Something New : Alternative Poems for Alternative Weddings

Until recently, a wedding was no place for reinvention: everything from the location to the outfits to the language of the ceremony was decided by our particular cultures, religions and social expectations of gender and domestic roles; and of course, many of us were unable to get married at all. Now gay marriage is legal in Britain; heterosexual couples can have civil partnerships; we can get hitched in a yurt or a cave or on a rollercoaster. But the old traditions die hard, and despite these apparent new freedoms, the word `wedding' still retains so many connotations, controlling our imaginations in ways that can feel alienating or limiting. When it comes to the `wedding poem', even a Star Trek themed do, with guests in bumpy skull-caps, can still translate the same old Shakespeare sonnet into Klingon. This anthology aims to shake that up, featuring poems you won't find on any `lists' in your frantic Google search. Alternative poems for alternative weddings, be they small, huge, camp as Christmas, hilarious, glamorous, shot-gun, a third wedding held in a nursing home, or the low-key but profound culmination of a forty-year love. If you're looking for a non-cringey wedding poem, or want to be reminded of the multiplicity of love, this is the book for you.