The client I alluded to my in last post continues to make my life difficult and some negative feedback has really got to me. An hour ago I felt great, really positive and now I've totally gone into myself and have zero motivation. I keep finding myself staring off into space.
It's horrible how one comment can really hit you hard and have such an impact. I talk a good game but I'm terrible at taking criticism. Hmmmm.
Anyway, it's done and I'm not going to think about it any more. Instead I'll talk about.... wedding readings. TB and I having two readings at our wedding.
As the whole weekend is going to be quite a DIY affair and we'll need a lot of bodies to help get things set up, TB is having five ushers - and a best man. We need bodies, we've got bodies! However, I am only having two bridesmaids. My oldest friend that I spent every school day with from the age of 5 to 17 and my best uni pal who I was on the same course as and lived with for 4 years. They are both still my best friends and I am so lucky to have such incredible women in my life.
So when it came to choosing who would do our readings we ended up picking two friends that are more kinda on my side of the friends and family divide (not that there is a divide!). One is a best friend that if I had had more than two bridesmaids, would have been right up there. TB and I have holidayed with her plenty and she is doing a lighthearted humorous reading for us. The other is my sister in law. I love this girl so much. She is a peach. We're going to ask her to do a more poignant reading. The problem is, we can't find the right one!
I would love any suggestions anyone might have. We don't want (and can't have) anything religious (humanist ceremony). We don't want a rhyming poem. We don't want anything too long (or too short) or that has been done to death - I'm looking at you Velveteen Rabbit and Captain Corelli's Mandolin. We toyed with the idea of the lyrics to Chaka Kahn's Ain't Nobody. Trust me, it's amazing - Google it! I love it but I felt it wasn't quite emotive enough. At the moment the front runner is Edward Monkton's That Still and Settled Place. I feel like crying when I read it.
In that still and settled place
There's nobody but you
You're where I breath my oxygen
You're where I see my view
And when the world feels full of noise
My heart knows what to do
It finds that still and settled place
And dances there with you
We had ee cummings 'i carry your heart', which I adore beyond words (my second fave ee cummings - also see 'somewhere i have never travelled' - though it didn't feel right having a friend read that). I just read it again and got goosebumps.
ReplyDeleteOne we considered, but didn't read in the end (but instead strung up with the pictures in the tree, along with the other ee cummings) was also Roger McGough, 'Vow' (which rhymes a bit so may be out). It was really hard to find something which didn't contain a jarring word or line, wasn't hokey or cheesy or overdone, and which would be feasible to have other people say. Sometimes poems are too 'first person', if you know what I mean, to have a third party reading them aloud!
I was also going to suggest "I carry your heart" (can't cope with the lack of capitals but love the poem otherwise). My daughter Laura was going to have that at her wedding but it would have reduced me to tears (I carry HER in my heart) so she didn't.
ReplyDeleteLove love love That Still and Settled Place. My friends used "A Lovely Love Story" and when I just looked it up for this comment I discovered it was also written by Edward Monkton. It might be a bit cutesy for you, but it has a lovely message. http://www.itakeyou.co.uk/wedding-ideas/wedding-readings-poems/a-lovely-story.htm
ReplyDeleteI know The Prophet on Love or Marriage has been done to death but I love the one on Friendship. "Your friend is your needs answered".
ReplyDeleteI loved our wedding readings - one of which I posted on my blog on Valentine's Day: "Invisible Kisses" by Lemm Sissay. It rhymes but not in too cheesy a way.
ReplyDeleteThat Edward Monkton is fab!
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