sunshine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Looking for Your Face by Rumi
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face and, today, I see the charm and grace of you truly are. I am amazed by the magnificence of your beauty, and want to see you with a hundred eyes. My heart is in awe of the wonder of this moment. I call this love human. I call it divine.
Love Is a Mighty Power by Thomas Kempis
Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good. It lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth. Nothing is sweeter than love; nothing stronger, higher, or more fulfilling in heaven or earth; for love is born of God. It flies, runs, leaps for joy. It is free and unrestrained. Love knows no limits, feels no burden, attempts things beyond its strength. Like a living flame and a burning torch, it surges upward and surmounts everything.
Love is an Adventure by Teilhard de Chardin
Love is an adventure and a conquest. It survives and develops like the universe itself only by perpetual discovery. The only right love is that between couples whose passion leads them both, one through the other, to a higher possession of their being. Put your faith in the spirit which dwells between the two of you. You have each offered yourself to the other as a boundless field of understanding, of enrichment, of mutually increased sensibility. You will meet above all by entering into and constantly sharing one another’s thoughts, affections, and dreams. There alone, as you know, in spirit, which is arrived through flesh, you will find no disappointments, no limits. There alone the skies are ever open for your love; there alone lies the great road ahead.
Love One Another by Kahlil Gibran
Love one another but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed for love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself and, in your love, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody into the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and song of praise upon your lips.
Love Sonnet by 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, for the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee with the passion the faith, with the breath, smiles, tears, of my life.
Love’s Awakening by John O’Donohue
When love awakens in your life, it is like the dawn breaking. Where there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where there was fear, now there is courage; where there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace. Where you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with yourself.
Of All the Stars I Admired by Pablo Neruda
Of all the stars I admire, drenched in various rivers and mists, I choose only the one I love. In this, I sleep with the night. From all the graces that my homeland offers – all the water drops, the roots, the threads of light – I choose only your tender heart. I want you all for myself. I choose you.
Our Wish for You by Unknown
Our wish for you is that your marriage will bring much happiness and joy. Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens; a good marriage must be created. It is never too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say “I love you” every day. 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 sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is not only marrying the right partner. It is being the right partner.
Soul Mates by Richard Bach
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.
The Key to Love by Unknown
The key to love is understanding. The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word, but those unspoken gestures, the little things that say so much by themselves. The key to love is forgiveness. to accept each others faults and pardon mistakes, without forgetting, but with remembering what you learn from them. The key to love is sharing. Facing your good fortunes as well as the bad, together; both conquering problems, forever searching for ways to intensify your happiness. The key to love is giving without thought of return, but with the hope of just a simple smile, and by giving in but never giving up. The key to love is respect. realizing that you are two separate people, with different ideas; that you don’t belong to each other, that you belong with each other, and share a mutual bond. The key to love is inside us all. It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients that will take you to its threshold; it is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work, but the rewards are more than worth the effort, and that is the key to love.
The Long-Time Journey by Rainer Maria Rilke
Understand, my love, that I’ll slip quietly from the noisy crowd when I feel the earth beckoning. And, when I see the stars rising over the mountains, I’ll pursue a solitary path through the pale moonlit meadows, with only this one wish: that we take this long-time journey together.
The Truest Nature of Ourselves by George Eliot
When we love we come closest to the truest nature of ourselves. We crack the acorn so the golden oak can grow. Marriage purges us of our selfish selves. It points us down a better road than the one we travel alone. It is the finality of our search for a companion and the beginning of an eternity of thoughts that rise like the morning star. What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other.
There Is This Place in Me by Gretchen Kemp
There is a place in me where your fingerprints rest, your kisses linger, and your whispers echo. It's where a part of you will forever be a part of me.
Time Travelers by Terah Cox
May you take on the world together with all your hopes and dreams. May you be each other’s anchor in smooth or rocky seas. May you bend to the world’s winds and brave stalls and storms. May you find common ground in all its changing forms. May you cross stubborn boundaries and turn many a stone. May you find haven for your souls, may you have heart and home. And if some days are grey and some nights are long and cold. May you be each other’s sun and moon as your destinies unfold. And should you lose sight of each other and start to drift apart, may you circle back by following the compass of your hearts.
Union by Robert Fulghum
During your time together, you have referred to each other in many ways: “This is my friend....best friend... sweetheart...fiancée.” After (tomorrow) – and for the rest of your time together -you will often say a few words that will carry you through the rest of your life. For you shall say to the world, “This is my husband.” “This is my wife.”
Walking This Earth Together by William Wordsworth
Walking this earth together, we have felt a presence that inspires with the joy of elevated thoughts. Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, living air, and blue sky. In our love for one another, we are lovers of the earth. Of the meadows and woods, and the mountains; and of all that we together behold. And what we perceive in nature and in the language of our senses, the anchor of our purest thoughts, the guide, the guardian of our one heart and soul, we celebrate in our hallowed union.
Wedding Passage by Unknown
I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you for the part of me that you bring out; for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked quite far enough to find. I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a temple. I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.
It’s a journey that I propose. I am not the guide, I will be your companion. Though the rail has been ridden before, we must provide our own guide posts. I am not afraid of rough spots, nor a space yet to discovered. It’s a journey that I want to begin now, with you.
A Marriage by Mark Twain
A marriage makes of two fractional lives a whole. It gives to two purposeless lives a work and doubles the strength of each to perform it. It gives to two questioning natures a reason for living and something to live for. It gives a new gladness to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers, a new beauty to the earth, and a new mystery to life.
Always There by Unknown
I’ll change each breath into a wild wind so it’ll take me back into your world. I’ll put together all the whispers into one tender yell for it to find you in the place where you have hidden your dreams. Now I know that days just exist for one purpose: so I can come back to you each golden night. I know of no words with greater significance. What matters is that I will be there, always there, by your side.
Blessing for a Marriage by James Dillet Freeman
May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you patience and understanding. May you need one another - not to fill your emptiness, but to help you to know your fullness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice each other, but not compel one another. May you embrace, but not encircle each other. May you succeed in all ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you have the awareness to make the move back to each other. May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence. 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.
I Carry Your Heart with Me by E.E. Cummings
I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. Anywhere I go you go, my dear, and whatever is done by me is your doing, my darling. I fear no fate, for you are my fate. You are whatever a moon has always meant, and whatever a sun will always be. Here is the deepest secret no one knows. This is the wonder that keeps the stars in their orbit. I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart.
I Love You in Quiet Ways by Whitney Hanson
I love you in quiet ways. In the way the morning sun leans into your hair. In the way laughter finds its home between us. I love you in the pause between heartbeats, in the way every small, ordinary day becomes something extraordinary because you're in it. Today, I don't just choose you – I recognize you. You are the place my heart already knew how to find. And every path, every dream was leading me here, to the moment where love is not something we chase, but something we live.
Irish Blessing by Unknown
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be at your back, the sunshine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Looking for Your Face by Rumi
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face and, today, I see the charm and grace of you truly are. I am amazed by the magnificence of your beauty, and want to see you with a hundred eyes. My heart is in awe of the wonder of this moment. I call this love human. I call it divine.
Love Is a Mighty Power by Thomas Kempis
Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good. It lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth. Nothing is sweeter than love; nothing stronger, higher, or more fulfilling in heaven or earth; for love is born of God. It flies, runs, leaps for joy. It is free and unrestrained. Love knows no limits, feels no burden, attempts things beyond its strength. Like a living flame and a burning torch, it surges upward and surmounts everything.
Love is an Adventure by Teilhard de Chardin
Love is an adventure and a conquest. It survives and develops like the universe itself only by perpetual discovery. The only right love is that between couples whose passion leads them both, one through the other, to a higher possession of their being. Put your faith in the spirit which dwells between the two of you. You have each offered yourself to the other as a boundless field of understanding, of enrichment, of mutually increased sensibility. You will meet above all by entering into and constantly sharing one another’s thoughts, affections, and dreams. There alone, as you know, in spirit, which is arrived through flesh, you will find no disappointments, no limits. There alone the skies are ever open for your love; there alone lies the great road ahead.
Love One Another by Kahlil Gibran
Love one another but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed for love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself and, in your love, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody into the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and song of praise upon your lips.
Love Sonnet by 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, for the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee with the passion the faith, with the breath, smiles, tears, of my life.
Love’s Awakening by John O’Donohue
When love awakens in your life, it is like the dawn breaking. Where there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where there was fear, now there is courage; where there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace. Where you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with yourself.
Of All the Stars I Admired by Pablo Neruda
Of all the stars I admire, drenched in various rivers and mists, I choose only the one I love. In this, I sleep with the night. From all the graces that my homeland offers – all the water drops, the roots, the threads of light – I choose only your tender heart. I want you all for myself. I choose you.
Our Wish for You by Unknown
Our wish for you is that your marriage will bring much happiness and joy. Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens; a good marriage must be created. It is never too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say “I love you” every day. 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 sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is not only marrying the right partner. It is being the right partner.
Soul Mates by Richard Bach
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.
The Key to Love by Unknown
The key to love is understanding. The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word, but those unspoken gestures, the little things that say so much by themselves. The key to love is forgiveness. to accept each others faults and pardon mistakes, without forgetting, but with remembering what you learn from them. The key to love is sharing. Facing your good fortunes as well as the bad, together; both conquering problems, forever searching for ways to intensify your happiness. The key to love is giving without thought of return, but with the hope of just a simple smile, and by giving in but never giving up. The key to love is respect. realizing that you are two separate people, with different ideas; that you don’t belong to each other, that you belong with each other, and share a mutual bond. The key to love is inside us all. It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients that will take you to its threshold; it is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work, but the rewards are more than worth the effort, and that is the key to love.
The Long-Time Journey by Rainer Maria Rilke
Understand, my love, that I’ll slip quietly from the noisy crowd when I feel the earth beckoning. And, when I see the stars rising over the mountains, I’ll pursue a solitary path through the pale moonlit meadows, with only this one wish: that we take this long-time journey together.
The Truest Nature of Ourselves by George Eliot
When we love we come closest to the truest nature of ourselves. We crack the acorn so the golden oak can grow. Marriage purges us of our selfish selves. It points us down a better road than the one we travel alone. It is the finality of our search for a companion and the beginning of an eternity of thoughts that rise like the morning star. What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other.
There Is This Place in Me by Gretchen Kemp
There is a place in me where your fingerprints rest, your kisses linger, and your whispers echo. It's where a part of you will forever be a part of me.
Time Travelers by Terah Cox
May you take on the world together with all your hopes and dreams. May you be each other’s anchor in smooth or rocky seas. May you bend to the world’s winds and brave stalls and storms. May you find common ground in all its changing forms. May you cross stubborn boundaries and turn many a stone. May you find haven for your souls, may you have heart and home. And if some days are grey and some nights are long and cold. May you be each other’s sun and moon as your destinies unfold. And should you lose sight of each other and start to drift apart, may you circle back by following the compass of your hearts.
Union by Robert Fulghum
During your time together, you have referred to each other in many ways: “This is my friend....best friend... sweetheart...fiancée.” After (tomorrow) – and for the rest of your time together -you will often say a few words that will carry you through the rest of your life. For you shall say to the world, “This is my husband.” “This is my wife.”
Walking This Earth Together by William Wordsworth
Walking this earth together, we have felt a presence that inspires with the joy of elevated thoughts. Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, living air, and blue sky. In our love for one another, we are lovers of the earth. Of the meadows and woods, and the mountains; and of all that we together behold. And what we perceive in nature and in the language of our senses, the anchor of our purest thoughts, the guide, the guardian of our one heart and soul, we celebrate in our hallowed union.
Wedding Passage by Unknown
I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you for the part of me that you bring out; for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked quite far enough to find. I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a temple. I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.
Rev. Scott Awbrey ~ Colorado Wedding Officiant ~ [email protected]