Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful collection
Review: This book includes selections from many cultures and traditions. Contemporary and ancient poetry is represented, and everything in between, from the ancient Greeks to Native Americans, from Philip Larkin to the Buddha. The last section (of various cultures' wedding ceremonies) is particularly interesting. The many adaptations from the Bible brim with new energy. In addition, I found this to be a wonderful gift for friends, since Mitchell's selections are quite accessible. I wholeheartedly recommend it, whether you're getting married or not.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful when writing your own ceremony
Review: This book was invaluable to my husband and I when we planned our wedding a few years ago, though you will need other sources as well. I was finishing up college and he had begun his graduate program, so we were already extremely busy. With the help of this book we were able to write our entire wedding ceremony ourselves. I didn't have much experience with weddings, and I didn't know anything about the usual structure or components of a wedding ceremony. In the back of this book are many wedding ceremony examples for different religions or for a non-religious ceremony.I highly recommend taking the time to write your own ceremony. It is such a wonderful time before marriage that you can spend together exploring deeply what marriage means to you and what kind of ceremony you want to celebrate your union with. It helps to have lots of poetry anthologies and books of poetry by your favorite poets. This book is great because it has so many poems about love and marriage. We used many poems from this book in our ceremony. We also used a lot of Rumi poems. We even combined a few Rumi poems to create a beautiful reading that felt personal to us. We began the ceremony singing a Sanskrit prayer that meant "May all beings be peaceful and happy". It was nice to have a ceremony that was personally very spiritual and combined many different religions. We also had two friends compose music to two of "The Dances of Universal Peace" using Indian instruments. During the ceremony we also planted a rose tree. We always say our vows to each other because they are so beautiful, and on our anniversaries we read through our entire ceremony, and sing the songs. "The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you
not knowing how blind I was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along." Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne) Have Fun
Rating:
Summary: Helpful when writing your own ceremony
Review: This book was invaluable to my husband and I when we planned our wedding a few years ago, though you will need other sources as well. I was finishing up college and he had begun his graduate program, so we were already extremely busy. With the help of this book we were able to write our entire wedding ceremony ourselves. I didn't have much experience with weddings, and I didn't know anything about the usual structure or components of a wedding ceremony. In the back of this book are many wedding ceremony examples for different religions or for a non-religious ceremony. I highly recommend taking the time to write your own ceremony. It is such a wonderful time before marriage that you can spend together exploring deeply what marriage means to you and what kind of ceremony you want to celebrate your union with. It helps to have lots of poetry anthologies and books of poetry by your favorite poets. This book is great because it has so many poems about love and marriage. We used many poems from this book in our ceremony. We also used a lot of Rumi poems. We even combined a few Rumi poems to create a beautiful reading that felt personal to us. We began the ceremony singing a Sanskrit prayer that meant "May all beings be peaceful and happy". It was nice to have a ceremony that was personally very spiritual and combined many different religions. We also had two friends compose music to two of "The Dances of Universal Peace" using Indian instruments. During the ceremony we also planted a rose tree. We always say our vows to each other because they are so beautiful, and on our anniversaries we read through our entire ceremony, and sing the songs. "The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you
not knowing how blind I was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along." Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne) Have Fun
Rating:
Summary: Old, new and borrowed (not much blue)
Review: This is a fantastic collection of both sacred and secular poems: old (Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert), new (Frost, Larkin, Plath and Stevens) and contemporary (Olds, Milosz, Atwood, Bly). I bought it looking for an intelligently selected group of works, and I certainly found that. What I didn't expect to get in the bargain was an interesting introductory essay on the form and function of marriage in history, and a broad selection of ceremonies, tucked away at the back. In addition to Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and even Zen ceremonies, there was the aptly if somewhat puzzlingly titled, "Non-Theistic Judeo/Christian" ceremony. My fiancee and I had been wondering how to have a ceremony that was formal and traditional, without being either clinical (a civil ceremony) or inappropriate for two agnostics (a religious one). The "Non-theistic" ceremony is adapted from The Book of Common Prayer, but does not refer directly to God or the Church: it's just perfect for us. In summary, a thoughtfully-selected group of poems and ceremonies we'll be glad to have on our shelf, even after all the cake is eaten.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent and varied collection, not Christian centric
Review: This is the most useful book I found among many I looked at for writing our ceremony, which will incorporate buddhist and taoist ideas and language. The only readings collection I've found so far that goes beyond the Judeo-Christian/Western emphasis to incorporate Islamic, Buddhist writers and some poets beyond the usual suspects. The anthology features both long and short readings and sample ceremonies from a variety of traditions. I found it indispensible.
Rating:
Summary: great selections even if you aren't planning a wedding
Review: This was the perfect book for me. We borrowed parts of the sample ceremonies to create our own wedding ceremony. The sample ceremonies we used include a Zen Buddhist and a Zen/Unitarian/Humanist wedding which I could not find anywhere else. The Buddhist influence was apparent throughout the book. Many of the readings were quite wonderful and spiritual. I say spiritual and not religious, since many of the writings appeared to be appropriate for any faith.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book for those composing their own ceremony
Review: This was the perfect book for me. We borrowed parts of the sample ceremonies to create our own wedding ceremony. The sample ceremonies we used include a Zen Buddhist and a Zen/Unitarian/Humanist wedding which I could not find anywhere else. The Buddhist influence was apparent throughout the book. Many of the readings were quite wonderful and spiritual. I say spiritual and not religious, since many of the writings appeared to be appropriate for any faith.
Rating:
Summary: Great Ideas
Review: We found several lovely and unique passages to include in all parts of our wedding - from the invitation to the ceremony and at the reception. There are a few I didn't like, but lots of unusual passages and several that I had never heard. Most everyone should find something.
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