Wedding Readings: 40 Poems, Prose & Non-Religious Options
Your big day will come and go in a flash but thoughtful touches like the right wedding readings will shape your day and ensure a truly memorable occasion.
Usually delivered by close friends or family, but sometimes the couple themselves too, short wedding readings or poems are the perfect way to add meaning to your ceremony, set the tone for your reception or even serve in place of a traditional speech.
Something you or the reader has penned themselves is, of course, deeply personal but if inspiration hasn’t struck, we’ve rounded up 40 of our favourite non-religious wedding readings, poems and excerpts. For maximum aww-factor, consider asking younger guests to read a few lines about what love is (super cute!) or ask the members of your family who have been together the longest (hello, grandma and grandad) to read something together. There won’t be a dry eye in the house…
Ready to make ceremony magic? Let’s dive in!
What Makes a Good Wedding Reading?
The best kind of wedding reading is one that is meaningful to you and your partner. If you’re not sure whether something is hitting the mark, try asking yourself:
- Does this represent our relationship?
- Is it appropriate for our guests to hear?
- If it isn’t, can I change it to make it appropriate?
- Does it tie into the promises we’re making on our wedding day?
The beauty of the readings for weddings below is that they can be customised to reflect your own love story. For example, you could change the names of literary characters to yours and your partner’s. You could include lyrics from a meaningful song into your reading – or change up song lyrics to better fit your day. Change sentences, names, places and more until it feels like a perfect reflection of your relationship.
Short Wedding Readings
Hoping to keep it short and sweet? Below, we’ve got 10 short wedding readings that come in at less than a minute each.
1. Carrie Bradshaw in 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.’
2. What is a Soulmate – Emily Matthews
If you have found a smile that is the sweetest one you’ve known, If you have heard, within a voice, the echoes of your own, If you have felt a touch that stirs the longings of your heart, And still can feel that closeness in the moments you’re apart, If you have filled with wonder at the way two lives can blend To weave a perfect pattern that is seamless, end to end, If you believe some things in life are simply meant to be, Then you have found your soul mate, your heart’s own destiny.
3. David Rose in Schitt’s Creek
I have never liked a smile as much as I like yours. I’ve never felt as safe as I feel when I’m with you. I’ve never known love like I do when we’re together. It’s not been an easy road for me but knowing that you will be there for me at the end makes everything okay. Patrick Brewer, you are my happy ending.
4. Recipe For Love – Unknown
Put the love, good looks and sweet temper into a well-furnished house. Beat the butter of youth to a cream and mix well together with the blindness of faults.
Stir the pounded wit and good humour into the sweet argument, then add the rippling laughter and common sense. Work the whole together until everything is well mixed and bake gently for ever.
5. Your Personal Penguin – Sandra Boynton
I like you a lot.You’re funny and kind.So let me explain what I have in mind.
I want to be your personal penguin.I want to walk right by your side.I want to be your personal penguin.I want to travel with you far and wide.
6. Untitled – Christina Rossetti
What is the beginning? Love.What the course. Love still.What the goal. The goal is Love.On a happy hillIs there nothing then but Love?Search we sky or earthThere is nothing out of LoveHath perpetual worth;All things flag but only Love,All things fail and flee;There is nothing left but LoveWorthy you and me.
7. Gravitation – Albert Einstein
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.
8. Love is Enough – 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 be too dark for dim eyes to discoverThe gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonderAnd this day draw a veil over all deeds pass’d over,Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter;The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alterThese lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.
9. Wild Awake – Hilary T Smith
People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.
10. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
I love you also means I love you more than anyone loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also,I love you in a way that no one loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also,I love you in a way that I love no one else, and never have loved anyone else,and never will love anyone else.
Non-Religious Wedding Readings
Prose and poetry that work perfectly as readings for a civil ceremony…
11. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. And the great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. And even loved in spite of ourselves.
12. Marriage – Anon
Marriage is about giving and takingAnd forging and forsakingKissing and loving and pushing and shovingCaring and sharing and screaming and swearing
About being together whatever the weatherAbout being driven to the end of your tetherAbout sweetness and kindnessAnd wisdom and blindness
It’s about being strong when you’re feeling quite weakIt’s about saying nothing when you’re dying to speakIt’s about being wrong when you know you are rightIt’s about giving in before there’s a fightIt’s about you two living as cheaply as one(you can give us a call if you know how that’s done!)
Never heeding advice that was always well meantNever counting the cost until it’s all spentAnd for you two today it’s about to beginAnd for all that the two of you had to put inSome days filled with joy, and some days with sadnessToo late you’ll discover that marriage is madness.
13. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
At night, there was the feeling that we had 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.
14. The Beauty of Love – Anon
The question is asked: “Is there anything more beautiful in life than a young couple clasping hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be anything more beautiful than young love?” And the answer is given: “Yes, there is a more beautiful thing.
“It is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey together on that path. Their hands are gnarled but still clasped; their faces are seamed but still radiant; their hearts are physically bowed and tired but still strong with love and devotion. Yes, there is a more beautiful thing than young love. Old love.”
15. Never Marry But For Love – William Penn
Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely. He that minds a body and not a soul has not the better part of that relationship and will consequently lack the noblest comfort of a married life.
Between a man and his wife, nothing ought to rule but love. As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.
A husband and wife that love one another show their children that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families by the contempt of one another and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples.
Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection; it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.
Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure, where the field is large and full of variety, and of an enduring nature; sickness, poverty or disgrace being not able to shake it because it is not under the moving influences of worldly contingencies.
Nothing can be more entire and without reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented than such a couple, nor greater temporal felicity than to be one of them.
16. The Meaning of True Love – Anon
The meaning of true love isn’t found in a bookOr explained in a word or a phrase.It can’t be defined in a casual thoughtOr explained in the simplest of ways.Love gives only itself, it does not possessYet creates a bond strong and true.Love does not demand, it stays young and freeYet grows with you all your life through.Love isn’t a fashion, a trend or a whimThat’s forgotten or just cast aside.Love is constant, fulfilling your hopes and your dreams,It doesn’t destroy or divide.Love isn’t accusing, it does not condemnAnd though some may say it is blind;Love is trusting, forgiving and honestBecause it lives in the heart – not the mind.Love is not bought or sold, it’s not borrowedOr has a price you would willingly pay.Love is a gift that can only be keptAs long as it’s given away.
Romantic Wedding Readings
Looking for something that will make you feel a bit fuzzy inside? These romantic readings for weddings could be perfect. Cue the rustle of tissue packets…
17. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières
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.
18. All I Know About Love – Neil Gaiman
This is everything I have to tell you about love: nothing.This is everything I’ve learned about marriage: nothing.
Only that the world out there is complicated,and there are beasts in the night, and delight and pain,and the only thing that makes it okay, sometimes,is to reach out a hand in the darkness and find another hand to squeeze,and not to be alone.
It’s not the kisses, or never just the kisses: it’s what they mean.Somebody’s got your back.Somebody knows your worst self and somehow doesn’t want to rescue youor send for the army to rescue them.
It’s not two broken halves becoming one.It’s the light from a distant lighthouse bringing you both safely homebecause home is wherever you are both together.
So this is everything I have to tell you about love and marriage: nothing,like a book without pages or a forest without trees.
Because there are things you cannot know before you experience them.Because no study can prepare you for the joys or the trials.Because nobody else’s love, nobody else’s marriage, is like yours,and it’s a road you can only learn by walking it,a dance you cannot be taught,a song that did not exist before you began, together, to sing.
And because in the darkness you will reach out a hand,not knowing for certain if someone else is even there.And your hands will meet,and then neither of you will ever need to be alone again.
And that’s all I know about love.
19. De Imitatio Christi – Thomas à Kempis
Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls.
Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle.
20. Harry Burns in When Harry Met Sally
I love that you get cold when it’s 71 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 realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
21. She’s Not Perfect – Bob Marley
She’s not perfect — you aren’t either, and the two of you may never be perfect together — but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break — her heart. So don’t hurt her, don’t change her, don’t analyse and don’t expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she’s not there.
22. If I Should Fall Behind – Bruce Springsteen
We said we’d walk together, baby, come what mayThat come the twilight should we lose our wayIf as we’re walking a hand should slip freeI’ll wait for you, should I fall behind, wait for me.
We swore we’d travel, darlin’, side by sideWe’d help each other stay in strideBut each lover’s steps fall so differentlyBut I’ll wait for you, and if I should fall behind, wait for me.
Now everyone dreams of love lasting and trueOh, but you and I know what this world can doSo let’s make our steps clear that the other may seeAnd I’ll wait for you, and if I should fall behind, wait for me.
Now there’s a beautiful river in the valley aheadThere ‘neath the oak’s bough soon we will be wedShould we lose each other in the shadow of the evening treesI’ll wait for you, should I fall behind, wait for me
Darlin’ I’ll wait for you, and should I fall behind, wait for me
Funny Wedding Readings
Don’t be afraid to choose something humorous, just ensure it’s appropriate to avoid any Gavin and Stacey-style squirming! Below are some of our favourite funny wedding readings sure to bring a smile to your guests’ faces
23. Yes, I’ll Marry You – Pam Ayres
Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear,And here’s the reason why;So I can push you out of bedWhen the baby starts to cry,And if we hear a knockingAnd it’s creepy and it’s late,I hand you the torch you see,And you investigate.
Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear,You may not apprehend it,But when the tumble-drier goesIt’s you that has to mend it,You have to face the neighbourShould our Labrador attack him,And if a drunkard fondles meIt’s you that has to whack him.
Yes, I’ll marry you,You’re virile and you’re lean,My house is like a pigstyYou can help to keep it clean.That sexy little dinnerWhich you served by candlelight,As I do chipolatas,You can cook it every night!
It’s you who has to 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.
24. Grow Old With You from The Wedding Singer
I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sadCarry you around when your arthritis is badAll I wanna do is grow old with you
I’ll get your medicine when your tummy achesBuild you a fire if the furnace breaksOh, it could be so nice, growing old with you
I’ll miss youKiss youGive you my coat when you are cold
Need youFeed youEven let you hold the remote control
So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sinkPut you to bed when you’ve had too much to drinkOh, I could be the man who grows old with youI wanna grow old with you
25. The Giraffe and the Monkey – Daniel Thompson
Wherever we goWhatever we doWhenever there’s meI hope that there’s you.
Now money is funny, it can make people odd.You forget to be happy, and you live for your jobAnd fashion, is a passion, beset with a flawYou can dress to excess, but you’ll always need more.
And a muscle toned body, may sound like a dreamBut no body is better, than chocolate ice cream.
What I’m trying to say, is that happiness growsNot through your wages, or body or clothes.
But in laughter and love, and in sharing your life.In the arms of another as husband and wife.
So when you find someone who’s weird just like youWho laughs when you’re stupid and who makes you laugh too.
When you sit on the sofa, not hiding your flaws.As imperfectly perfect, as the hand that holds yours.When the fortune of kings, or purse of a beggarWon’t change how it feels, just being together.
When a cuddle and cuppa is all that you need….
Well then…you’ve found something quite special indeed.
Wherever we goWhatever we doWhenever there’s meI hope that there’s you.
26. The Priest in Fleabag
It turns out it’s quite hard to come up with something original about love, but I’ve had a go. Love is awful. It’s awful. It’s painful. It’s frightening. It makes you doubt yourself, judge yourself, distance yourself from the other people in your life. It makes you selfish. It makes you creepy, makes you obsessed with your hair, makes you cruel, makes you say and do things you never thought you would do. It’s all any of us want, and it’s hell when we get there. So no wonder it’s something we don’t want to do on our own. I was taught if we’re born with love then life is about choosing the right place to put it. People talk about that a lot, feeling right when it feels right, it’s easy. But I’m not sure that’s true. It takes strength to know what’s right. And love isn’t something that weak people do. Being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope. I think what they mean is, when you find somebody that you love, it feels like hope.
27. Loser – Julian Moon
Drink my tea while you read.Friday night, that’s all I need.There’s a little bit of loser in us.Just two weirdos who fell in love.I guess we’re made from the same weird stuff.Being a loser with you doesn’t suck.
28.A Word To Husbands – Ogden Nash
To keep your marriage brimming,With love in the loving cup,Whenever you’re wrong admit it;Whenever you’re right shut up.
Wedding Poems
Poems about love and marriage make perfect wedding readings and could even work as wedding vows, too.
29. The Art of Marriage – Wilfred A Peterson
A good marriage must be created.In the marriage, 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 each day,It is never going to sleep angry.It is having a mutual sense of values and objectives.It is standing together and facing the world.It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each person can grow.It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.It is not only marrying the right person,It is being the right partner.
30. Vow – Roger McGoughI vow to honour the commitment made this dayWhich, unlike the flowers and the cake,Will not wither or decay. A promise, not to obeyBut to respond joyfully, to forgive and to console,For once incomplete, we now are whole.
I vow to bear in mind that if, at timesThings seem to go from bad to worse,They also go from bad to better.The lost purse is handed in, the letterContains wonderful news. Trains run on time,Hurricanes run out of breath, floods subside,And toast lands jam-side up.
And with this ring, my final vow:To recall, whatever the future may bring,The love I feel for you now.
31. The One – Unknown
When the one whose hand you’re holdingIs the one who holds your heartWhen the one whose eyes you gaze intoGives your hopes and dreams their start,When the one you think of first and lastIs the one who holds you tight,And the things you plan togetherMake the whole world seem just right,When the one whom you believe inPuts their faith and trust in you,You’ve found the one and only loveYou’ll share your whole life through.
32. These I Can Promise – Mark Twain
I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold;I cannot promise you an easy pathwayThat leads away from change or growing old.But I can promise all my heart’s devotion;A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;A love that’s ever true and ever growing;A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.
33. A Vow – Wendy Cope
I cannot promise never to be angry;I cannot promise always to be kind.You know what you’re taking on, my darlingIt’s only at the start that love is blind.And yet I’m still the one you want to be withAnd you’re the one for me – of that, I’m sure.You’re my closest friend, my favourite person,The lover and the home I’ve waited for.I cannot promise that I will deserve youFrom this day on. I hope to pass that test.I love you, and I want to make you happy.I promise I will do my very best.
34. Love Listen – Ann GrayLet’s love, listen, take timewhen time is all we have.Let’s be unafraid to be kind,learn to disregard the badif the good outweighs it daily.Let’s make a gift of silence,the day’s hushing into dark,and when we hold each otherlet’s always be astonishedwe are where we want to be.Let’s hope to age together,but if we can’t, let’s promise nowto remember how we shonewhen we were at our best,when we were most ourselves.
Wedding Readings From Books & Literature
These extracts from books and literature are a touching – and sometimes light-hearted way – to celebrate love. Watch out for a few wobbling lower lips!
35. 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, wrap my existence about you — and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.
36. The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman
I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… we’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… and when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight…
37. Everything I Know About Love – Dolly Alderton
I know that love can be loud and jubilant… It can be dancing in the swampy mud and the pouring rain at a festival and shouting “YOU ARE AMAZING” over the band. It’s introducing them to your colleagues at a work event and basking in pride as they make people laugh and make you look lovable just by dint of being loved by them.
It’s laughing until you wheeze.
It’s waking up in a country neither of you have been in before.
It’s skinny-dipping at dawn.
It’s walking along the street together on a Saturday night and feeling an entire city is yours.
It’s a big, beautiful, ebullient force of nature.
I also know that love is a pretty quiet thing.
It’s lying on the sofa together drinking coffee, talking about where you’re going to go that morning to drink more coffee.
It’s folding down pages of books you think they’d find interesting.
It’s hanging up their laundry when they leave the house having moronically forgotten to take it out of the washing machine.
It’s saying ‘You’re safer here than in a car’ as they hyperventilate on an EasyJet flight to Dublin. It’s the texts: ‘Hope your day goes well’, ‘How did today go?’, ‘Thinking of you today’ and ‘Picked up loo roll’. I know that love happens under the splendour of moon and stars and fireworks and sunsets, but it also happens when you’re lying on blow-up airbeds in a childhood bedroom, sitting in A&E or in the queue for a passport, or in a traffic jam.
Love is a quiet, reassuring, relaxing, pottering, pedantic, harmonious hum of a thing; something you can easily forget is there, even though its palms are outstretched beneath you in case you fall.
38. The Chaos Of Stars – Kiersten White
I didn’t fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we’d choose anyway. And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.
39. The Journals of Sylvia Plath – Sylvia Plath
I feel good with my husband: I like his warmth and his bigness and his being-there and his making and his jokes and stories and what he reads and how he likes fishing and walks and pigs and foxes and little animals and is honest and not vain or fame-crazy and how he shows his gladness for what I cook him and joy for when I make him something, a poem or a cake, and how he is troubled when I am unhappy and wants to do anything so I can fight out my soul-battles and grow up with courage and a philosophical ease. I love his good smell and his body that fits with mine as if they were made in the same body-shop to do just that. What is only pieces, doled out here and there to this boy and that boy, that made me like pieces of them, is all jammed together in my husband. So I don’t want to look around anymore: I don’t need to look around for anything.
40. The Bridge Across Forever – Richard Bach
A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.
How to Deliver a Wedding Reading
Choose your readers well. It’s a lovely way to give a special role to a friend or family member that you’re close to, but readers need to have a clear voice and the necessary confidence. If you’re the person giving the reading, here are some top tips for a calm and confident delivery:
- Familiarise yourself with the setting: Speak to the celebrant or officiant ahead of time about the ceremony order and when and where you will do your reading, so there’s no fumbling around when you’re asked to stand up.
- Speak clearly and slowly: Nerves can make you rush your reading. Breaths and pauses will not only help you manage nerves but will allow your audience to actually absorb your words.
- Keep eye contact: Glance up from your notes now and then to look at the couple and the audience.
- Don’t hold the mic too close: Rest it on or below your chin, not right up against your mouth.
- Practice aloud: It’s the easiest way to become familiar with the words and the rhythm.
- Enjoy it as much as you can: This is a special role, so try to soak in the moment!
When should I have a wedding reading?
You can have wedding readings at any point during your ceremony or reception but for maximum impact, we recommend one or more of the following:
As a ceremony introduction: This will set the tone for your vows and engage your guests right from the beginning. Make sure your celebrant knows that you or someone else intends to give an opening reading, as this may impact the overall flow and structure of the ceremony.
Before the vows: If your non-religious wedding reading is quite short, consider doing it before the vows. This will give your guests a glimpse into your relationship and could even be your chance to squeeze in a few extra promises!
As an alternative to a speech: If you want to say a few words but aren’t too confident in your speech-making abilities, you could do a wedding reading instead. Aim to keep it to around 3-5 minutes – perfect if you intend to read a piece of literature.
Wedding Readings FAQ
What is a good wedding reading?
Whether you choose something long or brief, romantic or funny, the most important thing is that your chosen wedding readings are meaningful to you as a couple.
You can either select a poem or passage yourself or allow your readers to choose. If the latter, make sure you give them some guidance on what you’d like.
How long should a wedding reading be?
A wedding reading for a ceremony should ideally be around 1-3 minutes – any longer than three minutes and you run the risk of losing your audience’s attention and the ceremony running on for too long.
If you’re choosing to recite a piece of prose or do a reading as an alternative to a speech, aim to keep it under five minutes.
What are popular non-religious wedding readings?
There are plenty of popular poems, book extracts, film quotes and even song lyrics that work as wedding readings for civil ceremonies and other non-religious weddings, some of which we have included above.
Some of the most popular include the excerpt from Louis de Bernières’ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, the famous Harry Burns quote from When Harry Met Sally, extracts from The Velveteen Rabbit, and Pam Ayres’ Yes, I’ll Marry You.
Can you have a poem as a wedding reading?
Yes, you absolutely can have a poem as a wedding reading – there are lots of poems about love and marriage that work wonderfully as non-religious readings for a civil ceremony or as an alternative to a speech.
How many readings should a wedding ceremony have?
It’s advisable to keep to a maximum of two wedding ceremony readings – any more and you risk guests becoming bored or the ceremony running on for too long.
Plan Your Wedding Ceremony with Bridebook
Ready to plan the next step of your ceremony? We’ve got you covered with plenty of inspiration for your vows when you sign up to Bridebook today.
You Might Also Like…
- 15 Romantic and Inspiring Love Poems for Your Wedding Ceremony
- 100+ Inspiring Love Quotes for Your Wedding Day
- Wedding Speech Examples
- Wedding Speech Ideas
- Non-Denominational Wedding Ceremony Guide
Related articles
