Sweet Nothings

My favorite wedding moments are the badeken and the chuppah. While it should be that "seen one, seen them all," I find most touching and inspirational. 

When the groom enters the room, seeing his beloved enframed in blinding white, her eyes fixated only on him, despite his hearty escort of his nearest and dearest. Her father blesses her; his father blesses her; in some happy cases grandfathers will be present for that touching ceremony as well. 

The chosson then leans in, perhaps clasping a single bloom that clashes with the multiplicity of flowers that already drape the room, and whispers a few romantic words in her ear. 

At this wedding, I saw her mouth, "I love you so much," and his identical response. 

Underneath the chuppah, the two gazed adoringly into each others' faces. And yes, they intermittently repeated the same refrain: "I love you. So much." "Love you." "I love you." And that's with my non-existent skills as a lip-reader. 

It didn't take long before I began to squirm. Is there no other poetic way to profess thy severity of feeling? With the length and breadth of the English language before you, that's all you got? 

Consider the hysterical scene in Singin' in the Rain, when the maiden attempt at a talkie implodes because, among other things, Gene Kelly messes with the script, opting instead for "IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou."

At the 2:32 mark. 

If contemplative silence is not your thing, make sure to be armed with a plethora of well-established verse or prose so there isn't another awkward Dueling Cavalier situation. 

Such as Shakespeare's 18th Sonnet: 

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

Or just stick to the last two lines. Very swoon-able. 

How about Shir HaShirim? That stuff is awesome. 

Groom to bride: Thou hast ravished my heart, my bride; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one bead of thy necklace. (4:9)

Bride to groom: Until the day breathe, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a gazelle or a young hart upon the mountains of spices. (2:17)

(Don't quote Shir HaShirim willy-nilly, since many of the praises are a little off by our modern frame of reference, like comparing her hair to goats'. But it must have been the equivalent of Hallmark back then.)

Or even song lyrics. 

You're my only sunshine

or

I believe in love, you’re my reason to be 
        — Matisyahu 

To all the love-sick swains out there, there's always copyright infringement. Please.