Richmond Wedding Guide - London Borough of Richmond upon ...

Readings
An Apache Indian Prayer
May the sun bring you new energy by day;
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries
And the breeze blow new strength into your being.
All the days of your life may you walk gently
through the world and know its beauty.
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth for the other.
Now there will be no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion for the other.
Now you are two persons,
But there are three lives before you:
His life, her life, and your life together.
Go now to your dwelling place
To enter into the long days of your life together.
May beauty surround you both
In the journey ahead through all the years.
May happiness be your companion
To the place where the river meets the sun,
And may your days together
Be good and long upon this earth.
A Marriage, Mark Twain
A marriage makes of two fractional lives a whole,
It gives two purposeless lives a work,
and doubles the strength of each to perform it.
It gives to two questioning natures a reason for
living and something to live for.
It will give new gladness to the sunshine,
a new fragrance to the flowers, a new beauty to
the earth and a new mystery to life.
A Walled Garden
Photo courtesy of G. Thorburn
“Your marriage”, he said, “should have within it a secret
and protected place, open to you alone.
Imagine it to be a walled garden, entered by a door to
which only you have the key.
Within this garden you will cease to be a mother, father,
employee, homemaker or any other roles which you fulfil
in daily life.
Here you are yourselves, two people who love each other.
Here you can concentrate on one another’s needs”,
So take my hand and let us go back to our garden.
The time we spend together is not wasted but invested.
Invested in our future and the nurture of our love.
Extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
(The advice a father gives his daughter when she is
thinking about marriage) Louis de Berniere
Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like a volcano and
then it subsides. And when it subsides you have to make
a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have
so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you
should ever part. Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not
the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not
the desire to mate every second minute of the day. No,
don’t blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just
being ‘in love’ which any fool can do. Love itself is what
is left over when being ‘in love’ has burned away, and this
is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Your mother and I had it. We had roots that grew towards
each other underground, and when all the pretty
blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we
were one tree not two. But sometimes the petals fall away
and the roots have not entwined. Imagine giving up your
home and your people, only to discover that after six
months, a year, three years, that the trees have no roots
and have fallen over.
Imagine the desolation. Imagine the imprisonment.
Photo courtesy of Simon Lewis Photography
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