If you're giving a wedding reading, gift it too! Calligraphy wedding readings make a lovely keepsake and a really special gift for newlyweds. They're one of my favourite things to write as well.
I made a little list of 10 of the best wedding readings for 2024. There's something for everyone from 13th century Rumi through Shakespeare to Philip Pullman. Which is your favourite?
Wedding readings are optional. But they can be bloody lovely as a way to involve special people in your ceremony. Anyone can read one. I've seen teenage kids, grandparents, and lifelong friends give readings. You can make them even more special by having these special poems written in calligraphy as a keepsake of your wedding day.
My favourite wedding readings for 2024
- Love is Friendship Caught Fire
- Love - Roy Croft
- This Marriage - Rumi
- The Beauty of Love - anon (see below)
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin (extract)
- Extract from The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
- Sonnet 116 - Shakespeare
- Maybe - anon (see below)
- Relativity - Einstein quote
- All I Know About Love - Neil Gaiman
The Beauty of Love
The question is asked: “Is there anything more beautiful in life than a young couple clasping hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be anything more beautiful than young love?” And the answer is given: “Yes, there is a more beautiful thing.
“It is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey together on that path. Their hands are gnarled but still clasped; their faces are seamed but still radiant; their hearts are physically bowed and tired but still strong with love and devotion. Yes, there is a more beautiful thing than young love. Old love.”
Maybe
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.
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.
Maybe the happiest of people don’t have the best of everything, but make the
best of everything that comes their way.
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.
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.
Maybe the art of true love is not about finding the perfect person, but about
seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
[This poem still has the pencil lines I use as guides to write on, so anyone interested in the calligraphy process can see how I work. The lines are always erased on commissions for my lovely customers!]
Albert Einstein on Relativity
“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”
Find out more about having a wedding reading written in calligraphy at www.Calligraphy-for-Weddings.com