Unique Wedding Readings for your wedding ceremony
Unique Wedding Readings for your wedding ceremony proving hard to find? You all loved my blog 5 great wedding readings and so I thought you might like some more great wedding readings for your wedding ceremony.
Unique Wedding Readings can be hard to come by but I have lots to offer.
This is part of a series of wedding reading blogs. I am aware that many wedding reading blogs cover lots of white, Cishet, neurotypical poets for an industry that is full of unconscious bias.
These wedding readings don’t really serve my community or indeed weddings in our communities in general.
As a Wedding Celebrant I have worked with all kinds of people from many diverse communities and feel that wedding readings should reflect that diversity
I have absolutely loads of wedding readings and there will be plenty more where these came from. A great wedding reading is something that takes a lot of thought and care. You need to choose a wedding reading that reflects you and people. Your wedding reading needs to connect to some aspect of your story.
Wedding Readings that are unique and surprise your guests.
Unique wedding readings can make the difference between a boring ceremony and an interesting one. Nobody wants bored guests.
You want your guests to be engaged and interested and for that you need to surprise them with readings they haven’t heard before. Here I am offering you some of my secret stash of inspiring and unique poems gathered from years of experience creating wedding ceremonies..
Why do we need unique Wedding Readings, why do they matter?
You’ve been to all those wedding and you’ve heard the same wedding reading over and over again, you don’t want your guests to be rolling their eyes and switching off. You don’t want poems and readings that you can’t really relate to written from people you can’t identify with.
Unique wedding readings will keep your guests awake and interested, you need to pick a wedding reading that captures their interest because it relates to you as a couple or thruple.
Choosing a wedding reading
Choosing your unique wedding readings can be really tricky. Here are some tips:
- Think about who you are in your relationship, what are your values?
- Ask yourself what are your favourite things to do
- Is there anything really funny that you would like to express about the way that your relationship works?
- Are you bookworms, poetry lovers or Love Island fanatics? Choose something appropriate for you.
- Who are your favourite artists, poets, musicians and writers?
- What is your heritage, culture, religion?
Unique Wedding Readings, my top picks
Wedding Reading #1 LEMM SISSAY invisible kisses
Click on this image to read this article in the New Statesman.
A unique wedding reading for romantics
Invisible Kisses
If there was ever one
Whom when you were sleeping
Would wipe your tears
When in dreams you were weeping;
Who would offer you time
When others demand;
Whose love lay more infinite
Than grains of sand.
If there was ever one
To whom you could cry;
Who would gather each tear
And blow it dry;
Who would offer help
On the mountains of time;
Who would stop to let each sunset
Soothe the jaded mind.
If there was ever one
To whom when you run
Will push back the clouds
So you are bathed in sun;
Who would open arms
If you would fall;
Who would show you everything
If you lost it all.
If there was ever one
Who when you achieve
Was there before the dream
And even then believed;
Who would clear the air
When it’s full of loss;
Who would count love
Before the cost.
If there was ever one
Who when you are cold
Will summon warm air
For your hands to hold;
Who would make peace
In pouring pain,
Make laughter fall
In falling rain.
If there was ever one
Who can offer you this and more;
Who in keyless rooms
Can open doors;
Who in open doors
Can see open fields
And in open fields
See harvests yield.
Then see only my face
In reflection of these tides
Through the clear water
Beyond the riverside.
All I can send is love
In all that this is
A poem and a necklace
Of invisible kisses.
Wedding Reading #2 KAE TEMPEST Water in the Rain
Click on this image to read this article in the Guardian.
A unique wedding ceremony reading for senstive souls
Water in the rain, from The Line is a Curve
Words taken from Water in the Rain, a song from The Line is A Curve by Kae Tempest
I carry our love in both hands
Through each turbulent day
Like a full bowl of water in the rain
My tenderness for you
My hopes for our lives
One careful step at a time.
Many of my community, my gorgeous constellation of unique souls are wonderfully sensitive human beings. Poets, artists, neurodiverse. You are like walking poems and I love you for it. This gentle, tender piece is just right for anyone who has lived with that sensitivity and found safety in the love of another.
This is a lyric taken from a song by Kate Tempest who is one of my favourite artists. Their work is very ceremonial in style and you can find out more about their work here by listening to them singing this song
Find out more about Kae Tempest here:
Unique Wedding Reading #3 BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH Loved Up
Click on this image to read this article in the Guardian.
A unique wedding reading for Dub lovers!
Find out more about Benjamin Zephaniah here:
emIf one of you is a person of colour or someone with British-Jamaican heritage and want to reflect that in your ceremony this one is perfect. If you have a love of rap or dub this is also a great choice. Cool, sophisticated and meaningful. This is a unique wedding reading that is underused in my opinion. It also represents cultural diversity in a wedding industry which remains very ‘white’ in its presentation.
Wedding Reading #3 ANDREA GIBSON, bone-burying
Read Andrea’s Substack here:
A unique wedding reading for a Queer couple/non-binary communities
Bone Burying by Andrea Gibson
“Lately I’ve been spending a good part of nearly every day thinking about love. Romantic love. The kind of love that involves french kissing and mix tapes and spooning in New York City in the summer when it’s by most people’s standards too disgustingly humid to spoon. The kind of love you wanna bring home to your grandma and say, “Grandma, look at this love! Just look at this LOVE!” I’ve been thinking about who I want to love, and how I want to love, and why I want to love the way I want to love, and what I need to learn to love that way, and who I need to become to become the kind of love I want to be…….and when I break it all down, when I whittle it into a single breath, it essentially comes out like this: Before I die, I want to be somebody’s favorite hiding place, the place they can put everything they know they need to survive, every secret, every solitude, every nervous prayer, and be absolutely certain I will keep it safe. I will keep it safe.”
Non-Binary poet Andrea Gibson writes exquisite poetry which I love and although much of their work is quite intense I particularly love this poem for Queer couples looking to find a poet from their community. This reading is taken from a piece of writing called Bone Burying…but I’m sure they would forgive you if you didn’t mention that…
Unique wedding readings are actually quite hard to find unless they’re very specific. But this is also just beautiful regardless of your identity and speaks to the safety we experience with those we love, the sense of homecoming. You can find out more about Andrea and their work here:
Wedding Reading #5 BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH, People Need People
A unique reading for a Polyamorous Wedding Ceremony.
PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE, by Benjamin Obadiah Zephaniah
People need people,
To walk to
To talk to
To cry and rely on,
People will always need people.
To love and to miss
To hug and to kiss,
It’s useful to have other people.
To whom to moan
If you’re all alone,
It’s so hard to share
When no one is there.
There’s not much to do
When there’s no one but you.
People will always need people.
To please
To tease
To put you at ease,
People will always need people.
To make life appealing
And give life some meaning,
It’s useful to have other people.
It you need a change
To whom will you turn.
If you need a lesson
From whom will you learn.
If you need to play
You’ll know why I say
People will always need people.
As girlfriends
As boyfriends
From Bombay
To Ostend,
People will always need people-
To have friendly fights with
And share tasty bites with,
It’s useful to have other people.
People live in families
Gangs, posses and packs,
Its seems we need company
Before we relax,
So stop making enemies
And let’s face the facts,
People will always need people,
Yes
People will always need people.
–Benjamin Zephaniah
This is also by Benjamin Zephaniah. He seems to be ideal for unique wedding readings with is vision and humour and the universality of his work. It is all called PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE. It speaks of the vital need we have as human beings to be connected to people.
This is a perfect unique wedding reading for a polyamorous wedding ceremony. I love this next poem for a polycule. Polyamorous Wedding ceremonies are a bit neglected in the Wedding Industry. There are not many unique readings that do justice to these types of relationship. This will also work for a couple who are passionate about community generally and see their relationship within a wider context.
I enjoyed compiling this list of unique wedding readings for you and am inspired to find you some more unique wedding readings for your wedding ceremony so watch this space.
If you are a couple or thruple looking to celebrate your love in community get in touch for a free consultation. I can’t wait to meet you x
click the image to visit AMIE SEAL PHOTOGRAPHY who created this image of me in my happy place at a wedding ceremony in the woods.
Contact me with your questions around arranging your wedding and let’s see if we are a good fit.