Introduction
Mark McMorris writes, "Tell me in short, Love, what is a wedding? / A
wedding is at once a crowded place / and a private room, packed with trusts /
and empty of all but the heart's letters / which one other heart may read and
decipher." A wedding is both a public and private ceremony, and so the readings
selected must be meaningful to the couple to be married as well as to the
family and friends who gather to witness the occasion. It is the address of
private words to the public, words that express the nature of love and enrich
the wedding ceremony, with which this anthology is concerned. In the editing
process, we sought to compile a variety of expressions of the love, commitment,
companionship, devotion, and trust of the marital bond.
In choosing the work for this anthology, we reflected on our own
experience and the amount of thought we gave to the select ...
read full excerpt from Bartlett's Words for the Wedding ebook
