Nichole Bertucci A Simple I Do - Michigan Wedding Officiant for Intimate and Elopement Ceremonies
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Quotes of love for your wedding

1/2/2023

 

Love Quotes 

Here are 10 love quotes that you might find inspiring: Whether including in your wedding ceremony or using them as inspiration for your ceremony or wedding vows quotes about love can be a great place to begin. 
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  • "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
  • "Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused." - Paulo Coelho
  • "Love is not about possession, it's about appreciation." - Osho
  • "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." - William Shakespeare
  • "Love is an endless act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is me giving up the right to hurt you for hurting me." - Beyonce
  • "Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It can conquer all things." - J.J. Watts
  • "Love is not about finding the right person, but creating a right relationship. It's not about how much love you have in the beginning but how much love you build till the end." - Unknown
  • "Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it." - Nicholas Sparks
  • "Love is not something you feel. Love is something you do." - David Wilkerson
  • "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Love poems for your wedding ceremony

11/29/2021

 
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When writing a wedding ceremony I try to look at each couples love story and determine what reading or poem may fit best with their specific love story. And not every wedding ceremony needs a reading or poem, but when they do, I have a few I've saved over time. Let us visit a one of my favorites. 


​
To Love is Not to Possess by James Kavanaugh  
I really like this poem because of this line "Love is to join and separate" 

To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one’s self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one’s self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another–and to one’s inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide
In the moon’s own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite a child’s scars
Or an adult’s deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be
Who they really are–and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide.

Wedding readings, how to

10/19/2020

 

Do I have to have a reading in my wedding ceremony? 
Who is supposed to read this reading? 
​Does it have to be from the Bible? 

If you have never been married or attended a wedding ceremony, heck even if you have you may not know how this whole wedding reading thing goes. Let me give a bit of insight as to how to select a reading for your wedding ceremony and who should read it. 

First let's begin at the beginning, what is a wedding ceremony reading? 

When drafting a wedding ceremony script I often reflect on what the couple has told me about their relationship and if there is a reading that fits nicely into this theme. If so, I will add a reading. Sometimes couples want to keep the ceremony short and we don't add a reading. Wedding ceremony readings are optional. 

You can google "wedding ceremony reading" and get so many results that the options seem endless, so how do you pick the right one for you? Well it's simple, start reading them and when you get stuck on one because it resonates with you for reasons unexplainable, or you thing its beautiful and reflects your own thoughts on your relationship then you've found it! As with everything else wedding ceremony related I believe your ceremony reading should reflect your version of love and your version of marriage. I have my favorites but some of my very most favorites have been shown to me by the couple themselves.

Who does the wedding reading? This is a great moment to invite that special person in your life to be a part of your wedding ceremony, to recite a reading you have selected during the ceremony. However, make sure this person is agreeable to the task, present it as an option, public speaking is not everyone's forte or comfort zone, so be sensitive to their own abilities and comforts when asking. Your Officiant or Minister will often times take the role and read any selected readings also. 

Wedding ceremony readings can come from anyplace, the Bible, poems, movies, books or music - but just don't ask me to sing...it won't' sound pretty.

So, here are some of my favorites - 

The Art of Power 
"The Buddha spoke about four elements that constitute true love: the capacity to be kind and offer happiness, maitri in Sanskrit, compassion, the capacity to relieve suffering, karuna; the capacity to bring joy every day, mudita; and finally, the capacity of nondiscrimination, upeksha. When there is true love, there is nondiscrimination. The pain of the other is our own pain; the happiness of the other is our own happiness...To make our love meaningful, we need to nourish our bodhicitta, our mind of boundless love and compassion...First, we learn to love one person with all our understanding and insight; then we expand that love to embrace another person, and another, until our love is truly boundless."

—Thich Nhat Hanh 

This Marriage 
"May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May it be sweet milk,
this marriage, like wine and halvah.

May this marriage offer fruit and shade, like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
our every day a paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.

May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcome
as the moon in a clear blue sky.
I am out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage."

—Rumi

From The Irrational Season – Madeleine L’Engle
But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.
To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.

Wedding ceremony reading samples

7/27/2020

 

Wedding Reading Samples - Non Religious 

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​Wedding Readings should reflect your love as a couple and should flow with the rest of your wedding ceremony. Be open minded when selecting a reading, something non traditional may be just what you love. 

From The Irrational Season – Madeleine L’Engle
But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.
To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.
From Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – by Louis 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.

A reading titled: “Love isn’t practical.”
Love isn’t practical. It isn’t meant to be easy. It does not appear on command. It does not let you fall for whomever you would like. It surfaces neither at the most opportune moment nor in the most convenient. It will pair you with someone you might never have expected. It will put you fact to face with endless obstacles. But, in the end, none of that twill matter because it is how you overcome its obstacles that will define your love. It may not be practical, but love is ultimately the best thin that will ever happen to you. 

​Every Day by David Leviathan
"This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. The person you love sits across from you, and you want to do everything in your power to make it possible, endlessly possible. And when it’s just the two of you, alone in a room, you can pretend that this is how it is, this is how it will be."

A reading titled: “Sooner or Later”

“Sooner or later we begin to understand that love is more than verses on valentines, and romance in the movies. We begin to know that love is here and now, real and true, the most important thing in our lives. For love is the creator of our favorite memories, and the foundation of our fondest dreams. Love is a promise that is always kept, a fortune that can never be spent, a seed that can flourish in even the most unlikely of places. And this radiance that never fades, this mysterious and magical joy, is the greatest treasure of all -- one known only by those who love."

Blessing For A Marriage
, by James Dillet Freeman
” notes marriage as a unique relationship. He writes as follows:
May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another — not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete. The valley does not make the mountain less, but more. And the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all-important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, “I love you!” and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery that is the awareness of one another’s presence — no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. 

May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

Love 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.

WEDDING READING WEDNESDAY

5/8/2019

 

WEDDING READING OPTIONS

I usually have two wedding readings within the wedding ceremonies that I write. I like to include one in the beginning that works well with the couples love story and another right after the vows, to give the couple a moment to gather themselves again; vows are emotional!! 

So, here are 3 of my favorite wedding readings for you: 
Love Lives; John Clare (1793-1864)
Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew.
I love the fond,
The faithful, and the true

Love lives in sleep,
The happiness of healthy dreams
Eve’s dews may weep,
But love delightful seems.

‘Tis heard in spring
When light and sunbeams, warm and kind,
On angels’ wing
Bring love and music to the mind.

And where is voice,
So young, so beautiful and sweet
As nature’s choice,
Where Spring and lovers meet?

Love lives beyond 
The tomb, the earth, the flowers, and dew.
I love the fond, 
The faithful, young and true.

To be one with each other; George Eliot (1819-1880)
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labour, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories.
From The Irrational Season – Madeleine L’Engle
But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.

To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.
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    Author: NICHOLE 

    Love stories are my passion

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Nichole Bertucci, Wedding Officiant in Michigan providing Justice of the Peace weddings in southeast Michigan. 
​Oakland County; Auburn Hills, Berkley, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Clarkston, Clawson, Commerce Township, Davisburg, Farmington, Ferndale, Franklin, Highland, Holly, Keego Harbor, Lake Orion, Leonard, Milford, Oakland, Ortonville, Oxford, Pontiac, Rochester, Royal Oak, Troy, Union Lake, Walled Lake, Waterford, West Bloomfield, White Lake AND Genesee County; Atlas, Burton, Davison, Fenton, Flint, Flushing, Gaines, Genesee, Goodrich, Grand Blanc, Linden - and more!

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