Here are some of my favorite popular wedding readings:

You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment.

At some point, you decided to marry.

From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes,

indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way.

All of those conversations that were held while riding in a car,

or over a meal, or during long walks—

all those conversations that began with “When we’re married,”

and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will”—

all those late-night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe”—

and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart.

All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding.

The symbolic vows that you are about to make

are a way of saying to one another,

“You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed—

well, I meant it all, every word.”

Look at one another and remember this moment in time.

Before this moment you have been many things to one another—

acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher,

for you have learned much from one another in these last few years.

You have learned that good company and laughter,

and fun, and even difficulties and tears,

are shared in the best relationships.

Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life,

and things will never quite be the same between you.

For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this—is my husband; this—is my wife.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,

it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Excerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières

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 of us can convince ourselves we are.

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 blossom have fallen from their branches,

they find that they are one tree and not two.