Thoughts in a Garden wedding reading
Here’s the next in my series of awesome wedding readings you might like to include in your wedding ceremony!
Readings are absolutely not a compulsory part of a marriage ceremony. They’re a way of expressing something in a way that’s different from anything you or I can come up with, and they’re also a way of including additional people in the ceremony if you want to.
We’re not necessarily talking about Bible readings here, although you can include Bible passages if you want. You might like to consider poems, passages from films or books (especially those written for children), or song lyrics. To give an even more personal touch, some couples ask their loved ones to write something specifically for their ceremony. There are plenty of options!
Thoughts in a Garden, by R Gerhardt
This is a special place, a place where people have brought beautiful living plants, here to establish them, to nurture and care for them, that they may forever surround us with the beauty we now see. And into this place where we stand, you have brought something beautiful – the relationship that is becoming your marriage. Here you are declaring it and pledging it, promising to establish and nurture it. We are aware of the special beauty between the two of you, just as we are aware of the special beauty of this place. We are with you now in this appropriate place to celebrate your relationship as it is and as it is yet to be, and in doing so, we ask only that you remember how your life together will have the same seasons and needs as this garden. There will be growth like spring and loss like fall; there will be giving as the blossoming flower, and rest as the seed beneath the snow. All the seasons will be yours, but remember, too, that gardens are not just happenings.
The more wonderful the garden, the more skilled the gardener. So you will have to care deeply for the life that is yours together, and nurture it. You will have to appreciate your differences and cultivate them. You will have to take care of yourself, if for no other reason than out of love for the other. And you will need the support of family and friends to reach full growth. As you caringly chose this place to declare your marriage, so remember its lessons for your life together, through the seasons that are yours to share. And may those seasons bring you a full harvest of joy and happiness