Are there any secular texts about love, relationships or marriage that'd be appropriate at a wedding ceremony?

Well I am not sure if quotes count, but being a fan of Albert Einstein quotes here are two that I like

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"

3rd wedding? 6 months? Is your sister related to J-Lo? I can offer my personal opinion, but that herein lays the problem. This is ultimately about her choice, and she will do what she wishes. Perhaps she is more in love with the *idea* of weddings and the attention rather than seriously wanting to marry her partners? If so, this is a serious psychological issue that needs professional help. However, I am not going to pick on the bride, since I have no knowledge as to why her marriages failed. Perhaps it had nothing to do with her. I agree that perhaps it is her fiance who wants the wedding. Or maybe she really thinks there is no other "proper" way to get married. While it is true that some guests may be upset that they are expected to travel yet again and buy a wedding gift for yet ANOTHER wedding, some undoubtedly will want to go support her no matter what. Let her have her wedding, and leave it up to the guests to decide what they will do. Some will come and bring gifts happily, some will not come period. If she sees that most of her guests are not coming, she may even scale the wedding down herself. Who knows? The 3rd time's the charm, right? ;) P.S. I will also say that the divorce rates get higher and higher for each marriage after the first. She has a VERY high chance of getting divorced AGAIN simply based on stats. Perhaps she, like many others, needs to figure out the reasons why her marriages failed before jumping in headfirst into another relationship. It sounds like she should be more focused on her marriage than the wedding itself.

HI. I noticed the excellent suggestions, from ee cummings to captain corelli to anne bradstreet, and I actually have a webpage with those excepts, and a few more which might be useful for your sister. I put the link below, but you can write me privately and I'll just send you a doc.

Sonnets by Shakespeare are popular, but also by Pablo Neruda and WH Auden. As a marriage officiant (and a librarian) I have had people use very unusual readings - from 13th century chinese poems, to Jonathan Schell's the state of the earth, to a quote from "sex and the city", to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the Massachusetts Court ruling on equal marriage, to song lyrics, the I Ching, and anything else you love - that is simple, direct, and speaks of companionship, trust, commitment, and support. Keep the reading short, and if it's complex, consider printing the poem as part of the program or a giveaway, in case people cannot hear. There's also a charming book called "Wedding Readings - centuries of writing and rituals on love and marriage" by Eleanor Munro that I like, because it has some unusual literary entries, but of course there are many other collections - try online for secondhand copies (any 'wedding' related books get $$ fast :-).

My current favourite is this poem by Jose Marti:

El amor nace, Jose Marti

con el placer de contemplarse,

se alimenta

con la necesidad de verse,

y concluye

con la imposibilidad

de separarse”.

Love is born

with the pleasure of looking at each other,

it is fed

with the necessity

of seeing each other,

it is concluded with the impossibility

of ever being apart.”

best wishes! Mary

For my wedding I am having one reading, part of a poem, and this is it (I'm completely in love with it)...

Excerpt from Captain Corelli's Mandolin

by Louis de Bernieres

Love is a temporary madness,

it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.

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 breathlessness,

it is not excitement,

it is not the promulgation 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.

Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground,

and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches,

they find that they are one tree and not two.

We have "i carry your heart" on our fridge (e.e. cummings never used capital letters or any other punctuation) but if your sister doesn't like that, I'd suggest Kahil Ghibran, and his poem "The Prophet". It's very long, and she'll have a lot of text to look through, but the part on marriage is lovely...it goes something like this, "Be together but let there be separateness in your togetherness, as the separate columbs of a temple support the roof. " I've misquoted him badly, but his point is about how two individuals unite to make a new family,

I had an extremely simplistic wedding, so I don't know at which point you would read the text. However, htere are many different volumes of love poems in the world, most of which are entirely secular. Or you could go with one of Shakespeare's sonnets; those are always classic.

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It is a typical enough story: one partner leaves, the other stays. One remains 'in love', the other is uncertain. Whatever it is that has caused a couple to be apart, the one person who remains bears the prospect, fear, doubt, desire, hope of saving his or her marriage' alone.

I say you should play some R. Kelly! That's a wedding I'd want to attend.

But for real, I'll think on this for a while. The first thing that came to mind was Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband". She was a Puritan woman poet from the 1600s.

http://www.annebradstreet.com/to_my_dear_and_lovin...

The book by Kalil Gibran, titled, "The Prophet" has some lovely lines for ideas....

The best vows, wedding readings, in my opinion, are written by the bride and groom from their own true inspiration. Meditatie on what you really really like about the person and your relationship...

How about "The Blessing of the Hands"? It is really beautiful, click the link to read:

http://www.weddingtips.com/wedding-vows/hands.html

(She could just leave out the prayer at the end.)