Looking for something unique and unusual for your wedding ceremony? We’ve rounded up our 8 favorite unusual wedding readings to suit all kinds of different and tastes.
I do not love you… by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
that this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
StarDust
“…When I see the way that mankind loves… You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. My heart… It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it’s trying to escape because it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange – no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine. “
‘Love’s Grammar Book’ by Michael Shepherd
I love you.
That’s it, really.
All there is to say.
Sums it up.
In a nutshell.
The long and the short of it.
The be-all and the end-all.
I know what I mean;
you know what I mean.
More or less.
We know what I mean.
Most of the time.
But though love’s sometimes
best defined by silence
it may be good
to say a few good words
since you, and love, have taught me
love’s grammar-book:
I love ‘love’.
Though love as a noun is difficult to define.
I love love as an adjective:
love’s … just lovely, isn’t it?
But most of all
I love love as a verb.
And this I know.
This is my love’s active voice:
I love you.
The Vows – A Coda By Michael Symmons Roberts
We pledge to wake each morning face-to-face,
to shun the orders of the busy sun,
we promise to disturb each other’s peace.
And we will, yes, gaze at the pining moon,
will pick out brine-blown glass-gems from the sand,
will read our future scratched onto a stone.
We’re naked, till we wear each other’s scent
and recognize it quicker than our own.
You start and finish me, you’re my extent.
I speak these words to many and for one.
To Love is Not to Possess by James Kavanaugh
To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one’s self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are:
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one’s self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another – and to one’s inner self.
Because finally, despite a child’s scars
Or an adult’s deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be
Who they really are – and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide.
I LOVE YOU by Mario Benedetti
Your hands are my caress,
my daily reminders
I love you because your hands
work for justice
If I love you, it’s because you are
my love, my accomplice and all
and in the street elbow to elbow [arm in arm]
we are much more than two
Your eyes are my spell
against [slipping into] the evil way/work
I love you for your look
that looks and sows the future
Your mouth that is yours and mine
Your mouth that is not mistaken/does not equivocate
I love you because your mouth
knows how to shout defiance
If I love you it’s because you are
my love my accomplice and all
and in the street elbow to elbow [arm in arm]
we are much more than two
And for your sincere face
and your vagabond step [wanderer’s step]
and your cry [because you weep] for the world
because you are people, I love you.
And because love is not a halo
or a simple moral [lesson of a story]
and because we are a pair
that knows it is not alone
I love you in my paradise
Which is to say [I mean] that in my country
the people live happily
even without permission
If I love you it’s because you are
my love my accomplice and all
and in the street elbow to elbow [arm in arm]
we are much more than two
Bridled Vows By Ian Duhig
I will be faithful to you, I do vow
but not until the seas have all run dry
etcetera: although I mean it now,
I’m not a prophet and I will not lie.
To be your perfect wife, I could not swear;
I’ll love, yes; honour (maybe); won’t obey,
but will co-operate if you will care
as much as you are seeming to today.
I’ll do my best to be your better half,
but I don’t have the patience of a saint;
not with you, at you I may sometimes laugh,
and snap too, though I’ll try to learn restraint.
We might work out: no blame if we do not.
With all my heart, I think it’s worth a shot.
Close close all night By Elizabeth Bishop
Close close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,
close as two papers
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.
Each knows all
the other knows
learnt by heart
from head to toes.
