Granddaughter's wedding

I have done this one:
It's by UA Fanthorpe, and suits a family in which 'maintenance is the sensible side of love'.
Although the mention of postcards and Road Fund Tax date it very slightly, the sentiment shines through, and it's another thing for families to laugh at with each other.

There is a kind of love called maintenance
Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it

Which checks the insurance, and doesn't forget
The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;

Which answers letters; which knows the way
The money goes; which deals with dentists

And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,
And postcards to the lonely; which upholds

The permanently rickety elaborate
Structures of living, which is Atlas.

And maintenance is the sensible side of love,
Which knows what time and weather are doing
To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;
Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers
My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps
My suspect edifice upright in air,

Thank you dahlia that sounds like a very special & lovely wedding

Thats so lovely to hear dahlia.

I would just like to thank you all for your lovely suggestions. In the end, after a chat with my daughter, I used the "Marriage is about giving and taking ..." poem suggested by janemar. The wedding, held in church at Castle Combe, was a quiet and intimate ceremony for about 30 close family and friends (quite a lot of young people in their 20's), and so the modern tone and humour of the piece was welcome. The bride and her husband sat to my left, so I was able to turn to speak to them directly at appropriate moments of the poem - I wish you could have seen their upturned faces! I managed without hesitation, and afterwards a lot of the groom's friends came up to say how much they had enjoyed it. It was a wonderful weekend, with a big "do" in a church hall at the Elmgrove Centre in Bristol: we had to spend the Saturday decorating the hall, which was hard work but very rewarding - some of you may know this church? Everything had to come down at the end of the evening for the Sunday service, but we all had a lovely time.
So thanks again to you all, and especially to you, janemar.

Not a reading, but my father recited this at our wedding;

May the best ye've ever seen
Be the worst ye'll ever see
May a moose ne'er leave yer girnal
Wi' a tear drap in his e'e
May ye aye keep hale an' he'rty
Till ye're auld eneuch tae dee
May ye aye be jist as happy
As we wish ye aye tae be.

A translation for non Scots speakers;

May the best you have ever seen
Be the worst you will ever see
May a mouse never leave your girnal
With a tear drop in his eye
May you always keep hale and hearty
Till you are old enough to die
May you always be just as happy
As we wish you always to be.

( A girnal is a grain store!)

There are some lovely words here.

'The Marriage of Psyche'; what a beautiful poem. Thankyou, Muffinthe moo. Never heard it before.
I do like sonnet 116 very much; so true, and it reads aloud well.

I like this one:

The Bridge Across Forever, 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.”

They're all lovely.

DD had a reading from "Gift from the sea" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh whuch was lovely.

There is a site dedicated to suggestions for wedding poems.
www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68621/wedding-poems

When our son married his lovely wife her mother and I were both asked to do a reading and I chose the Apache Blessing too. My husband, as father of the groom, and the father of the bride both gave short speeches.

DD2 read this at her friend's wedding. Well, DD3 said she sobbed her wag through it but I don't think that's compulsory!

There is also the Shakespeare Sonnet 'let me not to the marriage of true minds' which is lovely. I have forgotten which number it is but it will appear on Google. Yes, they chose that one too!

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-fixed 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 proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

I think that is the one silverlining mentioned

DD and SIL chose the Apache Wedding Prayer for their wedding:
The Apache Wedding Prayer
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 each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is 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.

or the longer version:
The Apache Wedding Blessing (long version)
Now you will feel no storms,
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 loneliness,
for each of you is companion to the other,
You are two persons,
but there is one life before you, and one home.
Turn together to look at the road you traveled,
to reach this—the hour of your happiness.
It stretches behind you into the past.
Look to the future that lies ahead.
A long and winding, adventure-filled road,
whose every turn means discovery,
new hopes, new joys, new laughter,
and a few shared tears.
May happiness be your companion,
May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead;
And through all the years to come.
Go this day to your dwelling place
and enter into your days together.
May your days be good and long
upon the earth.
Your adventure has just begun

I read this at my niece's wedding
www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/wedding-poems/these-i-can-promise_323.htm

I have googled the apache one and it is lovely.
I would be hard pressed myself to choose one of the ones suggested, they are all so apt.

Just checked, The reading i mentioned was the Apache/ Indian blessing beginning
‘Now you will feel no rain...
Google and you will find.

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats

Sonnet 116. Thank heavens for Google!

Both Lovely! I think I prefer the second one.

There is also the Shakespeare Sonnet 'let me not to the marriage of true minds' which is lovely. I have forgotten which number it is but it will appear on Google.

How wonderful to see a grandchild marry, and to be asked to do a reading. When our daughter married I googled wedding readings and found a lovely one which I think was titled something like an Indian blessing. There were lots to choose from.
It’s most unlikely I will be fit and able enough, or even around, when and if my small grandchildren get married. Enjoy the joy.

Marriage is about giving and taking

And forging and forsaking

Kissing and loving and pushing and shoving

Caring and sharing and screaming and swearing


About being together whatever the weather

About being driven to the end of your tether

About sweetness and kindness

And wisdom and blindness


It's about being strong when you're feeling quite weak

It's about saying nothing when you're dying to speak

It's about being wrong when you know you are right

It's about giving in, before there's a fight

It's about you two living as cheaply as one

(you can give us a call if you know how that's done!)


Never heeding advice that was always well meant

Never counting the cost until it's all spent

And for you two today it's about to begin

And for all that the two of you had to put in

Some days filled with joy, and some days with sadness

Too late you'll discover that marriage is madness.

I dont know who wrote it,quite a light reading.

How beautiful, and so right.