Wedding Reading #1: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“The Art Of A Good Marriage” by Wilfred Arlan Peterson
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In the art of marriage, the little things are big things…
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is never taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
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 duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of
joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual
and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.
Wedding Reading #2: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Benediction of the Apaches”
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness for you.
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is only one Life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth
Wedding Reading #3: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Bridal Song” by John Ford
Comforts lasting, loves increasing,
Like soft hours never ceasing:
Plenty’s pleasure, peace complying,
Without jars, or tongues envying;
Hearts by holy union wedded,
More than theirs by custom bedded;
Fruitful issues; life so graced,
Not by age to be defaced,
Budding, as the year ensu’th,
Every spring another youth:
All what thought can add beside
Crown this bridegroom and this bride!
Wedding Reading #4: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Dance me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We’re both of us beneath our love, we’re both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love.
Wedding Reading #5: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Grow Old With Me” by John Lennon
Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one
God bless our love
God bless our love
Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love
Spending our lives together
Man and wife together
World without end
World without end
Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love
Wedding Reading #6: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Grow Old With You”(Adam Sandler sang this as the character Robbie Hart in “The Wedding Singer”)
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
Ill get your medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you
Ill miss you
Ill kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold
Ill need you
Ill feed you
Even let ya hold the remote control
So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed if you’ve had too much to drink
I could be the man who grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you
Wedding Reading #7: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Hindu Marriage Poem”
You have become mine forever.
Yes, we have become partners.
I have become yours.
Hereafter, I cannot live without you.
Do not live without me.
Let us share the joys.
We are word and meaning, unite.
You are thought and I am sound.
May the nights be honey-sweet for us.
May the mornings be honey-sweet for us.
May the plants be honey-sweet for us.
May the earth be honey-sweet for us.
Wedding Reading #8: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“How do I love thee” 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, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love 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.
Wedding Reading #9: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Hug O’ War” by Shel Silverstein
I will not play at tug o’war.
I’d rather play at hug o’war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.
Wedding Reading #10: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“It’s You I Like” by Mr. Rogers
It’s you I like,
It’s not the things you wear.
It’s not the way you do your hair,
But it’s you I like.
The way you are right now
The way down deep inside you
Not the things that hide you
Not your diplomas…
They’re just beside you.
But it’s you I like,
Every part of you,
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings,
Whether old or new.
I hope that you’ll remember
Even when you’re feeling blue,
That it’s you I like,
It’s you yourself,
It’s you, it’s you I like!
Wedding Reading #11: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
Let It Be a Dance by Ric Masten
Let it be a dance we do.
May I have this dance with you?
Through the good timesand the bad times, too,
Let it be a dance.
Learn to follow, learn to lead,
Feel the rhythm, fill the need.
To reap the harvest, plant the seed.
And let it be a dance.
Morning star comes out at night,
Without the dark there is no light.
If nothing’s wrong, then nothing’s right.
Let it be a dance.
Wedding Reading #12: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Little Things Mean a Lot”by Kitty Kallen
Send me a kiss from across the room
Say I look nice when I’m not
Touch my hair as you pass my chair
Little things mean a lot.
Give me your arm as we cross the street
Call me at six on the dot
A line a day when you’re far away
Little things mean a lot.
Don’t have to buy me diamonds or pearls
Champagne, sables, and such
I never cared much for diamonds and pearls
‘Cause honestly, honey, they just cost money.
Give me a hand when I’ve lost the way
Give me your shoulder to cry on
Whether the day is bright or gray
Give me your heart to rely on.
Send me the warmth of a secret smile
To show me you haven’t forgot
For now and forever, that’s always and ever
Little things mean a lot.
Wedding Reading #13: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“The Magic of Love” by Helen Steiner Rice
Love is like magic
And it always will be.
For love still remains
Life’s sweet mystery!
Love works in ways
That are wondrous and strange
And there’s nothing in life
That love cannot change!
Love can transform
The most commonplace
Into beauty and splendor
And sweetness and grace.
Love is unselfish,
Understanding and kind,
For it sees with its heart
And not with its mind!
Love is the answer
That everyone seeks…
Love is the language
That every heart speaks.
Love can’t be bought,
It is priceless and free.
Love, like pure magic,
Is life’s sweet mystery!
Wedding Reading #14: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“Marriage” by Mary Weston Fordham
The die is cast, come weal, come woe,
Two lives are joined together,For better or for worse, the link
Which naught but death can sever.
The die is cast, come grief, come joy
Come richer, or come poorer,
If love but binds the mystic tie,
Blest is the bridal hour.
Wedding Reading #15: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“On Love” by Thomas à Kempis
Love is a mighty power,
a great and complete good.
Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth.
It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable.
Nothing is sweeter than love,
Nothing stronger,
Nothing higher,
Nothing wider,
Nothing more pleasant,
Nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God.
Love flies, runs and leaps for joy.
It is free and unrestrained.
Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds.
Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil,
attempts things beyond its strength.
Love sees nothing as impossible,
for it feels able to achieve all things.
It is strange and effective,
while those who lack love faint and fail.
Love is not fickle and sentimental,
nor is it intent on vanities.
Like a living flame and a burning torch,
it surges upward and surely surmounts every obstacle.
Wedding Reading #16: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“On Your Wedding Day” (Unknown Author)
Today is the day you will always remember
The greatest in anyone’s life
You’ll start off the day just two people in love
And end it as husband and wife.
It’s a brand new beginning, the start of a journey
With moments to cherish and treasure
And although there’ll be times when you both disagree
These will surely be outweighed by pleasure.
You’ll have heard many words of advice in the past
When the secrets of marriage were spoken
But you know that the answers lie hidden inside
Where the bond of true love lies unbroken.
So live happy forever as lovers and friends
It’s the dawn of a new life for you
As you stand there together with love in your eyes
>From the moment you whisper “I do”.
And with luck, all your hopes and your dreams can be real
May success find its way to your hearts
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys
But today is the day it all starts.
Wedding Reading #17: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“The One” by Bernie Taupin
I saw you dancing out on the ocean
Running fast along the sand
A spirit born of earth and water
Fire flying from your hands
In the instant that you love someone
In the second that the hammer hits
Reality runs up your spine
And the pieces finally fit
All I ever needed was the one
Like freedom feels where wild horses run
When stars collide like you and I
No shadows block the sun
You are all I have ever needed
Baby, you’re the one
Wedding Reading #18: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“The One” (Unknown Author)
When the one whose hand you’re holding
Is the one who holds your heart,
When the one whose eyes you gaze into
Gives your hopes and dreams their start,
When the one you think of first and last
Is the one who holds you tight
And the things you plan together
Make the whole world seem just right,
When the one whom you believe in
Puts their faith and trust in you,
You’ve found the one and only love
You’ll share your whole life through.
Wedding Reading #19: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
“True Love” (Unknown Author)
True love is a sacred flame that burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones and hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart and true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
True love holds with gentle hands the hearts that it entwines.
Wedding Reading #20: Wedding Poems / Wedding Lyrics
(Unknown Author)
I do…
Want to laugh with you,
Learn with you,
Grow with you.
I do…
Want to be with you
All my life through,
For I love you with all of my heart,
And today I’m so happy to tell you…
I do.
Jeffrey R. Petersen officiates weddings in Chicago’s Western Suburbs and at Chapel in the Pines Wedding & Banquet Center. Interested? Contact Jeffrey to get a great, experienced Wedding Officiant and to ensure your wedding ceremony goes smoothly!