Reading suggestions please for grandparent marriage blessing.

Oh short notice! No pressure. Sounds like a great occasion.
I won't suggest Andrew Marvel's "had we but world enough and time, this coyness lady were no crime" then. Not this time.

At my second wedding my mate R recited the words of Bob Dylan's Forever Young

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

Might work. As they are older could skip or maybe amend middle verse from "grow up" to "always"
And maybe as spoken, skip the repetition at the end of each verse? I'm sure Saint Bob wouldn't mind!

This may be too short

CORINTHIANS 13:4-8a

AN ODE TO LOVE

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.

Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

I like the St James version of this - but it uses the word "charity" rather than love.

Glass I just love that ode to love.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds,
or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixèd mark,
that looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

I was about to suggest both the quote from Corinthians and the Shakespeare sonnet. Great minds think alike.

As these are children how about something from a childrens hymn or poetry or perhaps some of the teachings of Jesus but from the New English Bible- something more accesible in terms of language for children.

Could they sing the first verse of a song together, and then everyone join in?

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

By ee cummings

Or there is a piece from Captan Corelli's Mandolin that is lovely that DD2 read at DD1s weddding.

Pooh & me by AA Milne is sweet for a child to read!

When trying to find Captain Corelli piece on the internet just now I found this..not suitable for this occasion but it made me

Love Me when I'm old - By Bee Rawlinson

Love me when I'm old and shocking
Peel off my elastic stockings
Swing me from the chandeliers
Let's be randy bad old dears.
Push around my chromed Bath Chair
Let me tease your white chest hair
Scaring children, swapping dentures
Let us have some great adventures
Take me to the Dogs and Bingo
Teach me how to speak the lingo
Bone my eels and bring me tea
Show me how it's meant to be
Take me to your special places
Watching all the puzzled faces
You in shorts and socks and sandals
Me with warts and huge love-handles
As the need for love enthralls
Wrestle with my damp proof smalls
Make me laugh without constraint
Buy me chocolate body paint
Hold me safe throughout the night
When my hair has turned to white
Believe me when I say it's true
I've waited all my life for you

nanaej fabulous!

nanaej I love that second poem and, in it's way, it is quite romantic but maybe not for this occasion as you say.

I think the Shakespeare is wonderful and really age appropriate!

Thank you everybody for your suggestions - please keep them coming! The current favourite is the Bob Dylan, thanks Jess. Nanaej we had a laugh at your poem .

We had a reading from Captain Corelli at our silver wedding blessing

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 blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

nanaej I love that, it sounds like one of Victoria Wood's songs

found this, www.instantforever.com/readings_poems_and_vows_page_4.html#lovely

scroll to The Teddy Bear, they would obviously skip verse 3

I have passed on all your ideas and apparently the choice has been made. SIL likes his secrets surprises, so I have to find out at the service.
Thanks everybody!

shysal enjoy the day

SJP that's the one I could not find !

shysal have a wonderful time at the wedding