The Polka Dot Wedding Patterned People Remember Their Readings

To cap off the end of the first week of our Ceremony Issue, I thought I’d make it a little personal; a little closer to home. With such a tumultuous world climate right now I needed to get out of my head and step back in time. So I decided I’d bring you, dear readers, along with me. Our Polka Dot Wedding team has taken a stroll down memory lane with some of the ceremony readings from our weddings, and we thought we’d share them with you. Please enjoy, The Polka Dot Wedding Patterned People Remember Their Readings…

Image of Ms. Fleur De Lys’ Wedding

Let’s begin with the fabulous Ms. Fleur De Lys (aka Sarah) – the editorial assistant & media correspondent to end all editorial assistants & media correspondents. No, really, she is. Ms. Fleur De Lys chose the below readings for her wedding ceremony.

“A History of Love” by Diane Ackerman

Love. What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fuelled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love’s spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable? Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days…

The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being liked.

Images of Ms. Fleur De Lys’ Wedding

“Love Is Friendship Set On Fire” by Laura Hendricks

Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing, and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past. It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.

Image of Ms. Fleur De Lys’ Wedding

The submissions manager of our dreams, Ms. Floral (or Louise!), was married in the beautiful Miramare Gardens at Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and chose this particularly lovely love story as her wedding ceremony reading.

Image by gm Photographics from Ab & Lou’s Spring Garden Wedding 

“A Lovely Love Story” By Edward Monkton 

The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, HIS cage. Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur. The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words and loving thoughts.

I like this Dinosaur, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny. He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now. I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice. She is also a free spirit, which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur.

But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. He is also overly fond of Things. Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of Things? But her mind skips from here to there so quickly, thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on Shopping. Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?

I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for Things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual. I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old. Look at them. Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs. And that, my friends, is how it is with love. Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place…

Images by gm Photographics from Ab & Lou’s Spring Garden Wedding 

Our beloved client & partnerships manager Ms. Stripey (Carolina) loves the below readings for a heartfelt wedding ceremony.

“The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams

“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.”

“Marry Your Best Friend” by N’tima

Marry your best friend.
Really, truly find the strongest, happiest friendship in the person you fall in love with.
Someone who speaks highly of you.
Someone you can laugh with. The kind of laughs that make your belly ache, and your nose snort. The embarrassing, earnest, healing kind of laughs.
Wit is important.
Life is too short not to love someone who lets you be a fool with them.
Make sure they are somebody who lets you cry too.
Find someone that you want to be there with you through the darkest times.
Most importantly, marry the one that makes passion, love, and madness combine. A love that will never dilute – even when the waters get deep and dark.

“Wild Awake” by 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 a postcard glimpse of a floodlit statue or a skyline. 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.

Images by Bec Johnson from Lewis & Mary’s Intimate Garden Wedding

I, your “ever-grateful-for-your-guest-content efforts” specialty blog editor Ms. Rose (Mary!), chose these passages from two deeply emotional classics as the readings at my wedding in my parent’s backyard, 10 years ago.

An excerpt from “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” by Louis de Bernieres

Love is a temporary madness, 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 breathless, it is not excitement, it is not the pledge or promise of eternal passion. . . . 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. May your roots grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms fall from your branches, you find out that you are one tree, and not two.

Image by Bec Johnson from Lewis & Mary’s Intimate Garden Wedding

An excerpt from “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho

At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. 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 hearts. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met. She smiled and that was certainly an omen – the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life.

Image by Bec Johnson from Lewis & Mary’s Intimate Garden Wedding

A dear member of the Polka Dot patterned people, Ms. Honeycomb (Nicola), is a regular real wedding writer & a Polka Dot Made DIY extraordinaire! She chose the following readings for her wedding ceremony.

“The Vine and the Branches” John 15:1-11

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Image by Michelle Fiona from Nicola & Steven’s Chic Sydney Wedding

Colossians 3:12-17

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Images by Michelle Fiona from Nicola & Steven’s Chic Sydney Wedding

And last, but never least, the original patterned person of the Polka Dot Wedding family, the very dotty and delightful Ms. Polka herself (or Dorothy, if you please!). If there ever was a romantic, it is she. The following are words read at her wedding ceremony to the lovely Mr. Polka.

“We Will Not Wish You Joy” by Brian Zouch

We will not wish you joy on this great day,
For joy is in your hearts and goes with you
Along the fragrant, mystic, sunlit way:
We will not wish you joy while love is new.
But this is our wish: May you be strong enough
To shelter love, and keep it safe from harm,
When winds blow high, and roads are steep and tough
May you protect your love, preserve its charm.
When days are dark, may love be your sure light,
When days are cold, may love be your bright fire,
Your guiding star when hope is out of sight,
The essence and the sun of your desire.
May love be with you through the flight of years,
Then after storms, there always be calm.
Though you have cause for heartache and for tears,
Despair lasts not, where love is there for balm.
This be the prayer we breathe for you today:
When you have reached the summit of life’s hill,
May it be possible for you to say,
“Married long years, but we are lovers still.”

“I Like You” by Sandol Stoddard Warburg

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it’s special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, “Remember when you told me something special?”
And both of us remember
When I think something is important
you think it’s important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I’m funny and you think I’m funny too
I like you because you know where I’m ticklish
And you don’t tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
Sometimes we don’t say a word
We snurkle under fences
We spy secret places
If I am a goofus on the roofus hollering my head off
You are one too
If I pretend I am drowning, you pretend you are saving me
If I am getting ready to pop a paper bag,
then you are getting ready to jump
HOORAY!
And I like you because when I am feeling sad
You don’t always cheer me up right away
Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can’t stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things
It takes time
I like you because if I am mad at you
Then you are mad at me too
It’s awful when the other person isn’t
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose
If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one
If I find four, I give you two
If we only find three, we keep on looking
Sometimes we have good luck, and sometimes we don’t
I like you because I don’t know why but
Everything that happens is nicer with you
I can’t remember when I didn’t like you
It must have been lonesome then
I like you because because because
I forget why I like you but I do
See what I mean?
Even if it was the 999th of July
Even if it was August
Even if it was way down at the bottom of November
Even if it was no place particular in January
I would go on choosing you
And you would go on choosing me
Over and over again
That’s how it would happen every time…

Image by gm Photographics from Ab & Lou’s Spring Garden Wedding