Lyrics for reading at a wedding

[u/mushr00mriver]

TLDR: I'm looking for lyrics or prose that would be good to read aloud at a wedding.

I've been asked to officiate a wedding for a couple of my dear friends. They are both people I would describe as embodying the ethos of folk punk, and one of them (Partner A) is specifically into the music genre. Partner A introduced me to AJJ, Ghost Mice, Ramshackle Glory and The Mountain Goats back in the day.

Are there any lyrics in this genre that would work for a reading in a wedding ceremony? (Non-religious, so this part would go in a place where people might normally read Bible verses or something)

Alternatively, even passages that fit this vibe from prose or other works of literature, would be cool. Things about life and love, or what it means to be in community, supporting and depending on one another.

Can be as short as a sentence, or a whole dang song! I'm open to suggestions.

[u/NKS-ShmeckleBoy]

You should totally try writing something yourself, a lot of the songs that would normally be perfect for this are written in first person. Something specifically about two other people would be real unique

[u/nitmire8881]

And we grow tougher than we feared

That we’d ever be forced to

And more tender than we had

Ever thought possible

-Peach by Pigeon pit

[u/cosmos_crown]

My spouse and I bonded over folk punk and we danced to Skipping Stones by AJJ.

The Mountain Goats have a LOT but I suggest avoiding anything from the album Tallahassee- its about a couple getting divorced lmao.

[u/Forgotten-Owl4790 → u/cosmos_crown]

Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp, and the weather's getting warmer 🥰

[u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta]

Come on, just take my hand, baby, let's go, we'll

We'll run away with nothin' but our love to show

We'll dance in the street with mud on our knees

And show the world we're everything they wish to be

Muddy knees, days n daze 

[u/bluxmaslights]

Literally anything from Nomad’s Revolt by Mischief Brew (RIP Eric)

[u/AnxietyAttack2013 → u/bluxmaslights]

That was my idea when getting married but my wife vetoed it lol

[u/BulletProofDrunk17]

I mean...stick with the classics....your heart is a muscle the size of your fist, keep on loving, keep on fighting and hold on

[u/EffieEri → u/BulletProofDrunk17]

This song makes me ugly cry, lol

[u/EffieEri]

I feel like some of the lyrics from Tarnished Old Photograph by Days n Daze would be good for something like this
“And your skin, it glistened in the sun
And what shown on the river, reflections of love
And the smoke from our cigarettes twirled through the wind
We twirled through the air and almost off the bridge
And you kept me from falling, so I kept you laughin'
The bird in the trees kept on rat-a-tat-tattin'
The water below us, it shimmered like gold
And I swore in that moment with you I'd grow old”
You can change the nouns and some of the wording to be about your friends, ie “you swore in that moment together you’d grow old”

[u/TinanaCat_]

I used these lyrics as part of my vows. The bliss by DND.

Life's a minefield a treacherous road
Call me selfish but I don't want to travel it alone
So burn the crutches and mend the bones
Cause we've still got so many miles to go

[u/Conscious_Reading804]

Some adaptation of the final verse from Tarnished Ol' Photograph from first person to third person might work. This song really got me in my feels during the covid-19 lockdowns when I was trapped away from my long-distance partner in our respective countries, mere months before I was meant to move to his country and get married (made it there eventually!)

"In this optimistic and fresh photograph
We'll stand and hold hands at the start of a path
And we'll look to each other and tell one another
"I love you, you won't walk alone""

[u/koi_roi]

Not necessarily in the same genre but I read this poem at a wedding recently by the great Irish poet Seamus Heany:

"Masons, when they start upon a building, Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points, Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall Confident that we have built our wall."