Today we are handing the blog over to our Graceful Bride talks readings. Take it away Vicky.
Our Graceful Bride
Wedding Readings
I had another post all ready and waiting to go but ended up changing my mind to write this in a fit of annoyance and procrastination. I’m currently sitting in a Gatwick hotel with a lovely view over a nondescript roundabout in Crawley and really should be re-reading the Air Asia accident report before finishing my biannual simulator check tomorrow but instead I’m doing the one thing that seems to take up most of my time at the moment, wedding readings! That and flicking through wedding magazines but that’s beside the point, I need the occasional break! 
See we have a problem, in one weeks time we’re meeting up with the vicar to discuss the order of service for the wedding day and we have nothing! It’s not from lack of trying, I’ve had millions of tabs open for weeks on end full of ideas, my Pinterest really should warrant a new board for them (favourites currently being filed under table plans/signs which annoys the organisational side of me!) but I still don’t know. I think Rob half wants us to write our own for people to read out and whereas he is quite wordy and good at that, I’m not. 
Case points being cards for birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries etc, his full of lovely heartfelt passages, mine going along the lines of this: To Rob, happy birthday/Christmas/anniversary, lots of love, Vicky. On the other hand I read, a lot, so have so many favourite passages from books and poems that I’d love to have included. Whereas they all mean something to me and I have a connection with them, Rob finds he doesn’t and that he can’t find one that describes the feelings he wants to get across. So we’re struggling. Reading from Phillip Pullman’s Amber Spyglass (one of my all time favourite books), deemed too morbid by my mum. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, too wordy. Edward Monkton’s Lovely Love Story, done by our friends last year. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Us Two (the Winnie the Pooh one), The Velveteen Rabbit, Shakespeare, Bronte etc etc seem to just be done time and time again so just don’t feel special to me personally. 
See we have a problem, in one weeks time we’re meeting up with the vicar to discuss the order of service for the wedding day and we have nothing! It’s not from lack of trying, I’ve had millions of tabs open for weeks on end full of ideas, my Pinterest really should warrant a new board for them (favourites currently being filed under table plans/signs which annoys the organisational side of me!) but I still don’t know. I think Rob half wants us to write our own for people to read out and whereas he is quite wordy and good at that, I’m not. Case points being cards for birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries etc, his full of lovely heartfelt passages, mine going along the lines of this: To Rob, happy birthday/Christmas/anniversary, lots of love, Vicky. On the other hand I read, a lot, so have so many favourite passages from books and poems that I’d love to have included. Whereas they all mean something to me and I have a connection with them, Rob finds he doesn’t and that he can’t find one that describes the feelings he wants to get across. So we’re struggling. Reading from Phillip Pullman’s Amber Spyglass (one of my all time favourite books), deemed too morbid by my mum. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, too wordy. Edward Monkton’s Lovely Love Story, done by our friends last year. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Us Two (the Winnie the Pooh one), The Velveteen Rabbit, Shakespeare, Bronte etc etc seem to just be done time and time again so just don’t feel special to me personally. Photo Credit: Edward Monkton
Then you look at poetry, I love some of Pablo Neruda’s but they’re probably a bit risqué. Do you go down the funny route of Pam Ayres and others, do you look to the classics, the choice feels never ending! And don’t even get me started on the biblical side of it! We’re getting married in church so have to have at least one religious reading but so many of them I just don’t like! We’re off to snowdonia for a few days between me finishing down here and seeing the vicar so my current plan is to just drive ourselves nuts reading out as many as I can possibly find in the hope that something clicks, I’m thinking to start in the car on the long drive up as there’s no way to escape then!! 
Photo Credit: Timothy Boomer
Some time later….
So after a week of discussions in various parts of Wales, (reading out bible passages sitting on Tan-y-Bwlch railway station getting some odd looks being a personal fave!) and we got there! I think we’ve got a good mix to cover all bases and our vicar seems happy which is good, trouble now though is we’ve ended up with 3 rather than our original plan of 2 so we need to find someone else willing to get up and talk! 
I remember the problems that I had with deciding on which readings to have. Thanks you Graceful Bride for your insight. ~ Kate
