I do, I do, I do! Reading ideas for a blessing ceremony

Friday, 18 September 2015 00:00

Photo Credit: One Love Photo

Making your wedding day super special is vital, especially if you have friends and family coming from afar to join you. If, like many couples, you can’t have or don’t want a traditional Catholic ceremony then a brilliant and very popular option is a symbolic blessing ceremony. While Catholic ceremonies are very strict about readings, poems and songs - and only Biblical or approved ones are usually permitted - a blessing ceremony means you can pull all the stops out and make the ceremony truly personal, and incredibly meaningful for the two of you. The difficulty for many people however is knowing where to start looking for the “right” readings, poems and songs to try and express their feelings for their partner and their hopes and dreams for their life together. Today’s blog is a handy go-to guide therefore to give you inspiration and ideas for web and other resources for these.

Anthologies of love poems - if you don’t want to trawl the internet or go digital for your wedding day ideas then ask friends and family or try your local book or charity shop for poetry anthologies. Collections of poems are often a fantastic place to start for readings and you will also get a chance to kick back with a book into the bargin - bonus!

Popular readings: Wedding ideas mag has an article with seven of the most popular readings for weddings including the beautiful words from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which retain their beauty even when read for the 100th time.

Going deeper: The Wedding readings library; This is a great resource for you and your partner to browse if you want ideas as it has categories for Classical and Traditional readings and for more unusual readings from novels and Literature. A great example is the following from George Elliot’s Adam Bede:


It was Dinah who spoke first.
'Adam,' she said, 'it is the Divine Will., My soul is so knit with yours that it is but a divided life I live without you. And this moment, now you are with me, and I feel that our hearts are filled with the same love, I have a fulness of strength to bear and do our heavenly Father's will, that I had lost before.'
Adam paused and looked into her sincere loving eyes.
'Then we'll never part any more, Dinah, till death parts us.'
And they kissed each other with a deep joy.
What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?

Sing it out!: Songs can also be part of your story and you can use them during your ceremony to express your joy of the day or just evoke a special memory for the two of you. For great wedding love songs and more ideas click here. 

Fun stuff: If you want to eject a little light hearted fun into the ceremony too then it is also acceptable to use humourous readings. For ideas see the following on offbeatbride.com

Your ceremony is special - have fun exploring all the readings and ways you can make it mean more to the two of you!

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