non-religious romantic ceremony reading(s)

Re: non-religious romantic ceremony reading(s)

• Knottiedcd33ae0d9572500 member

  

  June 2015

  I love Pablo Neruda's Sonnet XVII.  I hope to have it read at my ceremony. The original is in Spanish but there a few different English translations floating around.  Here is my favorite part, it is longer than this and you can use the parts you like:
  
  I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
  I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
  So I love you because I know no other way than this:
  Where I do not exist, nor you,
  So close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
  So close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
  

  

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• TrixieJess member

  

  June 2015

  There are a couple of Shakespearian Sonnets you could use. Yeats is good, Keats, Shelly, any of the Poets from that era. 

  
  

  I would google and go from there.

  

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• Jen4948 Houston member

  

  June 2015

  Shakespeare's 116th sonnet should work.

  You could also use "How do I love thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from "Sonnets from the Portuguese."  It was a love poem to her husband Robert Browning. 

  

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• lachattefatale member

  

  June 2015

  I've been looking at Rumi's poetry.

  

  

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• loro929 member

  

  June 2015

  Thanks for all of the great suggestions!

  In the end, we are going to go with Louis de Bernières from Captain Morelli's Mandolin. 

  
  

  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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• lovebug2016x3 member

  

  July 2015

  “'I am,' he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. ‘I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.’” - The Fault in Our Stars  by John Green

  
  "I am nothing special; of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough" - The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
  

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• kmbay84 member

  

  July 2015

  These are the non-religious readings that we used for our ceremony:
  
  

  Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith

   “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.”

  The Bridge Across Forever 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.”

   

  
  

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• Bigwands member

  

  August 2015

  lovebug2016x3 said:

  “'I am,' he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. ‘I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.’” - The Fault in Our Stars  by John Green

  
  "I am nothing special; of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough" - The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
  

  Yayyyy John Green!  I've always (well, since I read TFIOS)  wanted "I fell in love the way you fall asleep.  Slowly, then all at once" incorporated into my wedding.  It's just so perfect.
  

  

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