I heard this wonderful story for the first time at my wedding yesterday… the person who read it for Ashley & Matt did a wonderful job of it and it is now most definitely one of my favorite little pieces and it makes a very sweet reading for a wedding!

Here’s the author’s website, his writing and art is a bit quirky and eccentric but I love it!

A Lovely Love Story

“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.”

Long windy drive up. Lots of mist and drizzle on the mountain. No guests, no photographer, no flowers… and yet, so sweet!

… with this perfect little reading to share:

To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich;
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart;
to study hard;
to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never;
in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common — this is my symphony.

- by William Henry Channing

There are lots of wonderful ways to marry the one you love.

Photo by Holland Photo Arts

Last month I heard this reading at Wendy & Jason’s wedding… it was completely new to me and, given my love of dogs and all 4-legged creatures, it immediately became one of my all-time favorites… today I’m happy to share it with you!

The sweet pup in the photo to the left is from another wedding earlier this year (Brook & Josh’s)… all decked out in his wedding finery… (sorry I can’t remember his name).

Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog by Taylor Mali

First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like D.C.
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 defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breaths
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.

.. this one will be read at my wedding this evening… love it!
TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
By Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

At one of my weddings this weekend, Rachel and Adam chose this wonderful reading that I had not heard before and I wanted to add it to the collection on the blog … a lot of wisdom here!

Excerpt from: “The Law of Unconditional Loving”
by Greg Anderson
From: The 22 {Non-Negotiable} Laws of Wellness

“The greatest pursuit is not good health, unsurpassed wisdom, economic surplus, political freedom, or even faith that can move mountains. It is the daily practice of the greatest of the non-negotiable laws of wellness, the Law of Unconditional Loving. Unconditional, nonjudgmental loving. This is our aim, life’s single highest and most rewarding pursuit… The highest expression of Divine Design is applied love found in loving relationships between people. Not the erotic love we see on television…but love rooted in a decision to serve. It is a dynamic state of consciousness, a giving, creative flow, and a harmony. It’s an acceptance of the human condition as perfectly imperfect. And it is a choice to love without regard to any conditions; no “ifs” are allowed in this, the greatest of laws.”

I‘ve heard this poem at many weddings over the years, but for some reason when I heard it at Hilary and Jeff’s ceremony this evening it really struck me as so beautiful (it could be that the person who read it did a really excellent job, that can make a big difference!)… and as I was listening I decided that I wanted to come right home and put it up on the blog for you.
Enjoy!

i carry your heart with me
by ee cummings

I carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
(anywhere i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

I discovered this reading through a colleague of mine in New York City and I am completely in love with it… I hope one day one of my couples will choose it for their ceremony .

The Archipelago of Kisses

by Jeffrey McDaniel

We live in a modern society.
Husbands and wives don’t grow on trees, like in the old days.
So where does one find love?
When you’re sixteen it’s easy,
like being unleashed with a credit card
in a department store of kisses.
There’s the first kiss.
The sloppy kiss. The peck. The sympathy kiss.
The backseat smooch. The we shouldn’t be doing this kiss.
The but your lips taste so good kiss.
The bury me in an avalanche of tingles kiss.
The I wish you’d quit smoking kiss.
The I accept your apology,
but you make me really mad sometimes kiss.
The I know your tongue like the back of my hand kiss.
As you get older, kisses become scarce.
You’ll be driving home and see a damaged kiss
on the side of the road, with its purple thumb out.
If you were younger, you’d pull over,
slide open the mouth’s red door just to see how it fits.
Oh where does one find love?
If you rub two glances, you get a smile.
Rub two smiles, you get a warm feeling.
Rub two warm feelings and presto-you have a kiss.
Now what? Don’t invite the kiss over
and answer the door in your underwear.
It’ll get suspicious and stare at your toes.
Don’t water the kiss with whiskey.
It’ll turn bright pink and explode
into a thousand luscious splinters,
but in the morning it’ll be ashamed
and sneak out of your body without saying good-bye,
and you’ll remember that kiss forever
by all the little cuts it left on the inside of your mouth.
You must nurture the kiss. Turn out the lights.
Notice how it illuminates the room.
Hold it to your chest and wonder
if the sand inside hourglasses comes from a special beach.
Place it on the tongue’s pillow,
then look up the first recorded kiss in an encyclopedia:
beneath a Babylonian olive tree in 1200 B.C.
But one kiss levitates above all the others.
The intersection of function and desire. The I do kiss.
The I’ll love you through a brick wall kiss.
Even when I’m dead, I’ll swim through the Earth,
like a mermaid of the soil, just to be next to your bones.”

I heard this as a reading at a wedding this fall and thought it was very sweet!

It’s You I Like

by Fred Rogers

It’s you I like,
It’s not the things you wear,
It’s not the way you do your hair–
But it’s you I like
The way you are right now,
The way down deep inside you–
Not the things that hide you,

Not your toys–
They’re just beside you.
But it’s you I like–
Every part of you,
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings
Whether old or new.

I hope that you’ll remember
Even when you’re feeling blue
That it’s you I like,
It’s you yourself,
It’s you, it’s you I like.

I haven’t shared a ceremony reading on the blog in some time so, today I thought I would share one that I like very much and hope you will too… it’s not long but has a lovely sentiment…

THE MOST WONDERFUL OF ALL THINGS IN LIFE

~ By Sir Hugh Walpole ~

The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life.

How do I love thee?

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.