Readings for the reception

You may like to have a short reading at your reception before you sit down to the wedding breakfast, or to introduce the speeches.

From this day Forward

Author Unknown

From this day forward,
You shall not walk alone.
My heart will be your shelter,
And my arms will be your home.

These I can Promise

Author Unknown

I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;
I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold;
I cannot promise you an easy pathway
That leads away from change or growing old.

But I can promise all my heart’s devotion;
A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;
A love that’s ever true and ever growing;
A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.

Our Mother

Author Unknown

You are the mother I received
The day I wed your son,
And I just want to thank you, Mum
For all the things you’ve done.

You’ve given me a gracious man
With whom I share my life.
You are his loving mother and
I his lucky wife.

You used to pat his little head,
And now I hold his hand.
You raised in love a little boy
And gave to me a man.

A Valentine to my Wife

Eugene Field (1850-1895)

Accept, dear girl, this little token,
And if between the lines you seek,
You’ll find the love I’ve often spoken –
The love my dying lips shall speak.
Our little ones are making merry
O’er am’rous ditties rhymed in jest,
But in these words ( though awkward – very )
The genuine articles’s expressed.
You are as fair and sweet and tender,
Dear-brown-eyed little sweetheart mine,
As when, a callow youth and slender,
I asked to be your valentine.
What though these years of ours be fleeting?
What through the years of youth be flown?
I’ll mock old Tempus with repeating,
‘I love my love and her alone!’’
And when I fall before his reaping,
And when my stuttering speech is dumb,
Think not my love is dead or sleeping,
But that it waits for you to come.
So take, dear love, this little token,
And if there speaks in any line
The sentiment I’d fain have spoken,
Say, will you kiss your valentine?

My True Love Hath my Heart

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

My true-love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for another given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven: My true-love hath my heart, and I have his,
My heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him this thoughts and senses guide:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides.

My true-love hath my heart, and I have his.

This day I married my Best Friend

Author Unknown

This day I married my best friend
…the one I laugh with as we share life’s wondrous zest,
as we find new enjoyments and experience all that’s best.
… the one I live for because the world seems brighter
as our happy times are better and our burdens feel much lighter.
… the one I love with every fibre of my soul.
We used to feel vaguely incomplete, now together we are whole.

First Love

John Clare (1793-1864)

I ne’er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete

My face turned pale and deadly pale
My legs refused to walk away
And when she looked what could I ail
My life and all seemed turned to clay

And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.

I could not see a single thing
Words from my eyes did start
They spoke as chords do from the string
And blood burnt round my heart

Are flowers the winters choice
Is love’s bed always snow
She seemed to hear my silent voice
Not loves appeals to know.

I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before
My heart has left its dwelling place
And can return no more.

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