There are aspects of your ceremony that can’t be bought online and do need your full attention.
Rely on WWS to take care of all your wedding accessories, and instead devote your time to finding the perfect pieces of poetry and prose to make your wedding completely unique.
Look In Unlikely Places
Let’s face it, there are lots of well-worn favourites for wedding readings: Shakespearean Sonnets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and blessings from different faiths and holy books. While poetry anthologies and ancient books are great starting points, they tend to contain well-worn favourites that you’ve no doubt heard at other ceremonies.
If you’re looking for something different, start somewhere different. Children’s literature is a goldmine of simple, heartfelt and nostalgic takes on love and devotion. From Winnie The Pooh to The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Prince there are poetic and prose extracts of poetry that can be heart stoppingly romantic, but also—and your readers will thank you for this—simple to read and understand.
Song lyrics can be a great source of poetic words and, if they’re well known, they might even encourage an impromptu sing-along from your wedding guests. For example, Lovesong by The Cure is charmingly quirky; Red Right Ankle by The Decemberists is short and sweet, or The Book Of Love by the Magnetic Fields for something longer but beautifully simple and heartfelt.
Ask Your Readers
Chances are, you have chosen the people who will read your poems or prose long before you thought about what they would read. Don’t miss them out of the process; the chances are they might have a favourite reading that reminds them of the two of you, or a favourite piece that they will feel comfortable reading in public.
The big advantage here? Not only are you delegating one of your many reading tasks, but if your reader has contributed to what is being read, they are more likely to read it confidently and clearly. Even if you do go it alone on choosing your readings, make sure you spend time with your reader to be sure they are comfortable with the reading.
Make It A Date
Grab some coffee and your beloved and make a date at the library to unearth hidden treasures. Take your wedding theme as inspiration and look through books or poetry collections that tie in with that, rather than generic love poems.
My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns, or Come Live With Me And Be My Love by Christopher Sousa are perfect for beach weddings, or play up a rustic outdoor theme with My Country by Dorothea McKellar or A Marriage by Mark Twain. If all else fails, there’s a huge range of suggestions online from poetry to lyrics and book excerpts.
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