Words of Love Whisper Softly to Me

For anyone who knows me well or has read this blog at all, it is fairly obvious that aside from Matt, my great love in life is language and writing. Often I think of a line from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night when Count Orsino (I may have that wrong) is pining away for someone he believes to be the Countess or Baroness Olivia, but is actually the shipwrecked Viola (okay, I could have that wrong, too--it's been awhile. Sorry. It's the line that's important, not the context) and he says "If music be the food of love, play on." That is how I feel about language; it's the food of love, at least for me. Well, except for food, which I put out in spades for the ones I love. Basically, I love a good sentence. (In fact, Matt's ability to turn a phrase in a way that was so original and so refreshing was one of the first ways he began to tug at my heart. He is really one of my favorite orators with his commanding presence and voice. If forestry doesn't work out, I hope he will become a motivational speaker or something. Maybe I will get frisbees with his motto on them. I will have to come up with his motto though.)

So back to language. When it came time to start planning this wedding, I knew that the specific language of everything--from the vows, to the lyrics of the music, to the invitations would be very, very important to me. Despite the fact that writing is my trade, I was not totally confident in my own ability to articulate my commitment to Matt and our new family together so I bought this book called Words for the Wedding. Though I put the link to it on amazon, let me save you a click. It's sort of a crummy book, poorly organized, and a little too dreamy for me--if you know what I mean (anyone want my copy? ha). The first page says some corny thing about what this woman would say to her spouse if she were getting married, but she isn't. Um, okey dokey. Of course, being a lefty, I perused it from back to front, missing the corny intro and thought: "Hey, this could be groovy. Here's my charge card!" So I don't know why I told you all this because with all that critical analysis of this book, I will now post stuff from it.

Why? Well as much as I am being a Cranky McAngrypants about it, the book turned out to be not *entirely* unhelpful, as I had access to a lot of great quotes without all those flashing banners telling me that I won a free iPod and if I guess a celebrity I can win a free cell phone (no thank you!). Though I still maintain that they were very poorly organized and odd. Like the category "sex" was included in "To Have and To Hold" as if someone is going to use a sex/racy quote in their vows?! Maybe I am too prudish? Ick.

So ickiness notwithstanding, I wanted to share with you some quotes that I found to be excellent, but alas are on the cutting room floor. Hopefully you can apply them in your own lives (but seriously, don't waste your money on the book if you have google).

This one I like because it seems particularly applicable to Matt and me, who got engaged after knowing each other about seven months. More to come!

"It is wrong to think that love comes from a long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations."
-Kahlil Gibran

Very satisfying, no?

Wish you were here (I'd read aloud to you!),
Wed Dog