7 unromantic romantic wedding vows

1. Our Union by Hafiz

"You feel cold so I reach for a blanket to cover

our shivering feet.

A hunger comes into your body

so I run to my garden and start digging potatoes.

You asked for a few words of comfort and guidance and

I quickly kneel by your side offering you

a whole book as a

gift.

You ache with loneliness one night so much

you weep, and I say

here is a rope, tie it around me,

I will be your

companion

for life."

2. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

"i do not want to have you

to fill the empty parts of me

i want to be full on my own

i want to be so complete

i could light a whole city

and then

i want to have you

cause the two of us combined

could set it on fire"

3. Louis de Bernieres

"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like

volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a

decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined

together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because

this is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness, it is not

excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion.

That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what

is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art

and a fortunate accident.

Those that truly love have roots

that grow towards each other underground, and, when all the pretty

blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one

tree and not two."

4. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway

"At night, there was the feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together."

5. Warum (Why) by Erich Fried

"It is nonsense

says reason

It is what it is

says love

It is calamity

says calculation

It is nothing but pain

says fear

It is hopeless

says insight

It is what it is

says love

It is ludicrous

says pride

It is foolish

says caution

It is impossible

says experience

It is what it is 

says love" 

6. Rumi

"The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They’re in each other all along"

7. John Steinbeck's letter of his son

"First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away."