Short Wedding Readings and Traditional Verses
Eight brief, mostly anonymous verses that have been read at weddings for decades, nearly all under a minute and several simple enough for a child, with honest notes on where they come from.
These are the readings people copy from the backs of programs and keep in scrapbooks: short, plain, often rhyming, and mostly by nobody anyone can name. They are not literature in the way a Shakespeare sonnet is, and they do not pretend to be. What they offer instead is ease. Each takes between twenty seconds and a minute, the language never trips a reader up, and their messages are the kind guests can carry out of the room: love holds gently rather than tightly; you can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.
That ease makes them the best page on the site for readers who are not performers. A child, a shy cousin, a grandparent whose eyesight is not what it was: any of them can stand up with one of these and do it well.
Choosing among them
For a child. Two Doves has a strong, simple rhythm that children read well. Christina Rossetti’s What Is the Beginning? Love., on our Victorian page, is another good choice.
For grandparents. True Love, with its love that neither rules nor binds, is one older readers tend to read with real feeling. Love Is a Friendship That Has Caught Fire, which admits to irritations, compromises and small disappointments, is best from someone who has been married a long time; married guests smile at it.
For the two of you. The short Love Song, usually described as traditional Inuit in an English version of unknown origin, is spoken from one person to another, so some couples read it to each other in place of, or just before, their vows. If you are writing your own, see how to write wedding vows.
For two families or two traditions. The Hindu Marriage Poem is an English rendering of phrases from the Vedic wedding hymns and the vows of the saptapadi, the seven steps around the sacred fire. It is lovely at a fusion or interfaith ceremony read by members of both families.
For the program. You Can Give Without Loving is a set of short sayings, the first often attributed to the missionary Amy Carmichael. Any one of them works printed on a program or a scroll or bookmark.
Honest notes on origins
Anonymous verse attracts invented histories. Treat Yourselves and Each Other with Respect circulates as the closing section of the “Apache wedding blessing,” which is in fact a mid-twentieth-century Hollywood invention; this section was added later still by an unknown writer. It is kind, practical advice either way. Just credit it honestly. The same goes for the Inuit Love Song, whose English wording has no known translator.
One practical warning about Two Doves: if it tempts you toward a dove release, use only trained homing pigeons handled by a professional, or skip the birds.
Reading short verse aloud
Short does not mean fast. A thirty-second poem read in fifteen seconds is lost before guests realize it has started. Pause before you begin, read the title, and take the whole thing at a walking pace. With rhyming quatrains, resist the bounce: read to the commas and full stops, not the line ends. If a child is reading, rehearse with them at the venue, set the microphone at their height, and have an adult stand nearby.
Pairings
Two Doves with Song of Solomon 2:10–13. The scripture’s “voice of the turtle” is the turtledove; a child’s poem and an ancient one, side by side.
Treat Yourselves and Each Other with Respect with Gibran’s On Marriage. Practical advice, then the philosophy behind it.
Hindu Marriage Poem with Tagore’s Hands Cling to Hands. Two South Asian voices, one ancient and one modern.
True Love
Author unknown
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,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.
Two Doves
Author unknown
Two doves meeting in the sky
Two loves hand in hand eye to eye
Two parts of a loving whole
Two hearts and a single soul
Two stars shining big and bright
Two fires bringing warmth and light
Two songs played in perfect tune
Two flowers growing into bloom
Two Doves gliding in the air
Two loves free without a care
Two parts of a loving whole
Two hearts and a single soul
What Is Love?
Author unknown
Sooner or later we begin to understand that love is more than verses on valentines and romance in the movies. We begin to know that love is here and now, real and true, the most important thing in our lives. For love is the creator of our favourite memories and the foundation of our fondest dreams. Love is a promise that is always kept, a fortune that can never be spent, a seed that can flourish in even the most unlikely of places. And this radiance that never fades, this mysterious and magical joy, is the greatest treasure of all – one known only by those who love.
Love Is a Friendship That Has Caught Fire
Author unknown
Love is a friendship that has caught fire.
It is quiet understanding,
mutual confidence,
sharing and forgiving.
It is loyalty through good and bad.
It settles for less than perfection,
and makes allowances for human weakness.
Love is content with the present.
It hopes for the future and it doesn’t brood over the past.
It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises,
small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals.
If you have love in your life,
it can make up for a great many things you lack.
If you don’t have it,
no matter what else there is,
it is not enough,
so search for it, ask God for it,
and share it!
You Can Give Without Loving
Author unknown
You can give without loving,
but you can never love without giving.
The great acts of love are done by those
who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
Love is knowing that even when you are alone,
you will never be lonely again.
And great happiness of life is the conviction
that we are loved.
Loved for ourselves.
And even loved in spite of ourselves.
Treat Yourselves and Each Other with Respect
Author unknown
Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficult and fear assail your relationship – as they threaten all relationships at one time or another – remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives – remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.”
Love Song
Traditional, Inuit
You are my husband
My feet shall run because of you
My feet dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love because of you.
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.
