Category: Inspiration & Resources

Next up in our wedding ceremony readings series is one for the romantics:

If you’re the type to well up over a big romantic speech or grand gesture, you may need to grab the tissues for these readings.

We’ve selected ten of the most heartwarming and tear-inducing ceremony readings you’ve ever heard. Get ready to have those heart strings pulled by these gorgeous passages on true love.

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My True Love – Sir Phillip Sydney

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.
His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides,
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.

The Princess Bride – William Goldman

Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches… I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids… I love you. Okay? Want it louder? I love you. Spell it out, should I? I ell-oh-vee-ee why-oh-you. Want it backward? You love I… I’ve been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn’t listen. Every time you said, ‘Farm Boy, do this’, you thought I was answering, ‘As you wish’, but that’s only because you were hearing wrong. ‘I love you’ was what it was, but you never heard.”

Soul Mates – Lang Leav

I don’t know how you are so familiar to me — or why it feels less like I am getting to know you and more as though I am remembering who you are. How every smile, every whisper brings me closer to the impossible conclusion that I have known you before, I have loved you before — in another time, a different place, some other existence.

I Carry Your Heart with Me – E.E. 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 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)

Time In A Bottle – Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day ‘till eternity passes away, just to spend them with you. If I could make days last forever; if words could make wishes come true; I’d save every day like a treasure and then, again, I would spend them with you. If I had a box just for wishes, and dreams that had never come true; the box would be empty, except for the memory of how they were answered by you. But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them. I’ve looked around enough to know that you’re the one I want to go through time with.

Looking For Your Face – Rumi

From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it. Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for. Today I have found you, and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they were not looking as I did. I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty, and wish to see you with a hundred eyes. My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold. I am ashamed to call this love human, and afraid of God to call it divine. Your fragrant breath, like the morning breeze, has come to the stillness of the garden. You have breathed new life into me. I have become your sunshine, and also your shadow. My soul is screaming in ecstasy. Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart, and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky. My arrow of love has arrived at the target. I am in the house of mercy, and my heart is a place of prayer.

Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the ‘blaze of passion’ often falsely ascribed to love. They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet. Perhaps their surrounding world, the strangers they met in the street, the wide expanses they saw on their walks, the rooms in which they lived or met, took more delight in their love than they themselves did.

Hindu love poem

Let the earth of my body be mixed with the earth
my beloved walks on.
Let the fire of my body be the brightness
in the mirror that reflects his face.
Let the water of my body join the waters
of the lotus pool he bathes in.
Let the breath of my body be air
lapping his tired limbs.
Let me be sky, and moving through me the cloud-dark Shyama, my beloved.

The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks

You are the answer to every prayer I’ve offered.  You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don’t know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have.

Love Sonnet 17 – Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

 

We’re not crying; you’re crying.
Did you fall for any of these readings? What’s your favourite romantic reading that we missed?

The third in our series of top ten wedding ceremony readings: 

Are you and your other half big book worms?

Honour your love for the written word by choosing a ceremony reading from literature. Page through your favourite books or choose from one of these romantic pieces of prose below.

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Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom

There are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don’t have a common set of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike. And the biggest one of those values? Your belief in the importance of your marriage. Love each other or perish. 

The Irrational Season – Madeleine L’Engle

Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature. To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take…If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation…It takes a lifetime to learn another person…When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

I have for the first time found what I can truly love—I have found you. You are my sympathy—my better self—my good angel; I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you—and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.

The Bridge Across Forever – Richard Bach

A soul mate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same… my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it.

Anne’s House of Dreams – LM Montgomery

It was a happy and beautiful bride who came down the old, homespun-carpeted stairs that September noon – the first bride of Green Gables, slender and shining-eyed, in the mist of her maiden veil, with her arms full of roses. Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, won after years of patient waiting. It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her – if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood – then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other’s keeping and both were unafraid.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then 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, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. 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.

Wild Awake – Hilary T Smith

People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.

The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo

When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke — the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. Because when you know the language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

The Amber Spyglass – Phillip Pullman

I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again…I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you…We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams…And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me.

 

Did any of these passages just give you goose bumps? We’ve got some!
Let us know what book you’d love to include in your wedding ceremony.

We sat down with Carisa Didoshak, Senior Event Planner at Pacific Yacht Charters, to learn all about getting married on one of the most customizable unique venues – a yacht!

All about the yacht

Tell us about the yacht

The Pacific Yacht is a 105-foot-long, three-level luxury vessel with a Main Salon, a Dining Salon, two full-service bars, an open-air Skydeck, a foredeck, and, of course, unobstructed 360º views.

How did Pacific Yacht Charters get started?

Pacific Yacht Charters began as Sunset Bay back in the 1980’s. The current owners took over in 2014 and took their time seeing how they wanted the company and the vessel to evolve. They began doing renovations and rebranding, settling on a new name and new look two years later. In May 2016, Pacific Yacht Charters was born!

What’s unique about Pacific Yacht Charters?

Well for one, we’re a floating venue! Besides being on the water, what is unique about us is how customizable we are. We tell our couples having weddings on board that this is their yacht. They are Captain for the day – they decide where we go, what we see and what we experience. So for example, you could have your ceremony on the top deck dockside, out on the open water or under the Lionsgate Bridge – it’s totally up to you! We are also a full-service venue which means you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the day. We can take care of all your wedding details such as decor, flowers and rentals.

Where does the yacht sail?

We have three iconic routes: Deep Cove and Indian Arm, Lighthouse Park, and Vancouver Harbour. But all of our charters are completely customizable. We can go wherever you’d like to go!  

Talk to us about the food and drink available on board

We have our own in-house Galley team, led by our talented Executive Chef Mardy Ra. We do offer menu packages but they’re all extremely flexible. Chef Ra enjoys sitting down with couples and building a menu with them. What do you want to eat on your wedding day? Any dietary restrictions we need to accommodate? What do your guests like to eat? What are your favourite foods? We also have a bar manager who loves to work with couples and can help them create signature cocktails, base drinks on their wedding colours, etc.

Serving cuisine native to the Pacific Northwest is what we love. We use fresh ingredients of the highest quality. Chef Ra loves shopping at farmers’ markets and on Granville Island looking for fresh and local fare. We offer sit down menus, buffet and plated, as well as cocktail style receptions with passed hors d’oeuvres and stations. Everything is completely customizable and we work with couples to ensure they’re thinking about all aspects of their menu.

Getting married on board

Why get married on a yacht?

Couples who have a real love for the water seek out Pacific Yacht Charters. They’re looking for a unique experience – something memorable and super customizable. It’s also a fantastic way to see and experience the city. We host a lot of destination weddings (couples and guests from outside of Vancouver), so it’s perfect for them to see the best of Vancouver while getting married.

What do couples love most about saying “I do” with Pacific Yacht Charters?

Couples always rave about the delicious food and attentive service! We listen to our couples and create event plans that are personalized and unique to them. We really want to make sure that couples are comfortable with their choice and get to know the yacht before their wedding. For more from our couples and other guests on board, check out our testimonials here.

Let’s talk logistics: What do couples need to know about getting married with Pacific Yacht Charters?

All of the info such as maximum number of guests, services included, costs and more is available on our FAQs page.

Stories from sea

With over 12 years of experience, how did you get involved in event planning?

I started working at Westwood Plateau Golf and Country Club as a banquet server and I absolutely fell in love with weddings. I worked there for 11 years and worked my way from server to bartender to assistant event manager and, eventually, to event manager. We were doing over 100 weddings a year at Westwood and I really had a chance to learn about all of the different aspects of putting together an event.

How did you get involved with Pacific Yacht Charters?

I was contacted by a recruiter who asked if I was interested in a new opportunity. By that point, I had done everything I could at the golf course and really was looking for a change. So I started with Pacific Yacht Charters (when they were still Sunset Bay) in April 2014.

What part of your job do you love most?

I love listening to couples talk about their dream day and being a part of making that dream come true. It’s cheesy but it’s my favourite part! I love witnessing all of the emotions of a wedding – from the giddiness of being newly engaged, to the stress of planning, to the joy and relief of finally getting married.

What is your favourite memory from a wedding onboard?

One of the first weddings we did as Pacific Yacht Charters was a destination wedding with a couple from New York. Being from out of town, they asked us to take care of all the details such as decor, flowers, and tenting. It was pretty amazing to see it all come together and was a true testament to who we are. It made me excited for our future as Pacific Yacht Charters.

As an event planner, what advice do you have for couples planning a wedding?

My first piece of advice: RELAX!

I tell my couples as soon as you get engaged to sit down just the two of you and pick three things that are important for both of you to have included in your wedding. So that could be food, the bar and experience or dress, flowers and photography – whatever is important for the two of you. And don’t lose sight of those things!

You don’t want to get distracted and stressed over other things that weren’t part of those initial three. If it’s not important to you at the beginning, it won’t be important at the end. So if you didn’t care about napkin colours before you started planning a wedding, you’re not going to care once your wedding is over.

I like to keep in mind that most of my couples have never planned a wedding before, so it is bound to be stressful. But that’s where I come in. I’ve helped to plan hundreds and hundreds of weddings. So I tell my couples to text me, email me and call me anytime. I’m here for them – to help ease their stress and bring their dream day to life.

written by Riana Ang-Canning

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For more from Carisa and her team at Pacific Yacht Charters visit:

http://pacificyachtcharters.com/
604 689 1227
info@pacificyachtcharters.com
https://twitter.com/PacificYachtBC
https://www.facebook.com/PacificYachtBC
https://www.instagram.com/PacificYachtBC/

Who says you can’t get inspiration for your ceremony readings from your favorite movies and TV shows? Not us! If you’re huge fans of rom-coms, can’t get enough of Lord of The Rings or can recite every Friends joke by heart, you should definitely consider a reading from the world of film and television.
Using a quote from a favourite show or movie is a great way to add a unique personal touch to your ceremony.  

Boy Meets World

“I wasn’t sure this day would ever come, but you were. I wasn’t sure love could survive everything we put it through, but you were. You were always strong and always sure. And now I know I want you to stand beside me for the rest of my life. That’s what I’m sure of.” —Topanga

Beverly Hills 90210

“I look at you and I see my best friend. Your energy and your passion inspire me in ways I never thought possible. Your inner beauty is so strong that I no longer fear being myself. I no longer fear at all. I never thought that I could find someone to love who would love me back unconditionally. And then I realized that although we are often apart, you are always with me, that you are my soul mate. You give me purpose when I feel I have none. Without you my soul would be empty, my heart broken, my being incomplete. I thank God every day that you were brought into my life, and I thank you for loving me.” —Donna Martin

Friends

“For so long I wondered if I would ever find my prince, my soul mate. Then three years ago, at another wedding, I turned to a friend for comfort. And instead, I found everything that I’d ever been looking for my whole life. And now here we are with our future before us, and I only want to spend it with you, my prince, my soulmate, my friend.” —Monica Geller-Bing

When Harry Met Sally

“I love that you get cold when it’s seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour-and-a-half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” —Harry

Sleepless in Seattle

“It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together…and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I’d ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car, and I knew. It was like…magic.” —Sam Baldwin

The Nightmare Before Christmas

“My dearest friend, If you don’t mind, I’d like to join you by your side. Where we could gaze into the stars, and sit together, now and forever. For it is plain as anyone could see, we’re simply meant to be.” —Jack Skellington

Star Trek Voyager

“Commander, I don’t think you can analyze love. It’s the greatest mystery of all. No one knows why it happens or doesn’t. Love is a chance combination of elements. Any one thing might be enough to keep it from igniting — a mood, a glance, or a remark. And if we could define love, predict it, it would probably lose its power.” —Neelix

Chasing Amy

“I love you. Very simple, very truly. You’re the epitome of every attribute and quality I’ve ever looked for in another person…I can’t stand next to you without wanting to hold you. I can’t look into your eyes without feeling that longing you only read about in trashy romance novels. I can’t talk to you without wanting to express my love for everything you are. I’ve never felt this before, and I like who I am because of it. There isn’t another soul on this planet who’s ever made me half the person I am when I’m with you. I’m forever changed because of who you are and what you’ve meant to me.” —Holden

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

“When I say, ‘I love you,’ it’s not because I want you or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I’ve seen your kindness and your strength. I’ve seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You’re a hell of a woman. You’re the one.” – Spike

Shall We Dance

“We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything–the good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things–all of it, all the time, every day. You’re saying, ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness.” – Beverly Clark

BONUS: Parks n Rec

“The things that you have done for me, to help me, support me, surprise me, to make me happy, go above and beyond what any person deserves. You’re all I need. I love you and I like you.” —Leslie

Not into a traditional ceremony reading and prefer something offbeat? Awesome! We love when couples are true to themselves and infuse their ceremony with lots of personality. If you’re looking for a ceremony reading that isn’t cookie cutter, check out ten of our favourite outside of the box options.

To Love Is Not to Possess – James Kavanaugh

To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one’s self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one’s self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another—and to one’s inner self.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten – Robert Fulghum

All of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.
These are the things I learned…

Share everything.
Play fair. Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Give them to someone who feels sad. Live a balanced life.
Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day.
Take a nap every afternoon.
Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Yes, I’ll Marry You – Pam Ayres

Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear,
And here’s the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking
And it’s creepy and it’s late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate.

Yes I’ll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It’s you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It’s you that has to whack him.

Yes, I’ll marry you,
You’re virile and you’re lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night!

It’s you who has to work the drill
and put up curtain track,
And when I’ve got PMT it’s you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,
I do, I do, I do!

Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog – Taylor Mali

Falling in love is like owning a dog
First of all, it’s a big responsibility,especially in a city like [London].
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 defence?
On cold winter nights, love is warm. It lies between you and lives and breathes 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

The Beauty of Love – Anonymous

The question is asked: “Is there anything more beautiful in life than a young couple clasping hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be anything more beautiful than young love?” And the answer is given: “Yes, there is a more beautiful thing.

“It is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey together on that path. Their hands are gnarled but still clasped; their faces are seamed but still radiant; their hearts are physically bowed and tired but still strong with love and devotion. Yes, there is a more beautiful thing than young love. Old love.”

The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams

What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.

The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones  – Neil Gaiman

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life … You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you.

I Wanna Be Yours – John Cooper Clarke

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat
for those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
when you want to sail away
Let me be your teddy bear
take me with you anywhere
I don’t care
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out
I wanna be the electric heater
you’ll get cold without
I wanna be your setting lotion
hold your hair in deep devotion
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
that’s how deep is my devotion

This is the Best Book I’ve Ever Written, and It Still Sucks – Jarod Kintz

With my last breath, I’ll exhale my love for you. I hope it’s a cold day, so you can see what you meant to me.

Close Close All Night – Elizabeth Bishop

Close close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,
close as two papers
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.
Each knows all
the other knows
learnt by heart
from head to toes.

Feature image by Natasha Priya

Even if you hired a band or a DJ, you’ll still be asked to pick some of the important wedding songs for your reception. Believe us, you’ll want some say in what song you play during your first dance or when you cut the cake. But where to start? Check out the top wedding songs for each of the big moments of your reception that need some background music.

Entrance

Most couples like to make a big entrance into their reception. This is your time to let loose and have some fun! Your guests want to celebrate the newlyweds!

Crazy in Love – Beyonce ft. Jay Z

Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough – Michael Jackson

Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake

First Dance

Without a doubt, the first dance song is the most important of all of the wedding songs. Years down the road, your curious grandchildren will ask you what you and your partner danced to on your wedding day. Choose a song that speaks to you and represents your relationship.

Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley

Everything – Michael Buble

All of Me – John Legend

Father/Daughter & Mother/Son  Dance

This is the part of your reception where you won’t be able to find a dry eye in the house. Everyone tears up during the parent and child dances. Choose a song that tells your parents exactly how much they mean to you.

Someone to Watch Over Me – Ella Fitzgerald

I Hope You Dance – Lee Ann Womack

Because You Loved Me – Celine Dion

Cake Cutting

The song you play when you cut the cake is supposed to be fun, cheesy and light hearted. You are absolutely allowed, and in fact encouraged, to play something that actually has the word “cake” or “sweet” in the title. So have fun with it and pick something that will make you laugh while you smush cake into your partner’s face!

Sugar Sugar – Archies

Sweetest Thing – U2

Cake by the Ocean – DNCE

Dancing

After all the business of dinner, dessert and speeches, it’s time to cut a rug on the dance floor. If you have a DJ or a band, they can probably handle this part of the playlist. But if you’re DJ-ing yourself or want some input on the playlist, make sure these dance-able tunes are played.

Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

Twist and Shout – The Beatles

I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas

At the end of the day, your wedding should be all about YOU. So if you’d rather ditch the slow dance for more time grooving to top 40 hits, go for it! Or if you want to have a special dance with your grandmother, have your dance! As long as the song makes you happy, it’s the perfect choice.

written by Riana Ang-Canning

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What wedding songs will you be playing at your reception?

Choosing wedding songs for your ceremony is no easy feat. You’ve already had to make lots of decisions from choosing your flowers and sampling cakes to picking the perfect wedding officiant (we know a few, if you’re looking). And now you have to choose wedding songs? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check out some of the top songs for every part of your ceremony and get inspired!

Groomsmen entrance

Traditionally, the groom and his groomsmen will enter the ceremony first with the officiant. They don’t always get their own song but here is the perfect opportunity to let your partner’s personality shine with something that shows them off.

Nothing Else Matters (Instrumental) – Metallica

Bring ‘Em Out – T.I. (if you really want to have fun with it)

Star Wars Theme (how epic would this be??)

Bridal party processional

The bridal party typically walks down the aisle after the groomsmen are in place and before the bride has her big moment. Remind your bridal party to enjoy the music and not rush down the aisle!

Canon in D – Pachelbel

You & Me – Dave Matthews Band

100 Years – Five for Fighting

Here comes the bride!

Most couples opt to change up the tune for the bride’s big entrance. All eyes will be on the bride and all ears will be listening for a special song to mark the moment.  

A Thousand Years – Christina Perri

We Bought a Zoo – Jónsi

All of Me (Instrumental Cover) – John Legend

Signing the licence

Phew! You’ve gotten through the nerve-racking part of saying your vows and now you’re headed to the signing table with your officiant and witnesses to sign your marriage licence.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole

Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Stevie Wonder

I Choose You – Sara Bareilles

Recessional

The last song you’ll have to pick for your ceremony is the recessional music – the music you walk out of the ceremony to. Don’t be afraid to have some fun and pick an upbeat tune. You’re celebrating the fact that you are legally wed!

Best Day of My Life – American Authors

This Will Be An Everlasting Love – Natalie Cole

All You Need Is Love – The Beatles

At the end of the day, your wedding should be all about YOU. If you’re going to be playing music, it should reflect your tastes and the mood you want to set on your day. So if you want to go old-school and play some traditional Mozart when you’re coming down the aisle, do it! Or if you’re skipping the separate entrances and want to walk down the aisle together, go for it! As long as the songs you pick and the ceremony you create make you happy, you’ve made the perfect choice.

written by Riana Ang-Canning

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What wedding songs will you be playing at your ceremony?

We love us some wedding movies! It’s so magical to watch a couple find true love and make it down the aisle. Everything is perfectly decorated, everyone is perfectly dressed and the music swells at just the right moment. Or maybe you prefer to watch a wedding movie that is all about the laughs and crazy hijinks. Or maybe you want a real heartbreaking tearjerker.

With so many wedding movies to choose from, how do you know which one to watch? Check out our list of seven wedding movies you have to see based on exactly what you need to get through your wedding planning.

If you just need to believe in true love….

Watch “The Wedding Planner” with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey. Remember this gem from 2001? Everyone was rooting for career-driven JLo to go with her heart and give in to the very charming Matthew McConaughey.

If you’re having a love/hate moment with your wedding outfit….

Watch “27 Dresses” with Katherine Heigl. Our favourite scene from this movie is when Katherine Heigl’s character models some of the truly horrendous bridesmaid dresses she was forced to wear in past weddings. We promise you’ll feel much better about whatever you’re wearing on the big day after watching this movie.

If you need to laugh….

Watch “Wedding Crashers” with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. This 2005 movie is hilarious and worth a watch even if you’re not planning a wedding. Take a load off and laugh at some of the hilarious antics that go down with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn at the helm.

If you need to laugh some more….

Watch “Bridesmaids” with Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph. This movie is amazing thanks to SNL graduates, Wiig and Rudolph. Once you’ve dried your tears from laughing, you’ll be grateful that your wedding party isn’t as disastrous as Lillian’s.

If you want something old school….

Watch “The Wedding Singer” with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. We love seeing 1998 Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore fall in love on our screens. Weddings set in the 80’s just seem so much simpler.

https://youtu.be/_bhU3NsCIDs

If your family is driving you up the wall….

Watch “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” with Nia Vardalos and John Corbett. Trust us, you’re going to feel so much better about your family drama after you see what Toula has to go through to get down the aisle.

If “I Say A Little Prayer” is your favourite song….

Watch “My Best Friend’s Wedding” with Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz. This movie has all of the 90’s nostalgia we love, a sing-along and a crazy chase scene. As long as you’re not worried about a best friend crashing your wedding, this is a great movie to watch.

written by Riana Ang-Canning

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What’s your favourite wedding movie?

We are so excited that Young Hip & Married was featured on the Bridechilla Podcast!

Young Hip & Married founder and lead wedding officiant, Shawn Miller, chatted with podcast host Aleisha about how to plan not only for an awesome wedding but for an awesome marriage. As Shawn says, “What good is an amazing wedding without an amazing marriage to back it up?” Too true!

Listen to Shawn’s episode here:

If you love what you’re hearing, check out the rest of the hilarious and helpful Bridechilla Podcast episodes and blog by clicking here. If you’re looking for a no-BS virtual bridesmaid with a great Aussie accent who will always have your back, podcast host Aleisha is your girl!

Not only were we honoured to speak to Aleisha once, but she invited Young Hip & Married back to chat a second time. This time, both Shawn Miller and Erica Miller took the mic to chat all things running a business together and keeping the love alive. After all, an amazing marriage takes work!

You can check out Young Hip & Married’s Shawn Miller and Erica Miller on The Bridechilla Podcast here.

In the episode, Shawn and Erica share 10 tips to prioritizing your relationship during wedding planning:

1. Include both partners. Your wedding day should be a combination of the two of you, not a solo show for one person. That means both partners contribute to the planning of the big day.
2. Learn to compromise. Practice listening to one another and finding the middle ground. If you can learn this skill during wedding planning, it will serve you well in your marriage.
3. Get on the same page about family and finances. These two big things can hugely hamper your wedding planning, so ensure you and your partner are aligned.
4. Lean on each other. Wedding planning can be stressful but it’s so much better with a supportive partner in your corner.
5. Go over your guest list. For every guest ask yourselves, “Is this someone we want to be a part of the start of our marriage?”
6. Focus on your vows. Your vows are the foundation of your marriage. Take the time to make them just right for one another.
7. Personalize your wedding. Ditch traditions you don’t believe in and add new ones that represent the two of your. Your wedding should be done your way!
8. Don’t neglect your relationship. It can be easy to get caught up in wedding planning and forget about one another. Commit to date nights and activities where the focus is not on the wedding.
9. Prepare for the comedown. The post-wedding blues are real and they can hit you hard. Talk with your partner so you’re both prepared for how you will deal.
10. With every wedding planning decision ask yourselves: How will this impact our marriage? If it won’t, odds are it’s not that important!

Planning a wedding can sometimes feel like a full time job. Except, no one is paying you and you still have to go to your actual full time job. You’re knee deep in seating charts, dress measurements and florist phone numbers. Your girlfriends are helpful and your mom is a phone call away but sometimes you just need a little voice in your ear saying, “You’ve got this! You are going to make it through and have an awesome wedding.” Enter: wedding and relationship podcasts!

 

Bridechilla

We LOVE the Bridechilla podcast hosted by Aussie comedian turned Londoner, Aleisha McCormack. As Aleisha puts it, the Bridechilla Podcast helps you plan your wedding, minus the bullshit. Aleisha gives no-nonsense advice and offers tons of support to her Bridechilla and Groomchilla listeners around the world. She welcomes guests from the industry and answers listeners’ voicemails. Check out the Bridechilla Podcast with your virtual bridesmaid, Aleisha.

Put A Ring On It

If you’re looking for some expert advice and insider tips, you’ll find them on the Put A Ring On It podcast. This podcast invites wedding vendors, experts and professionals who share their behind the scenes tricks and dive deep into all the wedding topics you could dream of. Put A Ring On It says they are the anti-boring wedding podcast and we would have to agree.

Engaged

We love that Engaged is hosted by a real life engaged couple. This podcast followed Kali and Ryan on their journey of going from engaged to their wedding in the fall of 2016. If you’re newly engaged, go back to the beginning of Engaged and follow along with their journey. They’ll take you through all of the planning and pressures that occur before a wedding and bring advice from other real couples too.

The Marriage Challenge

At YH&M, we want you to have awesome marriages just as much (or even more!) than we want you to have an awesome wedding. This podcast reminds you that there’s more to your wedded life than just the one day wedding. Listen up to The Marriage Challenge to get advice on how to deal with your in-laws, blending families, surviving the holidays and more.

How Do I Money?

How Do I Money is a podcast hosted by husband and wife, Derek and Carrie, all about everyone’s favourite topic: finances. One of the biggest issues in relationships is money but with Derek and Carrie’s casual and comfortable approach, you’ll be able to confront your money issues minus any awkwardness.

Headspace

While not technically a wedding or relationship podcast, we think Headspace is an essential download for anyone planning a wedding or starting a marriage. Headspace is meditation made simple. Each one of the podcasts will take you through a guided meditation, helping you to relax and reconnect. So when the stress of squeezing in your cousin’s last minute plus one is about to drive you up the wall, take a break and pop in an episode of Headspace.

 

written by Riana Ang-Canning