It's just something nice to personalise the ceremony and say something you or the person reading it wishes to say about the day/ couple/ love/ etc

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If your having a civil ceremony and you don't have readings your ceremony will be over in a matter of minutes. For me it's important that the ceremony doesn't feel rushed through - it should be the most important part of the day.

We are having two readings the first is a poem read by my brother, he is my only sibling so all through my life growing up it has only been myself my mam and my dad so I wanted to involve them all in the ceremony. My Dad will be walking me down the aisle and giving me away, my mam is a witness and will be signing the register so asking my brother to do a reading is a perfect way to have him as part of the ceremony.

The second reading h2b is actually going to be performing a song on acoustic guitar, he is a musician so it will give a very personal feel to our ceremony and really represent us as a couple.

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Is it normal to have 2 readings then?

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They must think I was a mushroom in a former life..........
They keep me in the dark and feed me manure

It depends what you want and what the registrar allows as I think all districts have different rules- some may allow more or less.
But at weddings I've been to recently they have had two readings.

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I think ours allow us to pick two and the registrar does one. The last wedding I went had 3 read by guests, but I have been to another that only had one. They fill the ceremony out a little. When you go to give notice they should give you a load of paperwork about what you are allowed and it should say how many reading you can include, but I don't think you have to have any if you don't want to.

We were allowed up to four but I'm sticking with the two one of which is going to be read by my aunt and the other will probably be read by the registrar because no one from his side is willing to do one :-/

Xxx

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We're having two. I think it's a way of personalising your ceremony and making it more of an event than just "I do... right, let's party."

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I second exactly what Woollygirl said.

We had 2 readings, a 'serious' one before the main ceremony bit and a funny one at the end of the ceremony. A lot of people commented on both readings and said how good they were so we're really pleased that we included them. In fact, our Reigistrar got quite involved with the 2nd reading - the poem mentioned chocolate body paint (!) and after the reading she said she was a fan of chocolate body paint!! It was rather amusing and made everyone laugh!

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I think the other lovely Fetti-ers have already said it. We decided to have one to personalise our ceremony and because I don't want it to be too short.
We (well, I, ) wanted Dr Seuss' 'Oh, The Places You'll Go.' I'm not really one for being, hmmm how can I put this, all lovey dovey and emotional in public. If it was a love poem or similar then I would just hate it. But this really suited us as a couple and it's fun but sweet. We are the type of people who haven't really grown up yet and I do feel like there's a big adventure on the way.

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My venue/registrar only allows one but I just went to Geordielass' wedding and saw with my own eyeballs and heard with my own earballs that she had two readings, so I'm flipping well having two too!

Aw thanks ladies, I definitely want at least one now. I've emailed our celebrant to find out if 2 will work, I've found two we really like!

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They must think I was a mushroom in a former life..........
They keep me in the dark and feed me manure

We wasn't going to have a reading but when we heard from the registra before the wedding she suggested having one at the beginning so we could both compose ourselves before the vows etc. She choose a lovely one for us. There was only 20people to our wedding and it was perfect. Ceremony lasted 25mins approx but we included a rose ceremony which made it last longer. Wish i could do it all again x

Everyone on here has said it already but I'll add my two pennies worth too! Completely agree with Woolly and Katie that it's a way of emphasising the importance of the ceremony as it is the reason everyone is there that day. Civil ceremonies are so fast so it's a way of making it more personalised and filling out the time to make a bit more of it. Church weddings have a sermon where the vicar or priest talks about the couple, but civil ceremonies don't have this so much.

Depending on the district you can have one, two or three readings. All the weddings I've ever been to have had two (church and civil ceremonies). We are having three though as our whole day is based on our personal priorities - friends, family and marriage. So my four best friends are doign the first reading on the Importance of Friendship, then a mutual friend who has known us from the very beginning of our relationship is doing a reading on marriage, then the last reading is on the importance of family and is being read by another mutual friend who also shares that view. Hoepfully it should make it a very personal and meaningful service for us.

One of my best friends had a serious reading before the vows and a funny reading after the vows and it worked really well.

xxx

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** Became a Pumpkin on 29th June 2012 **