40 Beautiful Wedding Readings for Your Ceremony

Words take on a whole new meaning when they're uttered minutes before your wedding vows. After all, this is the time to express your love for your partner as you tie the knot in front of friends and family. But it can definitely be tricky to find the perfect wedding reading for that moment.

Chances are, there are passages from literature, poetry, movies, or songs that have spoken to you and served to clarify what love, marriage, and commitment mean. So why not use them as readings?

To find your perfect wedding reading, think about what will mean the most to you as a couple. Choose something that resonates with your relationship or fits with your wedding style. An avant-garde wedding reading pulled from a favorite poem will flow beautifully into your modern vows. Did you see a movie on your first date? Check for meaningful lines from the film. Have a shared super-fandom? Tie in your favorite Harry Potter or Star Wars quotes, for example.

Whether your wedding is religious or non-religious, one of these passages just might be the beautiful addition to the ceremony you’ve been seeking. Read on for 40 wedding readings, from poems, literature, songs, film, religious works, and more.

Wedding Ceremony Readings Inspired by Novels

Whether you share a love for a particular novel or series, or just want to include something romantic from a classic work of literature, these are a few of our favorite readings from notable novels.

1. "From Beginning to End" by Robert Fulghum

The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, "You know all those things we've promised and hoped and dreamed—well, I meant it all, every word." Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another—acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this—is my husband, this—is my wife.

2. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by 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, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. 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.

3. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez

Madly in love after so many years ... they enjoyed the miracle of loving each other as much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn-out old people they kept on blooming like little children and playing together like dogs.

4. "Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey

A photograph couldn't ever tell its story. It's like something you have to live to understand. One of those freak collisions of fizzing meteors and looming celestial bodies and floating debris and one single beautiful red ball that bursts into your life and through your body like an enormous firework. Where things shift into focus for a moment, and everything makes sense. And it becomes one of those things inside you, a pearl among sludge, one of those big exaggerated memories you can invoke at any moment to peel away a little layer of how you felt, like a lick of ice cream. The flavor of grace.

5. "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

I have for the first time found what I can truly love—I have found you. You are my sympathy—my better self—my good angel—I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely; a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you—and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.

6. "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway

At night, there was the feeling that we had to 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.

Wedding Ceremony Readings Inspired by Poetry

Poetry is such a meaningful way to express your love. Try using one of these classic poems to inspire your vows, or to include as a full reading. You could even have a loved one read the poem!

7. "Love Sonnet 17" by Pablo Neruda

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

8. "Untitled" by R.M. Drake

You will be the clouds
and I will be the sky.
you will be the ocean
and I will be the shore.
you will be the trees
and I will be the wind.

whatever we are, you and I
will always collide.

9. "Untitled" by R.M. Drake

but dear,
don't be
afraid of
love, it's
only magic.

10. "The Art of Marriage" by Wilferd A. Peterson

The little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.

It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating
gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

11. "Always" by Lang Leav

You were you
and I was I;
we were two
before our time

I was yours,
before I knew
and you have always
been mine too.

12. "How Do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

13. "Love's Philosophy" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single:
All things by a law divine
In another's being mingle—
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

14. "Untitled" by Christina Rossetti

What is the beginning? Love. What the course. Love still. What the goal. The goal is Love. On a happy hill Is there nothing then but Love? Search we sky or earth There is nothing out of Love Hath perpetual worth; All things flag but only Love, All things fail and flee; There is nothing left but Love Worthy you and me.

15. "Buried Light" by Beau Taplin

Home is not where
you are from

it is where
you belong.

Some of us
travel the whole
world to find it.

Others,
find it in a person.

16. "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Wedding Ceremony Readings Inspired by Film and Television

Are the two of you movie buffs, or do you have a television series that you watch on repeat? These are a few of the best quotes to use from film and TV!

17. "The Wedding Singer"

I want to make you smile whenever you're sad. Carry you around when your arthritis is bad. All I want to do is grow old with you. I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches. Build you a fire if the furnace breaks. Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you. I'll miss you, Kiss you, Give you my coat when you are cold. Need you, Feed you, Even let you hold the remote control. So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink. Put you to bed if you've had too much to drink. I could be the man who grows old with you. I want to grow old with you.

18. "Friends"

For so long I wondered if I would ever find my prince, my soulmate. Then three years ago, at another wedding, I turned to a friend for comfort. And instead, I found everything that I'd ever been looking for my whole life. And now here we are with our future before us, and I only want to spend it with you, my prince, my soulmate, my friend.

19. "Sex and the City"

His hello was the end of her endings.
Her laugh was their first step down the aisle.
His hand would be hers to hold forever.
His forever was as simple as her smile.
He said she was what was missing.
She said instantly she knew.
She was a question to be answered.
And his answer was "I do."

20. "Boy Meets World"

She taught me how to dance. She was always talking about these crazy things and I never understood a word she said. All I understood was that she was the girl I sat up every night thinking about, and when I'm with her I feel happy to be alive. Like I can do anything. Even talk to you like this. So that's, that's what I feel is love... When I'm better because she's here...

21. "Frozen"

We’re not saying you can change them, ‘cuz people don’t really change / We’re only saying that love’s a force that’s powerful and strange / People make bad choices if they’re mad, or scared, or stressed / Throw a little love their way (throw a little love their way) and you’ll bring out their best / True love brings out their best!

22. "One Tree Hill"

Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always. A promise. Like a reward for persisting through life so long alone. A belief in each other and the possibility of love. A decision to ignore, simply rise above the pain of the past. A covenant, which at once binds two souls and yet severs prior ties. A celebration of the chance taken and the challenge that lies ahead. For two will always be stronger than one, like a team braced against the tempest civil world. And love will always be the guiding force in our lives. For tonight is a mere formality. Only an announcement to the world of feelings long held. Promises made long ago. In the sacred spaces of our hearts.

23. "The Notebook"

Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That's what it was like for me. I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of use could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory.

Wedding Ceremony Readings Inspired by Song Lyrics

Music is the way to everyone's heart. We love these romantic quotes inspired by some of the best love songs out there.

24. "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake

'Cause I don't wanna lose you now, I'm looking right at the other half of me. The vacancy that sat in my heart, Is a space that now you hold. Show me how to fight for now, And I'll tell you, baby, it was easy, Coming back into you once I figured it out. You were right here all along. It's like you're my mirror. My mirror staring back at me. I couldn't get any bigger, With anyone else beside of me. And now it's clear as this promise, That we're making two reflections into one. 'Cause it's like you're my mirror My mirror staring back at me, staring back at me.

25. "I Choose You" by Sara Bareilles

My whole heart. Will be yours forever. This is a beautiful start, To a lifelong love letter

Tell the world that we finally got it all right. I choose you. I will become yours and you will become mine...

We are not perfect we’ll learn from our mistakes, And as long as it takes I will prove my love to you. I am not scared of the elements I am underprepared, But I am willing. And even better I get to be the other half of you.

26. "There Will Be Time" by Mumford and Sons, featuring Baaba Maal

But in the cold light I live to love and adore you
It’s all that I am, it’s all that I have
In the cold light I live, I only live for you
It’s all that I am, it’s all that I have

27. "The Book of Love" by Stephin Merritt, featuring The Magnetic Fields

The book of love is long and boring. No one can lift the damn thing. It's full of charts and facts, some figures and instructions for dancing.

But I, I love it when you read to me. And you, You can read me anything.

The book of love has music in it. In fact, that's where music comes from. Some of it is just transcendental, Some of it is just really dumb.

But I, I love it when you sing to me. And you, You can sing me anything.

The book of love is long and boring, And written very long ago. It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes, And things we're all too young to know.

But I, I love it when you give me things. And you, You ought to give me wedding rings.

Wedding Readings Inspired by Children's Books

If the two of you have a children's book that means so much to you, consider pulling a quote from a favorite or a classic—odds are, a lot of the guests will recognize it!

28. "Winnie the Pooh" by A. A. Milne

If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart... I’ll always be with you.

29. "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams

It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.

30. "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you—the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.

31. "Tell Me" by Shel Silverstein

Tell me I’m clever,
Tell me I’m kind,
Tell me I’m talented,
Tell me I’m cute,
Tell me I’m sensitive,
Graceful and wise,
Tell me I’m perfect–
But tell me the truth.

Wedding Readings Inspired by Humor

We love the idea of adding a touch of humor to your wedding ceremony. Consider these sweet odes to inspire a little laugh:

32. "Love Me When I’m Old" by Bee Rawlinson

Love me when I’m old and shocking
Peel off my elastic stockings
Swing me from the chandeliers
Let’s be randy bad old dears.

Push around my chromed Bath Chair
Let me tease your white chest hair
Scaring children, swapping dentures
Let us have some great adventures

Take me to the Dogs and Bingo
Teach me how to speak the lingo
Bone my eels and bring me tea
Show me how it’s meant to be

Take me to your special places
Watching all the puzzled faces
You in shorts and socks and sandals
Me with warts and huge love-handles

As the need for love enthralls
Wrestle with my damp proof smalls
Make me laugh without constraint
Buy me chocolate body paint

Hold me safe throughout the night
When my hair has turned to white
Believe me when I say it’s true
I’ve waited all my life for you

33. "Yes, I'll Marry You My Dear" by Pam Ayres

Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear, and here’s the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed, when the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking, and it’s creepy and it’s late,
I hand you the torch to see, and you investigate.

Yes I’ll marry you, my dear, you may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble drier goes, it’s you that has to mend it.
You have to face the neighbour, should our Labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me, it’s you that has to whack him.

Yes I’ll marry you, you’re virile and you’re lean,
My house is like a pigsty, you can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner, which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas, you can cook it every night!

It’s you who work the drill, and put up curtain track,
And when I’ve got PMT, it’s you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages, but none of them for you,
And so before you see the light, I do, I do, I do!

Wedding Readings Inspired by Religious Works

Religious works often are one of the best places to look for romantic passages about marriage and partnership.

34. "Ruth 1:16-17"

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

35. "A Blessing for The Journey (Buddhist Prayer)" by Sensei Wendy Egyoku Nakao

Let us vow to bear witness to the wholeness of life,
realizing the completeness of each and every thing.
Embracing our differences,
I shall know myself as you,
and you as myself.
May we serve each other
for all our days,
here, there, and everywhere.
Let us vow to open ourselves to the abundance of life.
Freely giving and receiving, I shall care for you,
for the trees and stars,
as treasures of my very own.
May we be grateful
for all our days,
here, there, and everywhere.
Let us vow to forgive all hurt,
caused by ourselves and others,
and to never condone hurtful ways.
Being responsible for my actions,
I shall free myself and you.
Will you free me, too?
May we be kind
for all our days,
here, there, and everywhere.
Let us vow to remember that all that appears will disappear.
In the midst of uncertainty,
I shall sow love.
Here! Now! I call to you:
Let us together live
The Great Peace that we are.
May we give no fear
for all our days,
here, there, and everywhere.

36. "Love Is All-Pervading" by Shantanand Saraswati

Love is all-pervading. It penetrates everywhere and it is unitary. It is one. Moha is felt between two or more and that is what binds and brings them together, and yet it is felt as unifying. It removes the difference. The love between the so-called two is one. …

All demands nullify love. Love never decays. It is ever full, eternal, one, pure, undefinable, all-pervading. Unless one understands love in its unified grandeur, how could one love? Many think they love and keep on sorting out their affairs of likes, dislikes, priorities, hates and deceptions. Love is immutable, one without a second.

The worldly love is not love at all. It seeks approval of the parties. Real love does not do that. When it is aroused, it only offers and never demands. All demands have two parties to the deal. But offers do not recognize any other party and thus love never changes its color or form. Once in being, it remains the same.

37. "1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8"

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

38. "The Buddha’s Sermon at Rajagaha, Verses 19-22"

Do not deceive, do not despise each other anywhere. Do not be angry nor bear secret resentments; for as a mother will risk her life and watches over her child, so boundless be your love to all, so tender, kind and mild.

Cherish good will right and left, early and late, and without hindrance, without stint, be free of hate and envy, while standing and walking and sitting down, what ever you have in mind, the rule of life that is always best is to be loving-kind.

39. "The Zohar"

Each soul and spirit, prior to it’s entering into this word, consist of male and female united into one being. When it descends on this earth the two parts separate and animate two different bodies. At the time of Marriage, The Holy One, blessed he be, who knows all souls and spirits, unites them again as there were before, and they again constitute one body and one soul, forming as it were the right and left of one individual.

40. "Song of Solomon 2:10-13; 8:6,7"

My beloved speaks and says to me:
‘Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle dove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.’

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
all the wealth of one’s house,
it would be utterly scorned.

Choosing Something Meaningful

Whether you opt to include a song lyric, a poem, a passage from a book or TV series, or something inspired by a religious work, at the end of the day, choosing a reading for your wedding ceremony is all about finding something that speaks to you as a couple. Think about how you characterize yourselves as partners, and the things in life that hold a deep meaning for the both of you. Whatever you choose, it will add a dash of personality to the ceremony. Feel free to get creative!