Wedding Blog
At a 7/7/07 wedding that I attended, I was privileged to be a reader at the bride and groom’s ceremony, which got me thinking about my own ceremony readings. Readings are an easy way to personalize the most important part of the entire day. One of my close friends will be reading a passage from the bible of her choosing, and I want to add one non-scriptural reading to the ceremony also. While browsing the internet, I found a passage from the children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit (by Margery Williams):
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“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 all 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.”
I love it! It’s so fitting of Mr. Eggplant and me, and The Velveteen Rabbit is a book I read over and over as a child. I’m seriously considering having this incorporated into our wedding somehow.
What readings are you using (or did you use) at your ceremony to personalize the event?
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I have been thinking about using that same reading! Also considering a passage from The Little Prince and the poem ‘I Like You.’
John Beckwith: 20 bucks First Corinthians.
Jeremy Grey: Double or nothing Colossians 3:12.
We’re having the section “on marriage” from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran read - it was read at my sister and my parent’s wedding.
Also, “Blessing for a Marriage” by James Dillet Freeman and the Hand Ceremony that was posted about a while back on wedding bee while our minister performs the Scottish hand tying ceremony.
Oh and the legal-shmegal stuff that is needed to get married in Costa Rica.
i’m having one of my readers do the Corinthians readings just for the sheer pleasure of referencing Wedding Crashers in a not so obvious way 
We used the Velveteen Rabbit reading at our wedding on Saturday! I think it’s a beautiful passage, and perfect for me since it was my fave book as a child. When I showed it to my husband when we were planning the ceremony, it made him cry a little I think it’s a crowd pleaser!
An excerpt from either the Lord of the Rings or another Tolkien book (our friends is choosing the passage) which is very serious (our friend thinks it sounds biblical because of the tone of the writing) and a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa (translated into English) which will be more light and playful.
The Velveteen Rabbit was one of the very first English-language books I read all by myself (any other ESL transplants?) and was a childhood fave. I even had a velveteen rabbit stuffed animal so that reading is def. in my plans also!
It is just so sweet and applies on so many levels.
O i love that as a reading! I also love the book “The Giving Tree” Not sure how fitting it’d be for a wedding but the message about unconditional love is the same.
I am considering a passage from The Little Prince. I haven’t read the Velveteen Rabbit since I was very young, how beautiful that passage is!
Oh my gosh, what a perfect passage to read! I forgot all about the Velveteen Rabbit but I used to love that book also and that passage especially. Mind if I borrow your idea? It made me tear up a little at the thought of having this read at my wedding.
OMG I am using that reading..I love that story…over all and I saw it noted on the KNOT so I am so……using it too=)
Laura, I teared up as well!
Miss Butterscotch, you have posted a real winner of a reading here. Right before I left for college my parents gave me a fresh copy. (another small tear…)
we’re using the reading, too!
That’s a great reading, Miss Eggplant. And it would be insanely cuter if a child read it (I was recently at a wedding where all the readers were children… it was so cute that I wished I had done the same thing at my wedding!)
Unfortunately that passage was spoiled for my by an ex-boyfriend who insisted he read it to me when I tried to break up with him :O (Can we say drama queen?) However, prior to that experience, I loved it, and I think it’s really beautiful and appropriate!
I worked a wedding where the father read that for the reading, i had such teary eyes that i was glad my camera had auto focus! and i was going to use that at my wedding to!!
We used:
Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog - Mali
From Union - Fulgham
Blessing for a Marriage - James Dillet Freeman
The ceremony was a highlight of our wedding, readings included!
I love it! So personal and sweet. I really like the idea of connecting to your childhood on your wedding day. Hope you don’t mind, I blogged about you doing this on my bunny blog:
http://dothehop.blogspot.com/2007/07/every-rabbit-has-its-big-day.html
Aww, my friend used that at her wedding last year. It was so great, too, because it was kind of a dreary day on the beach, but while she read the excerpt, the sun parted right over her head and shined down on her - it was unbelievably sweet!
I went to a Catholic university, and during my senior year I took a theology class called “Christian Marriage.” The class was long and arduous and the Jesuit priest who taught it was not the most pleasant man. But, on the very last day of class, instead of our usual lecture, he brought out the Velveteen Rabbit and read this passage, along with others. No girl left that class with a dry eye!
Here is a later portion of the story that could also be used…
“Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter. “
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Mrs. Eggplant, San Francisco
Age and Occupation: 28, Human Resources
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Associate Marketing Manager
Engagement Date: January 19, 2007
Wedding Date: October 20, 2007
Blogging Since: May 31, 2007
Venue: Ceremony at a cement and stained glass cathedral and reception at a boutique hotel ballroom
About Me: I'm a shopping junkie who lives to discover great deals and a craft addict that loves to scrapbook and knit. My profile picture was taken on the day I got engaged which is why my smile is so huge!
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