Modern and Alternative wedding readings: Twenty-ONE great verses to give you inspiration.
Having photographed a lot of humanist weddings across Ireland, the thing we enjoy the most about them is how personalised they are. In particular, we love all the wonderful readings that we hear.
If you’re having a humanist wedding, readings are a great opportunity to put your personal stamp on things. In fact, you’ll find that there are few limits on where you can draw your inspiration from. You might like something heartfelt, something romantic, or even something silly. And by inviting a friend or family member to perform the reading, you can help include them in your ceremony.
The world is full of amazing art, so if you don’t have the words to describe how you feel, borrow someone else’s. Here are twenty different readings we love that you can incorporate into your humanist wedding ceremony. Some are from movies and some are from books, some are lyrics and some are poetry, but all are unique expressions of love.
The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields
The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I love it when you read to me
And you can read me anything
The book of love has music in it
In fact, that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I love it when you sing to me
And you can sing me anything
The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I love it when you give me things
And you ought to give me wedding rings
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
“I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight…”
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.”
He’s Not perfect by Bob Marley
He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can.
He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don’t analyse. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there.
Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.
Always by Lang Leav
You were you,
and I was I;
we were two
before our time.
I was yours
before I knew,
and you have always
been mine too.”
Disappointing by John Grant
The genitive case in German, it's true,
Is something that I'm quite partial to.
Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Prokofiev,
Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Vysotsky n Lev
Francis Bacon, The Dolomites,
Ballet dancers with or without tights.
Central Park on an autumn day
Will always be stunning and never cliché.
All these things, they're just disappointing,
All these things, they're just disappointing compared to you.
There's nothing more beautiful than your smile as it conquers your face.
There's nothing more comforting than to know, know you exist in this time, in this place.
Lines Depicting Simple Happiness by Peter Gizzi
It feels right to be up this close in tight wind
It feels right to notice all the shiny things about you
About you there is nothing I wouldn’t want to know
With you nothing is simple yet nothing is simpler
Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton
I like you a lot
You’re funny and kind
So let me explain
What I have in mind.
I want to be Your Personal Penguin
I want to walk right by your side
I want to be Your Personal Penguin
I want to travel with you far and wide.
Wherever you go, I’ll go there too
Here and there and ev’rywhere
And always with you.
I want to be Your Personal Penguin
From now on.
Now lots of other penguins seem to do fine
In a universe of nothing but ice
But if I could be yours and you could be mine
A cosy little world would be twice as nice.
I want to be Your Personal Penguin
I want to talk with you night and day
I want to be Your Personal Penguin
I want to listen to whatever you say.
Look at these wings, so perfect to hold you
I’d like to say again
What I have already told you
Let me be Your Personal Penguin
From now on.
Buried Light by Beau Taplin
Home is not where
you are from
it is where
you belong.
Some of us
travel the whole
world to find it.
Others,
find it in a person.
Waiting by Raymond Carver
Left off the highway and
down the hill. At the
bottom, hang another left.
Keep bearing left. The road
will make a Y. Left again.
There’s a creek on the left.
Keep going. Just before
the road ends, there’ll be
another road. Take it
and no other. Otherwise,
your life will be ruined
forever. There’s a log house
with a shake roof, on the left.
It’s not that house. It’s
the next house, just over
a rise. The house
where trees are laden with
fruit. Where phlox, forsythia,
and marigold grow. It’s
the house where the woman
stands in the doorway
wearing the sun in her hair. The one
who’s been waiting
all this time.
The woman who loves you.
The one who can say,
“What’s kept you?”
Pathways by Rainer Maria Rilke
Understand, I’ll slip quietly
away from the noisy crowd
when I see the pale
stars rising, blooming, over the oaks.
I’ll pursue solitary pathways
through the pale twilit meadows,
with only this one dream:
You come too.
Absolute Beginners by David Bowie
I've nothing much to offer
There's nothing much to take
I'm an absolute beginner
But I'm absolutely sane
As long as we're together
The rest can go to hell
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners
With eyes completely open
But nervous all the same
If our love song
Could fly over mountains
Could laugh at the ocean
Just like the films
There's no reason
To feel all the hard times
To lay down the hard lines
It's absolutely true
Nothing much could happen
Nothing we can't shake
Oh, we're absolute beginners
With nothing much at stake
As long as you're still smiling
There's nothing more I need
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners
But if my love is your love
We're certain to succeed
The Gift by Hafiz
Even after all this time
the sun never says
to the earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens
with a love like that –
it lights the whole sky.
Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy
Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.
When Harry Met Sally by Nora EPhron
“I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
Being Around by The Lemonheads
If I was in the fridge, would you open the door?
If I was the grass, would you mow your lawn?
If I was your body, would you still wear clothes?
If I was a booger, would you blow your nose?
Would you keep it? would you eat it?
I'm just tryin to give myself a reason, for being around.
If I was the front porch swing would you let me hang?
If I was the dance floor would you shake your thing?
If I was a rubber check would you let me bounce
Up and down inside your bank account?
Would ya trust me, not to break you?
I'm just tryin really hard to make you,
Notice me being around.
If I was a haircut would you wear a hat?
If I was a maid, could I clean your flat?
If I was the carpet would ya wipe your feet,
In time to save me from mud off the street?
If you like me, if you love me,
Why don't you get down on your knees
And scrub me?
I'm a little grubby
From being around.
HABITATION BY MARGARET ATWOOD
Marriage is not
a house or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
the edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert
the unpainted stairs
at the back where we squat
outside, eating popcorn
the edge of the receding glacier
where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this far
we are learning to make fire
Let me put it this way by Simon Armitage
Let me put it this way;
if you came to lay
your sleeping head
against my arm or sleeve,
and if my arm went dead,
or if I had to take my leave
at midnight, I should rather
cleave it from the joint or seam
than make a scene
or bring you round.
There,
how does that sound?
I WANNA BE YOURS - JOHN COOPER CLARKE
I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots
I wanna be yours
I wanna be your raincoat
for those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
when you want to sail away
Let me be your teddy bear
take me with you anywhere
I don't care
I wanna be yours
I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out
I wanna be the electric heater
you'll get cold without
I wanna be your setting lotion
hold your hair in deep devotion
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
that's how deep is my devotion
So this is love, from disney’s CinderellA
So this is love
So this is what makes life divine
I'm all aglow
And now I know
The key to all heaven is mine
My heart has wings
And I can fly
I'll touch every star in the sky
So this is the miracle
That I've been dreaming of
So this is love
Juno by Diablo Cody
“In my opinion the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think the sun shines out of your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with.”