Updated on: Apr 10, 2023
Many brides spend days leading up to their “I do’s” by picking the perfect dress, coordinating a color scheme, and looking through wedding readings to choose one that suits their vows. If they are a pandemic bride, they may also have to worry about social-distancing their guests and having temperature checks.
In this whirlwind of planning, this article is here to help choose a lovely wedding reading for your ceremony that will help make the day even more memorable. Whether it is a Religious Ceremony, Non-religious, or held over Zoom, we have you covered! Below is a list of all the wedding readings we acquired for you.
Wedding Readings for a Non-Religious Ceremony
1. Love is an Adventure by Pierre Tielhart de Chardin
“Love is an adventure and a conquest. It survives and develops like the universe itself only by perpetual discovery. The only right love is that between couples whose passion leads them both, one through the other, to a higher possession of their being. Put your faith in the spirit which dwells between the two of you."
"You have each offered yourself to the other as a boundless field of understanding, of enrichment, of mutually increased sensibility. You will meet above all by entering into and constantly sharing one another’s thoughts, affections, and dreams. There alone, as you know, in spirit, which is arrived through flesh, you will find no disappointments, no limits. There alone the skies are ever open for your love; there alone lies the great road ahead.”
Chardin perfectly describes how two souls intertwine through love.
2. A Stunning Quote from The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
“I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.”
Even ordinary people deserve to find a love that makes them feel divine, as Sparks points out.
3. A Marriage by Mark Twain
"A marriage makes of two fractional lives a whole; It gives two purposeless lives a work, and doubles the strength of each to perform it. It gives two questioning natures a reason for living and something to live for. It will give new gladness to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers, a new beauty to the earth, and a new mystery to life."
This beautiful letter from Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain) to his soon-to-be bride Olivia "Livy" Langdon shows how finding romance can transform your worldview.
Pexels
4. Harry’s Speech from When Harry Met Sally
“I love that you get cold when it’s seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes."
"And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
When you fall for someone, you fall for all their little quirks as well. In this classic rom-com, the titular character Harry describes this just right.
5. Love Is Enough by William Morris
"Love is enough: though the World be a-waning, and the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining, though the sky is too dark for dim eyes to discover, the gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder, though the hills are held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder. And this day draw a veil over all deeds passed over, yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter; the void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter. These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover."
As Morris points out, love is enough to pull you out of your darkest days and makes the world shine bright again.
6. A Lovely Excerpt from The Good Morrow John Donne
“I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
‘Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.”
For those who enjoy old-school poetry, this piece will add a memorable charm to their ceremony.
Pexels
7. A Letter From Johnny Cash to June Carter
“We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each others’ minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted. But once in a while, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met.”
Spending the rest of your life with someone may sound like a daunting task, but Cash puts it into words just how lucky those who find a forever partner are.
8. This Passage from Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words 'make' and 'stay' become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.”
Robbins expresses how adoration is a whirlwind that defies the laws of society and instead consumes you whole.
9. Jane Eyre 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, wraps my existence about you—and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one. It was because I felt and knew this, that I resolved to marry you.”
Every literature nerd will enjoy this stunning passage from the historical fiction novel.
Pexels
10. 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?”
What better way to ask for that “I do” kiss than with a Shakespearean-like sonnet?
11. How Children See Your Day by Sandra Cook
“Today you’re getting married; some say you’re getting wed
There’s crowds of people in our house, and strangers in my bed!
We had to get up early, take breakfast all together
Allowed to have the TV on to listen to the weather
Shower time was hectic, should have seen the queue
Girls were taking twice as long and air was turning blue
Hair was being straightened, perfume being sprayed
Nails were being painted, the boys of course delayed
Lots of make-up lots of shoes, sparkles in the hair
Pretty cards and parcels, flowers everywhere
Everyone had new clothes, Dad even wore a suit
Mum is looking stunning, and I look kinda cute
Posh car turned up at the door, took my Mum away
Left me with the other kids but told I couldn’t play
Lots of photos lots of fuss, what’s it all about?
Parties are for having fun, there’s no need to shout!
Mummy looks real pretty, Daddy’s not too bad
Someone here is crying but doesn’t look real sad
Lots of people laughing, sometimes very loud
Then it goes all quiet, lady talking to the crowd
Daddy holds Mum closely, putting on a ring
Says some words and makes a speech and makes them cry again
Mummy takes another ring and puts it on his finger
Says some words and makes a speech and then we hear a singer
Someone says a poem, lots of people clap
Waking up the funny man who’s taking a quick nap
Now we are all standing, watching them both kiss
They look so very happy, think they call it bliss!
Time to do some writing in a great big book
And with all those cameras, which way shall we look?
Is it nearly over, can I go and play?
Let's come back tomorrow, we can do it all again?”
This adorable short story details your big day through the eyes of your little ones in a hilarious way.
12. Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”
If you or your spouse are in the science field, this is a nice little insertion to the speech!
13. Wise Words from your Favorite Good Neighbor
“It's you I like.
Not the things you wear,
Not the way you do your hair,
But it's you I like.
The way you are right now.
The way down deep inside you.
Not the things that hide you.
Not your toys,
They're just beside you.
It's you I like.
Every part of you.
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings,
Whether old or new.
I hope that you remember
Even when you're feeling blue,
That it's you I like.
It's you yourself.
It's you.
It's you I like."
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was a childhood staple in many of our lives, so why not add it to the most important day of your life!
Pexels
14. This Quote from 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.”
This is for all the Friends fans out there!
Religious Wedding Readings for a Spiritual Ceremony
15. Genesis 2:18-24
"18 Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.'"
"21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.' 24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh."
Your partner was made for you by God, and this verse from Genesis points that out in a beautiful way.
16. Song of Solomon 8:6-7
"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.”
In this passage from the Bible, love is pointed out to be greater than all riches in the world.