I love helping couples find different content and wording ideas that we can use in the ceremony to express what love and commitment are all about for them. And the assumption that including something that could be called a "reading" in the ceremony means that either A) a guest has to come up to read it and/or B) it is religious-focused or -toned is a common assumption to make, but would be wrong. Many of my couples choose one or two or three readings for me to include in the ceremony content and read myself, without anyone else coming up to read them. And since my couples tend to be non-religious and/or non-traditional, the readings chosen rarely could be considered anything but.
Did you read my earlier post with another favorite reading, "Love is a Decision"? Well, here is another that I am liking including, as are some of my couples. I tend to include this relatively early in the ceremony, maybe after my Opening Remarks.
Excerpt from “Wild Awake” by Hilary T. Smith
People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.