"On Your Wedding Day" by Jennifer Leese

There are hundreds of fantastic poems and readings that you can choose to have in your wedding ceremony. It's important to make sure you have permission to use them from the author or their estate, but many are happy to have their works included as long as you mention their name.

I have lots of favourites and will post some of these over coming weeks, but first has to be the one we had at our own wedding - "On Your Wedding Day" by Jennifer Leese. It's a lovely poem, simple, heartfelt without being too gushy, and does really well as an early reading to set the scene for your ceremony.

Today is a day you will always remember

The greatest in anyone’s life;

You’ll start off the day just two people in love

And end it as husband and wife.

                                                  

It’s a brand new beginning, the start of a journey

With moments to cherish and treasure,

And though there’ll be times when you both disagree

They’ll surely be outweighed by pleasure.

You’ve heard many words of advice in the past

When the secrets of marriage were spoken,

But you’ll find that the answers lie hidden inside

Where the bond of true love lies unbroken.

So live happy forever as lovers and friends

It’s the dawn of a new life for you;

As you stand there together with love in your eyes

From the moment you answer “I do”.

With luck, all your hopes and your dreams can be real

May success find its way to your hearts;

Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys,

But today is the day it all starts.

Sand mixing symbolic gesture

Many couples are looking for ways to personalise their ceremony and make it a little different, while still maintaining the  sense of a traditional wedding ceremony. There's many options available and couples often come up with new ideas that reflect their interests.

It's great sitting down with couples and discussing ideas. I do of course have my own favourites. At my wedding we did the handfasting so it always has a special relevance for me, but over the last year I've had more couples express an interest in performing a sand ceremony, and I've grown to love doing it at ceremonies.

You choose two different coloured sands (IKEA is a great source for finding what you need) - one colour for each of you. On the day of your wedding, you choose a glass jar/bottle with a stopper, and both of you take it in turns to pour your sand in. It takes a few minutes but the guests are usually intrigued by what the end result might be. Once we've finished, we hopefully end up with something like this...

The third colour of sand in this picture was to include their child in the ceremony - so it wasn't just about our couple coming together, but all three of them joining as a family. 

And the symbolism... you can still see the different colours. Getting married hasn't stopped our couple still having their own individuality. But the sands can never again be separated, just like our couple (and their child).