WEDDING READINGS (1)

THE LITTLE BOOK OF

WEDDING
READINGS

Funny|Traditional|Modern|Childrens
Romantic|Alternative|Religious

The ultimate collection of
wedding readings for your big day

WWW.KISSTHEBRIDE.BIZ

Marriages are made in
heaven. But so again, are

thunder and lightning
.   

CLINT EASTWOOD

STNETNOC

FO ELBAT

4-22 ALTERNATIVE
WEDDING READINGS

23-33 R EADI NGS FOR
C HILD REN

34-41 READINGS FROM FILMS

42-51 READINGS FROM BOOKS

52-63 READINGS FROM
SONG LYRICS

64-78 BIBLE READINGS

79-86 NON RELIGIOUS
WEDDING READINGS

alternative
READINGS

“Love is friendship caught fire; it is
quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and
forgiving. It is loyalty through good and

bad times. It settles for less than
perfection, and makes allowances for
human weaknesses. Love is content with
the present, hopes for the future, and
does not brood over the past. It is the

day-in and day-out chronicles 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
do not have it, no matter what else there

is, it is not enough.”

Love Is Friendship Set On Fire
by Laura Hendricks

"Let me not to the marriage of true
minds. Admit impediments. Love is not

love. Which alters when it alteration
finds,Or bends with the remover to

remove:O no; it is an ever-fixed
mark,That looks on tempests, and is
never shaken;It is the star to every

wandering bark,Whose worth's
unknown, although his height be
taken.Love's not Time's fool, though
rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending
sickle's compass come;Love alters not
with his brief hours and weeks,But bears
it out even to the edge of doom.If this be
error and upon me proved, I never writ,

nor no man ever loved."

Sonnet 116 
William Shakespeare

"So this is love
So this is what makes life divine

I'm all aglow
And now I know
The key to all heaven is mine
My heart has wings

And I can fly
I'll touch every star in the sky

So this is the miracle
That I've been dreaming of

So this is love"

Cinderella

You were you
and I was I;
we were two
before our time
I was yours,
before I knew
and you have always
been mine too.

Always by Lang Leav

Congratulations! Today is your day.You're off to
Great Places! You're off and away! You have

brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you

choose.You're on your own. And you know what
you know.And YOU are the guy who'll decide
where to go. You'll look up and down streets.
Look 'em over with care. About some you will

say, "I don't choose to go there."With your head
full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're
too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you'll want to go
down. In that case,of course, you'll head
straight out of town. It's opener therein the
wide open air. Out there things can happen and
frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as
you. And then things start to happen,don't
worry. Don't stew. Just go right along.

You'll start happening too."

Oh the places you'll go - Dr Seuss

'Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't
adhere to any rules. The most any of us
can do is to sign on as its accomplice.
Instead of vowing to honor and obey,
maybe we should swear to aid and abet.
That would mean that security is out of
the question. The words 'make' and 'stay'
become inappropriate. My love for you
has no strings attached. I love you for

free.'

Still Life with woodpecker 
Tom Robbins

'There is no combination of words I could put on
the back of a postcard

No song that I could sing,
but I can try for your heart
Our dreams, and they are made out of real

things
Like a, shoe box of photographs

With sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer, at least for most of the

questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?

And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and

Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when

we're together

Better Together
Jack Johnson

'I cannot promise never to be angry;
I cannot promise always to be kind.
You know what you are taking on, my darling –
It’s only at the start that love is blind.
And yet I’m still the one you want to be with
And you’re the one for me – of that I’m sure.
You are my closest friend, my favourite
person,The lover and the home I’ve waited for.
I cannot promise that I will deserve you
From this day on. I hope to pass that test.I love
you and I want to make you happy.

I promise I will do my very best.

A Vow
Wendy Cope

Love is…
Love is feeling cold in the back of vans

Love is a fanclub with only two fans
Love is walking holding paintstained hands

Love is.
Love is fish and chips on winter nights
Love is blankets full of strange delights
Love is when you don’t put out the light

Love is
Love is the presents in Christmas shops
Love is when you’re feeling Top of the Pops
Love is what happens when the music stops

Love is
Love is white panties lying all forlorn
Love is pink nightdresses still slightly warm
Love is when you have to leave at dawn

Love is
Love is you and love is me
Love is prison and love is free
Love’s what’s there when you are away from me

Love is…

Love Is
Adrian Henri

The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice.
Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, his
cage.Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur.The Lovely

Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words
and loving thoughts.I like this Dinosaur thought the Lovely
Other Dinosaur.Although he is fierce he is also tender and he
is funny.He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this

for now.I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the
Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells

so nice.She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much
admire in a dinosaur.But he can be so distant and so peculiar
at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.He is also overly
fond of things.Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of things?But

her mind skips from here to there so quickly thought the
Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on shopping.Are all
Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?I
will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for things, thought
the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes
him a richly charactered individual.I will forgive her skipping
mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur.
For she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful
surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.Now
the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old.Look at
them.Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories
and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.And that, my
friends, is how it is with love.Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely
Other Dinosaurs together.For the sun is warm.And the world

is a beautiful place.

A lovely love story
Edward Monckton

There is a kind of love called maintenance,
Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it;

Which checks the insurance, and doesn’t forget
The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;

Which answers letters; which knows the way
The money goes, which deals with dentists
And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,

And postcards to the lonely; which upholds
The permanently rickety elaborate
Structures of living; which is Atlas.

And maintenance is the sensible side of love,
Which knows what time and weather are doing

To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;

Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers
My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps

My suspect edifice upright in the air,
As Atlas did the sky.

Atlas
U.A Fanthorpe

“Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear,
And here’s the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking
And it’s creepy and it’s late,
I hand you the torch you see,

And you investigate.
Yes I’ll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It’s you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It’s you that has to whack him.

Yes, I’ll marry you,
You’re virile and you’re lean,

My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.

That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,

As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night!
It’s you who has to work the drill and put up curtain track,
And when I’ve got PMT it’s you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,

I do, I do, I do.”

Yes, I'll marry you my dear
Pam Eyres

He never leaves the seat up
Or wet towels upon the floor
The toothpaste has the lid on
And he always shuts the door!

She’s very clean and tidy
Though she may sometimes delude
Leave your things out at your peril

In a second they’ll have moved!
He’s a very active person
As are all his next of kin
As are all his next of kin

Whereas she likes lazy days
He’ll still drag her to the gym!
He romances her and dines her
Home cooked dinners and the like
He even knows her favourite food
And spoils her day and night!
She’s thoughtful when he looks at her

A smile upon his face
Will he look that good in 50 years
When his dentures aren’t in place?!

He says he loves her figure
And her mental prowess too
But when gravity takes her over
Will she charm with her IQ?
She says she loves his kindness
And his patience is a must
And of course she thinks he’s handsome
Which in her eyes is a plus!
They’re both not wholly perfect

But who are we to judge
He can be pig headed

Whereas she won’t even budge!
All that said and done

They love the time they spent together
And I hope as I’m sure you do

That this fine day will last forever.
He’ll be more than just her husband

He’ll also be her friend
And she’ll be more than just his wife
She’s be his soul mate – till the end.

He never leaves the seat up
Anon

‘I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
breathing in your dust

I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust

If you like your coffee hot
let me be your coffee pot

You call the shots
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat
for those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
when you want to sail away

Let me be your teddy bear
take me with you anywhere

I don’t care
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out

I wanna be the electric heater
you’ll get cold without

I wanna be your setting lotion
hold your hair in deep devotion
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
that’s how deep is my devotion.’

I wanna be yours
John Cooper-Clarke

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,

Whenever you’re wrong admit it;
Whenever you’re right shut up.

A word to husbands
Ogden Nash

Marriage is about giving and taking
And forging and forsaking

Kissing and loving and pushing and shoving
Caring and sharing and screaming and swearing

About being together whatever the weather
About being driven to the end of your tether

About sweetness and kindness
And wisdom and blindness

It’s about being strong when you’re feeling quite weak
It’s about saying nothing when you’re dying to speak
It’s about being wrong when you know you are right

It’s about giving in, before there’s a fight
It’s about you two living as cheaply as one(you can give us a

call if you know how that’s done!)
Never heeding advice that was always well meant

Never counting the cost until it’s all spent
And for you two today it’s about to begin
And for all that the two of you had to put in
Some days filled with joy, and some days with sadness
Too late you’ll discover that marriage is madness

Marriage – Anon

I wanna be your Marge.
If I'm your Norfolk Broads

Will you be my barge?
Let's please be Tom and Barbara,

I will show you The Good Life.
Even though we're not yet married

I would love to be your wife.
I've the passion Lily Munster has for her dear Herman.

I would love you if you were ginger,
I would love you if you were German.

Like Mr and Mrs Huxtable,
We'd smooch even when we're wrinkly.

I'll even consider ironing your shirts,
But I hope you like them crinkly.
Like Mr and Mrs Incredible
I'm flexible and you're tough.

But if you promise to be my true love
That will always be enough.

Like Bonny and that Clyde guy without all the dying.
Like Gwyneth and that Coldplay man without all the crying.

My partner in crime, the love of my life,

Be my Homer

The little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted
;the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or
sacrifice,but in the spirit of joy
.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating
gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have
wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense
of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is
equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right
partner.

The Art of Marriage" by Wilferd A.
Peterson

readings for
children

"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
Yet I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a
dream"

From Disney's Sleeping Beauty

"“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he
whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?” “Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand.
“I just wanted to be sure of you.” 
“We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?" asked Piglet.
"Even longer," Pooh answered.
“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together…
there is something you must always remember.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.
But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll
always be with you.”

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

"“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a
hundred minus one day so I never have to live without
you.”

A.A Milne

I like you a lot.
You're funny and kind.
So let me explain
What I have in mind.
I want to be your personal penguin.
I want to walk right by your side.
I want to be your personal penguin.
I want to travel with you far and wide
An excerpt from Your Personal Penguin by Sandra
Boynton

Pairs of things that go together.
Pigeons with park
Stars with dark
Sand with sea
and you with me.…
Hats with heads
Pillows with beds
Sky with blue
and me with you.

Some Things Go Together by Charlotte Zolotow

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when
we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with
ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness
and call it love.”
Dr. Seuss

“Mum and Dad Get married today,
I’d Like to help them on their way.
So here’s some special advice from me,
To help them with our family.
Keep our house filled with laughter
Let’s have fun forever after.
Keep the drawer filled up with sweets,
And give us children lots of treats.
Make sure you spend time together,
To keep your happiness forever.
Make sure you spend lots on us,
And then us kids won’t make a fuss.
But the most important thing for you,
Is to show your love in all you do.
A caring word, a kiss, a touch,
And those family cuddles that mean so much..

My Advice by Anon

“I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after
I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll
drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again…

I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment.
And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so
tight that nothing and no one will ever tear us apart.

Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds
and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and
in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams…

And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t
just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you
and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight…”

Extract from The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

"You're the beginning and the end, the hub, the core, and the
quintessence," he told her tenderly, but the frivolous dot
wasn't a bit interested, for she only had eyes for a wild and
unkempt squiggle

The Dot and the Line by Norton Juster

"No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways
you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in
order to gain something greater... The love we have for each
other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the
key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has
to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot".

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

"I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying
myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love
with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void,
and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and
that there will come a day when all our labor has been
returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only
earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

"I know that you were made for me
And I was made for you
A wise old owl up in a tree
Told me this was true
I asked him only yesterday
If I should marry you
He answered – -I can safely say
You’re not a twit to woo.’

No Mistake by Martha Sims

Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,
There’s always Pooh and Me.
“What would I do?” I said to Pooh,“If it wasn’t for you,” and
Pooh said: “True,It isn’t much fun for One, but Two,Can
stick together, says Pooh, says he. “That’s how it is,” says
Pooh.

Us Two by A.A Milne

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it.
Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you
do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.

Extract from Mathilda - Roald Dahl

'I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and
as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves
to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass
of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves
to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering
loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else
gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning
against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and
reveal a secret compartment.
I will love you until all such compartments are discovered
and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into
the world.'

The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket

When Winter comes, and singing ends, when darkness falls
at last; When broken is the barren bough, and light and
labour past; I'll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet
again; Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain.
Together we will take the road that leads into the West; And
far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

The Ent and the Ent Wife -From Lord of the Rings by
J.R Tolkien

'4lb of love.
1lb butter of youth.
½lb of good looks.
1lb sweet temper.
1lb of blindness of faults.
1lb of self-forgetfulness.
1lb of pounded wit
.1lb of good humour.
2 tablespoons of sweet argument.
1 pint of rippling laughter.
1 wine glass of common sense.
1oz modesty

Put the love, good looks, and sweet temper into a well-
furnished house. Beat the butter of youth to a cream, and
mix well together with the blindness of faults. Stir the
pounded wit and good humour into the sweet argument,
then add the rippling laughter and common sense. Work the
whole together until everything is well mixed, and bake
gently forever.

A Good Wedding Cake by Anonymous

'May God be with you and bless you;
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings,
May you know nothing but happiness,
From this day forward…”

An Irish Blessing - Author Unknown

readings from
films

“His hello was the end of her endings. Her laugh was their
first step down the aisle. His hand would be hers to hold
forever. His forever was as simple as her smile. He said she
was what was missing. She said instantly she knew. She was
a question to be answered. And his answer was ‘I do.”

From Sex and the City

“With this hand, I will lift your sorrow.Your cup will never
empty, For I will be your wine.  With this candle, I will light
your way in darkness.With this ring, I ask you to be mine”

The corpse bride - Tim Burton

“So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s going to be really hard; we’re
gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that
because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You
and me… everyday.”“Poets often describe love as an emotion
that we can’t control, one that overwhelms logic and
common sense. That’s what it was like for me. I didn’t plan
on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on
falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that
neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell
in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something
rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has
happened only once, and that’s why every minute we spent
together has been seared in my memory.” —Noah

The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man
with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are
no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be
forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul,
and to me, this has always been enough.”

The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the
ages of this world alone.” —Arwen

Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien

““When Winter comes, and singing ends, when darkness
falls at last; When broken is the barren bough, and light and
labour past;I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet
again; Together we will take the road beneath the bitter
rain.Together we will take the road that leads into the West;
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may
rest.”

Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien

““The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.Today and
tomorrow are yet to be said.The chances, the changes are all
yours to make.The mold of your life is in your hands to
break.”

A Hobbits Tale - J.R.R Tolkien

“Commander, I don’t think you can analyze love. It’s the
greatest mystery of all. No one knows why it happens or
doesn’t. Love is a chance combination of elements. Any one
thing might be enough to keep it from igniting — a mood, a
glance, or a remark. And if we could define love, predict it, it
would probably lose its power.” —Neelix

Star Trek

““The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love, and be
loved in return.” —Christian

Moulin Rouge

“I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it
takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that
you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at
me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I
can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that
you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at
night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s
New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you
realize you want to spend the rest of your life with
somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as
possible”

Moulin Rouge

““So this, I am sure. You are my partner. My lover. My very
best friend. My heart. My heart beats for you. And on this
day, the day of our wedding, I promise you this. I promise
you to lay my heart in the palm of your hands; I promise
you…me.” —Dr. Preston Burke

Greys Anatomy

“‘I wanna marry you because you’re the first person I wanna
look at when I wake up in the morning,And the only one I
wanna kiss goodnight.Because the first time I saw those
hands,I couldn’t imagine not being able to hold them.’

Definitely Maybe

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 root was 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 promises of eternal passion. That is just
being in love, which any fool can do. 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 blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find
that they are one tree and not two.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Berniere

“It's an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can
bare your soul to, and who will accept you for what you are.
I've been waiting, what seems like a very long time, to get
beyond what I am. And [now] I feel like I can finally
begin...No measure of time with you will be long enough.
But let's start with forever." —Edward

Twilight

“I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the
thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire
walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I
could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more
density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could
linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.”

The Time Travellers Wife

“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.”

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

“"The future belongs to hearts even more than it does to
minds. Love, that is the only thing that can occupy and fill
eternity. In the infinite, the inexhaustible is requisite.Love
participates of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like it,
it is the divine spark; like it, it is incorruptible, indivisible,
imperishable. It is a point of fire that exists within us, which
is immortal and infinite, which nothing can confine, and
which nothing can extinguish. We feel it burning even to the
very marrow of our bones, and we see it beaming in the very
depths of heaven."What a grand thing it is to be loved! What
a far grander thing it is to love! The heart becomes heroic, by
dint of passion. It is no longer composed of anything but
what is pure; it no longer rests on anything that is not
elevated and great. An unworthy thought can no more
germinate in it, than a nettle on a glacier. The serene and
lofty soul, inaccessible to vulgar passions and emotions,
dominating the clouds and the shades of this world, its
follies, its lies, its hatreds, its vanities, its miseries, inhabits
the blue of heaven, and no longer feels anything but
profound and subterranean shocks of destiny, as the crests
of mountains feel the shocks of earthquake. If there did not
exist someone who loved, the sun would become extinct.”

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

"I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with
tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to
speak when words are needed and to share the silence when
they are not, to agree to disagree on red velvet cake, and to
live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.
I vow to fiercely love you in all your forms, now and forever. I
promise to never forget that this is a once-in-a-lifetime love.
And to always know in the deepest part of my soul that no
matter what challenges might carry us apart, we will always
find our way back to each other." —Paige

The Vow

"I guarantee that we'll have tough times. I guarantee that at
some point, one or both of us will want to get out. But I also
guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for
the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the
only one for me." —Ike

Runaway Bride

“I don’t believe in marriage. I think at worst it’s a hostile
political act, a way for small-minded men to keep women in
the house and out of the way, wrapped up in the guise of
traditional and conservative religious nonsense. At best, it’s
a happy delusion — these two people who truly love each
other and have no idea how truly miserable they’re about to
make each other. But, but, when two people know that, and
they decide with eyes wide open to face each other and get
married anyway, then I don’t think it’s conservative or
delusional. I think it’s radical, and courageous, and very
romantic.” —Tina Modotti

Frida

readings from
books

“A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and
keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the
locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely
and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and
not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best
part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us,
with that one person, we’re safe in our own paradise. Our
soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our
sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together
our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person.
Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.”

The Bride Across Forever - Richard Bach

At night, there was the feeling that we had come home,
feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other
one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal.
We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one
woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be
alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love
each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can
truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we
were together, alone against the others. We were never
lonely and never afraid when we were together."

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

“Once upon a time, there was a boy. He lived in a village that
no longer exists, in a house that no longer exists, on the edge
of a field that no longer exists, where everything was
discovered, and everything was possible. A stick could be a
sword, a pebble could be a diamond, a tree, a castle. Once
upon a time, there was a boy who lived in a house across the
field, from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a
thousand games. She was queen and he was king. In the
autumn light her hair shone like a crown. They collected the
world in small handfuls, and when the sky grew dark, and
they parted with leaves in their hair.Once upon a time there
was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question
he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

A History of Love - Nicole Krauss

"Yes, I need you, my fairy-tale. Because you are the only
person I can talk with about the shade of a cloud, about the
song of a thought — and about how, when I went out to work
today and looked a tall sunflower in the face, it smiled at me
with all of its seeds.

Letters to Vera - Vladimir Nabokov

"People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and
secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the
sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see
is is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square.
Love lets you find those hidden places in another person,
even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones
they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.

Wild Awake - Hilary T. Smith

"Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant
star.It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of
years ago.Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet
sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything."

South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki
Murakami

"Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were
our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It
leads to each other. We become ourselves … 'What will
happen to us?' I asked. 'There will always be us,' he
answered."

Just Kids - Patti Smith

“Lying under such a myriad of stars. The sea’s black horizon.
He rose and walked out and stood barefoot in the sand and
watched the pale surf appear all down the shore and roll and
crash and darken again. When he went back to the fire he
knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he
were God he would have made the world just so and no
different.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

""Oh, what a love it was, utterly free, unique, like nothing
else on earth! Their thoughts were like other people’s
songs.They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the
‘blaze of passion’ often falsely ascribed to love. They loved
each other because everything around them willed it, the
trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the
earth under their feet. Perhaps their surrounding world, the
strangers they met in the street, the wide expanses they saw
on their walks, the rooms in which they lived or met, took
more delight in their love than they themselves did."

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

“"Now, I’m not going to deny that I was aware of your
beauty. But the point is, this has nothing to do with your
beauty. As I got to know you, I began to realize that beauty
was the least of your qualities. I became fascinated by your
goodness. I was drawn in by it. I didn’t understand what was
happening to me. And it was only when I began to feel
actual, physical pain every time you left the room that it
finally dawned on me: I was in love, for the first time in my
life. I knew it was hopeless, but that didn’t matter to me. And
it’s not that I want to have you. All I want is to deserve you.
Tell me what to do. Show me how to behave. I’ll do anything
you say."

Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

""He dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of
interest he found love, because by trying to make her love
him he ended up falling in love with her. Petra Cotes, for her
part, loved him more and more as she felt his love
increasing, and that was how in the ripeness of autumn she
began to believe once more in the youthful superstition that
poverty was the servitude of love. Both looked back then on
the wild revelry, the gaudy wealth, and the unbridled
fornication as an annoyance and they lamented that it had
cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of
shared solitude. Madly in love after so many years of sterile
complicity, they enjoyed the miracle of living each other as
much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy
that even when they were two worn-out people they kept on
blooming like little children and playing together like dogs."

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia
Marquez

"All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero
and heroine were safely engaged — after all, what’s good
enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone.
But it’s a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be
a new piece of the plot."

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer

"I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have
found you. You are my sympathy — my better self — my
good angel — I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I
think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is
conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my
centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you —
and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in
one."

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

""It’s more like every electron in every atom in the universe
paused, breathed in deeply, assessed the situation, and then
reversed its course, spinning backward, or the other way,
which was the right way all along. And afterward, the
universe was exactly the same, but infinitely more right

How to Tell Toledo from the night sky - Lydia Netzer

"In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the
hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a
flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

Song of Achilles - Madeleine Miller

"“When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most
important part of the language that all the world spoke — the
language that everyone on earth was capable of
understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older
than humanity, more ancient than the desert. What the boy
felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the
only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she
recognized the same thing. Because when you know the
language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world
awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in
some great city. And when two such people encounter each
other, the past and the future become unimportant. There is
only that moment, and the incredible certainty that
everything under the sun has been written by one hand only.
It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for
every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams
would have no meaning.”

The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo

"Within this blessed union of souls, where two hearts
inter  twine to become one, there lies a promise. Perfectly
born, divinely created, and intimately shared, it is a place
where the hope and majesty of beginnings reside. Where all
things are made possible by the astounding love shared by
two spirits. As you hold each other’s hands in this promise,
and eagerly look into the future in each other’s eyes, may
your unconditional love and devotion take you to places
where you’ve both only dreamed. Where you’ll dwell for a
lifetime of happiness, sheltered in the warmth of each
other’s arms."

The Promise - Heather Berry

“It has made me better loving you… it has made me wiser,
and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things
before, and to be angry that I did not have them.
Theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had
limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to
have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I
really am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything better.
It’s just as when one has been trying to spell out a book in the
twilight, and suddenly the lamp comes in. I had been putting
out my eyes over the book of life, and finding nothing to
reward me for my pains; but now that I can read it properly I
see that it’s a delightful story.”

The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James