Inspirational Poetry and Readings
Love
The beauty of choosing a celebrant for your ceremony means you can really make it feel very personal and special to you both. Poetry and readings can help you to express what you're feeling without having to start from scratch. Using someone else's words doesn't have to feel too formal or restrictive either - there's such a wide range of incredible work to choose from. Here are some of my favourites...
It Must Be Love
Song by Madness
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I never thought I'd miss you
Half as much as I do
And I never thought I'd feel this way
The way I feel
About you
As soon as I wake up
Every night, every day
I know that it's you I need
To take the blues away
It must be love, love, love
It must be love, love, love
Nothing more, nothing less
Love is the best
How can it be that we can
Say so much without words?
Bless you and bless me
Bless the bees
And the birds
I've got to be near you
Every night, every day
I couldn't be happy
Any other way
It must be love, love, love
It must be love, love, love
Nothing more, nothing less
Love is the best
As soon as I wake up
Every night, every day
I know that it's you I need
To take the blues away
It must be love, love, love
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Marry Your Best Friend
Anonymous
Marry your best friend.

I do not say that lightly.

Really, truly find the strongest,
Happiest friendship

In the person you fall in love with.

Someone who speaks highly of you.
Someone you can laugh with.
The kind of laughs that make
Your belly ache, and your nose snort.

The embarrassing, earnest, healing kind of laughs.

Wit is important.

Life is too short not to love someone
Who lets you be a fool with them.
Make sure they are somebody

Who lets you cry, too.

Despair will come.
Find someone that you want

To be there with you

Through those times.

Most importantly,

Marry the one that makes passion,
Love, and madness combine

And course through you.
A love that will never dilute -
Even when the waters get deep, and dark.
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Yes, I'll Marry You
Pam Ayres
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!​
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Be In Love
Donna Ashworth
Be in love with your life
Every minute
Its your trail.
Blaze it and blaze it brightly.
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Be in love with yourself.
Think of how you'd like to be loved
And make it happen.
Show the way.
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Be in love with your partner.
Really love them.
As if there were no tomorrow,
and all you have is right here, right now..
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Be in love with your home.
Never mind the mess,
the things you don't like.
Pour some sparkle on what you have.
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Be in love with your family.
None are perfect.
But they are your blood and your history.
You need each other in this life.
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Be in love with your job.
Look at all the positives
And be thankful you have it.
If you can't, then change it.
Life's too short.
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Be in love with being in love.
Create that life full of friendship,
Stolen kisses,
Unnecessary hugs;
Food for the soul.​
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Maybe
Author Unknown
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Maybe we are supposed to meet the wrong people before we meet the right one so when they finally arrive we are truly grateful for the gift we have been given.
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Maybe it's true that we don’t know what we have lost until we lose it but it is also true that we don’t know what we’re missing until it arrives.
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Maybe the happiest of people don’t have the best of everything, but make the best of everything that comes their way.
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Maybe the best kind of love is the kind where you sit on the sofa together, not saying a word, and walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you ever had.
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Maybe once in a lifetime, you find someone who not only touches your heart but also your soul, someone who loves you for who you are and not what you could be.
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Maybe the art of true love is not about finding the perfect person, but about seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
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Carrie's Poem
from Sex And The City
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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”
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Winnie the Pooh
by A A Milne
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"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.”
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.”
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Falling in love is like owning a dog
Taylor Mali
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Falling in love is like owning a dog
First of all, it's a big responsibility, especially in a city like [xxx].
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security: when you're walking down the street late at night and you have a leash on love
'ain't no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable. Who knows what love could do in its own defence?
On cold winter nights, love is warm. It lies between you and lives and breathes and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs. It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.
Love doesn't like being left alone for long. But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life, but you can never be mad at love for long.
Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad.
Bad, love, bad!
Very bad love.
Love makes messes. Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after. Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain, just to let love know don't you ever do that again!
Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk. Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting. It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you until you're all wound up and can't move.
But love makes you meet people wherever you go. People who have nothing in common but love stop and talk to each other on the street.
Throw things away and love will bring them back, again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.
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Have You Got a Biro I Can Borrow? Clive James
Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I’d like to write your name
On the palm of my hand, on the walls of the hall
The roof of the house, right across the land
So when the sun comes up tomorrow
It’ll look to this side of the hard-bitten planet
Like a big yellow button with your name written on it
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Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I’d like to write some lines
In praise of your knee, and the back of your neck
And the double-decker bus that brings you to me
So when the sun comes up tomorrow
It’ll shine on a world made richer by a sonnet
And a half-dozen epics as long as the Aeneid
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Oh give me a pen and some paper
Give me a chisel or a camera
A piano and a box of rubber bands
I need room for choreography
And a darkroom for photography
Tie the brush into my hands
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Have you got a biro I can borrow?
I’d like to write your name
From the belt of Orion to the share of the Plough
The snout of the Bear to the belly of the Lion
So when the sun goes down tomorrow
There’ll never be a minute
Not a moment of the night that hasn’t got you in it
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Excerpt from The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished - and I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care.
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