Using a beautiful garden as a powerful allegory for your future together, A Garden by Tash McGill makes for an incredibly heartfelt wedding ceremony reading to dedicate to your partner. Symbolising a longlasting relationship evolving and strengthening over time, this endearing poem sees a meadow filled with wildflowers transforming into a mature, thriving garden able to withstand any hardships thrown its way: "From an oak tree that bends but cannot break in winter storms." A true declaration of love and commitment, this poem is a sweet depiction of a beautiful, flourishing marriage.

A Garden by Tash McGill

Today, my love – I am giving you a meadow.
A meadow is a wonderful place to begin something new.
We have seen this full run of seasons;
summer, autumn, winter and spring
passed over in each other’s eyes, held hand in hand
I know what seasons look like on your face
I am comforted, I am hopeful, I am sure.
So now in this summer, I give you a meadow
full of wildflower, full of promise
so we may begin in earnest.
Let me tell you – how I want to build you a garden here,
A corner devoted to each season –
There daffodils in spring, here falling leaves for autumn
From an oak tree that bends but cannot break in winter storms.
And every year, roses in summer
Blooming over and over, recounting the fragrance
by which I loved you first, and love you now.
I long to see the trees grow older and take their shape
Against the prevailing wind provide some shelter
For each sacred herb and flower, that may feed us
And to sit at the end of day beside you, always beside you.
Let us be entwined together, anchored securely in this earth
Never one removed from the other,
each bringing life to the other.
Today I am giving you a meadow,
Tomorrow I am making you a garden.

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