Ceremonies by Nikki Kulin, Costa Celebrant - Wedding readings
When you use an independent Celebrant, we work with you to create something truly unique and special that reflects you as a couple. You may want to include some special readings. Camilla & Gabe were both Pisces and I included quotations from Linda Goodman within their ceremony. Camilla wrote a lexigraph poem based on the letters of their names and her sister read it. The possibilities are endless and something we can discuss when we speak. Here are ten suggestions to give you a flavour:
"SONG OF SONGS”
I am my Beloved’s And he is mine. Come my beloved, Let us go forth into the field; And lodge in the villages. Let us go up early to the vineyards; Let us see whether the vine has budded, Whether the grape has opened, And the pomegranates are in bloom; There will I give thee my love. The mandrakes give forth fragrance, And at the door are all manner of precious fruits, new and old Which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
—Anonymous
The Buddha spoke about four elements that constitute true love: the capacity to be kind and offer happiness, maitri in Sanskrit, compassion, the capacity to relieve suffering, karuna; the capacity to bring joy every day, mudita; and finally, the capacity of nondiscrimination, upeksha. When there is true love, there is nondiscrimination. The pain of the other is our own pain; the happiness of the other is our own happiness…To make our love meaningful, we need to nourish our bodhicitta, our mind of boundless love and compassion…First, we learn to love one person with all our understanding and insight; then we expand that love to embrace another person, and another, until our love is truly boundless.
—THICH NHAT HANH
May your love be firm, and may your dream of life together be a river between two shores—by day bathed in sunlight, and by night illuminated from within. May the heron carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring the sea’s blue grace. May your twin thoughts spiral upward like leafy vines, like fiddle strings in the wind, and be as noble as the Douglas fir. May you never find yourselves back to back without love pulling you around into each other’s arms
—JAMES BERTOLINO
They say they will love, comfort, honor each other to the end of their days. They say they will cherish each other and be faithful to each other always. They say they will do these things not just when they feel like it, but even—for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health—when they don’t feel like it at all. In other words, the vows they make could hardly be more extravagant. They give away their freedom. They take on themselves each other’s burdens. They bind their lives together… The question is, what do they get in return?
They get each other in return… There will always be the other to talk to, to listen to… There is still someone to get through the night with, to wake into the new day beside. If they have children, they can give them, as well as each other, roots and wings. If they don’t have children, they each become the other’s child.
They both still have their lives apart as well as a life together. They both still have their separate ways to find. But a marriage made in heaven is one where a man and a woman become more richly themselves together than the chances are either of them could ever have managed to become alone.
—FREDERICK BUECHNER
Rising Sun! when you shall shine, Make this house happy, Beautify it with your beams; Make this house happy, God of Dawn! your white blessings spread; Make this house happy. Guard the doorway from all evil; Make this house happy. White corn! Abide herein; Make this house happy. Soft wealth! May this hut cover much; Make this house happy. Heavy Rain! Your virtues send; Make this house happy. Corn Pollen! Bestow content; Make this house happy. May peace around this family dwell; Make this house happy.
SHOSHONE LOVE POEM
Please protect the ones we love. We honour all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together. We honour mother earth—and ask for our marriage to be abundant and grown stronger through the seasons; We honour fire—and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts; We honour wind—and ask that we sail through life safe and calm as in our father’s arms; We honour water—to clean and soothe our relationship, that it may never thirst for love; With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and true happiness as we forever grow young together.
RUMI: THE BOOK OF LOVE
May these vows and this marriage be blessed. May it be sweet milk, this marriage, like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade, like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day a paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcome as the moon in a clear blue sky. I am out of words to describe how spirit mingles in this marriage.”
—Rumi
The highest expression of Divine Design is applied love found in loving relationships between people. Not the erotic love we see on television and in the movies but love rooted in a decision to serve. It is a dynamic state of consciousness, a giving, creative flow, and a harmony. It’s an acceptance of the human condition as perfectly imperfect. And it is a choice to love without regard to any conditions; no ‘ifs’ are allowed in this, the greatest of laws.”
—GREG ANDERSON
There is a desire within each of us, in the deep centre of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it, but it is always awake. It is the human desire for love. Every person in this earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in this desire…”
“..Love is the ‘why’ of life: why we are functioning at all, what we want to be efficient for… I am convinced [love] is the fundamental energy of the human spirit, the fuel on which we run, the wellspring of our vitality. And grace, which is the flowing, creative activity of love itself, is what makes all goodness possible.
Love should come first; it should be the beginning of and the reason for everything.
—GERALD MAY
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 loneliness for you, now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place, and enter in your days together.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.”