# Help with wedding readings, please! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757 "2007-07-22T17:25:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/21 "2007-07-23T16:58:04Z")
Just don’t use [Sonnet 130](http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/130.html) . ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/22 "2007-07-23T16:59:13Z")
Also do not use [The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock](http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html) . ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/23 "2007-07-23T17:00:29Z")
I wasn’t kidding, actually. My husband and I had that as a reading at our wedding, which was just us, immediate family and one close friend. Everyone cried. It was great. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/24 "2007-07-23T17:00:33Z")
You might also want to stay away from [Howl](https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/0/6f7dd8b9270db5c585256d0d001e0a93?OpenDocument) . ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/25 "2007-07-24T08:14:28Z")
[QUOTE=Shecky] It sickens everyone at the weddings. Even those that claim to like it still turn off their mental switch when that old chestnut comes around. [/QUOTE] Well, excuse ME for livin’. Thanks **Piper** and **Mangetout** for setting me straight on my reference. My apologies to the OP for missing the ‘non-Xtian’ part. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/26 "2007-07-24T10:36:20Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] Does she have a favourite love song? You can read verses from that. [/QUOTE] Well, not legally, you can’t. Most songs are copyrighted, both the music AND the lyrics. And since you’re reading them to an audience, that is legally a ‘performance’ and you should be obtaining a license and paying fees to the copyright owner. However, the chance that you will be busted for this is pretty small. But you are safe choosing old writings (pre-1923), which are public domain. - Shakespeare’s Sonnets are a traditional choice. As mentioned, avoid the obviously gay ones and pick an ambiguous one. - John Donne is another poet with lots of appropriate works. - Thomas Gray is another possibility. - Elizabeth Barret Browning. - John Milton’s Sonnets. - John Keats. - Percy Shelley. - Phillip Sydney. - William Wordsworth. - Dylan Thomas. - Amy Lowell or Emily Dickenson for Americans. (Again, avoid the obviously lesbian ones.) But frankly, from my experience at Weddings, it doesn’t really matter. Not many people are really listening. The bride & groom & attendants are too distracted by the ceremony to really pay attention, and most of the audience is bored by the ceremony and just waiting for it to end. That may help you to keep from getting too nervous about this. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/27 "2007-07-24T13:34:08Z")
Thanks you guys. I actually posted the OP from my vacation, so I didn’t have much time to elaborate. SIL’s wedding is small, and I have no idea what the hell she wants, nor does she. I am going to print out the 2 or 3 I think she’ll like and let her pick. Long or short makes no difference, nor does language. I am an actor so even a cold read would be fine. Thanks again. This is a wedding that feels rushed, so… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/28 "2007-07-27T01:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=Hello Again] “Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog” by Taylor Mali [http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=14](http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=14) Slightly humorous, mostly touching. [/QUOTE] Thanks **Hello Again** , that’s the one she picked! It really is perfect for her, so I appreciate your post. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/29 "2007-07-27T01:41:21Z")
Elza - Just an FYI (we used it, too) - > [@Yahoo article](#): > > [The funniest chapter in “One Perfect Day”](http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/39681) is about the demand for contemporary vows from ministers-for-hire in a nation where 40 percent of people have no religious affiliation. **Mead probes the origin of an Apache Indian prayer popular in wedding ceremonies – and discovers that it was actually written by a screenwriter for a Jimmy Stewart western in 1950.** While not authentic, it was apparently good copy, as the screenplay won an Academy Award. 😃 :smack: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757/30 "2007-07-27T02:25:52Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] Thanks **Hello Again** , that’s the one she picked! It really is perfect for her, so I appreciate your post. [/QUOTE] Yay! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-wedding-readings-please/412757.md?page=1)