Wedding Reading from Captain Correlli’s Mandolin

We love this extract from Captain Correlli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. We are fortunate enough to witness so many beautiful ceremonies and one of our favourite parts of the marriage ceremony are the readings. This is where you see personality, blossoming relationships and support for the couple. The readings are usually wise words written or chosen by friends or family, or readings chosen by the couple.

We’ve chosen this particular reading as it has such a lovely sentiment, it’s all about the growth of a relationship and how nurturing them is so important - the perfect message for a couple entering into a marriage.

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become 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 of us can convince ourselves we are. 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.”