Ceremony · Readings
Modern Wedding Readings: Twenty-Five Couples Still Choose
Neruda, cummings, Angelou, Rilke, Wendell Berry and the anonymous favorites — what each piece says, how long it takes to read aloud, and where to find the full text.
Ceremony · 104 readings
Wedding Readings
Poems, Bible verses and prose for your ceremony — printed in full, with a note on each and how long it takes to read aloud.
A reading is the only part of the ceremony that belongs to someone other than the two of you and the officiant, which is why choosing one — and choosing who reads it — matters more than it looks. Today’s Weddings has been collecting ceremony readings since 1999. The 104 here are printed in full: poetry from Spenser to Yeats, scripture in the King James Version, prose from Austen, Eliot and Twain, and blessings from several traditions. Each has a note on where it comes from, how long it takes to read aloud and who tends to read it well. For Neruda, cummings, Angelou and other modern writers still under copyright, see modern wedding readings.
The collections
11 readings, in full
Shakespeare and Renaissance Wedding Poems
Eleven poems from the age of Shakespeare, Spenser and Donne, from the most-read sonnet in English to a Jacobean wedding song almost no guest will know.
8 readings, in full
Romantic Wedding Poems: Burns, Byron, Keats and Shelley
Eight poems from the Romantic age, from Burns’s red, red rose to Keats’s bright star: some of the most musical love poetry in English, and how to choose among it.
9 readings, in full
Victorian Wedding Poems: Browning, Tennyson and Rossetti
Elizabeth Barrett Browning counted the ways; her husband wrote eight lines that end on a kiss. Nine Victorian poems for weddings, and how to choose among them.
11 readings, in full
American Wedding Poems: Bradstreet, Whitman and Dickinson
From a Puritan wife’s poem first printed in 1678 to Amy Lowell’s six lines of 1919: eleven American wedding readings, with Whitman’s open road and Dickinson at her most direct.
7 readings, in full
Twentieth-Century Wedding Poems: Yeats, Tagore and Thomas
Yeats’s embroidered heavens, Tagore’s henna and jasmine, Edward Thomas’s gifts for Helen and the mysterious Roy Croft: seven readings from the turn of the modern age.
8 readings, in full
Short Wedding Readings and Traditional Verses
Eight brief, mostly anonymous verses that have been read at weddings for decades, nearly all under a minute and several simple enough for a child, with honest notes on where they come from.
10 readings, in full
Wedding Readings from Literature: Austen, Brontë and Tolstoy
Ten passages from novels, letters and children’s books, from Captain Wentworth’s letter to Piglet in the mist: prose readings that sound like people talking rather than poems being recited.
6 readings, in full
Philosophy Wedding Readings: Plato, Gibran and William Penn
Plato’s other half, Gibran’s pillars and a Quaker’s plain advice: six readings that think about love rather than simply praise it, for couples who want ideas as well as feeling.
27 readings, in full
Bible Verses for Weddings: Scripture Readings in the KJV
Twenty-seven passages from Genesis to the First Letter of John, printed in the King James Version, with advice on choosing, on translations and on what to ask your officiant.
7 readings, in full
Wedding Blessings and Prayers: Irish, Anglican and More
The Prayer Book’s “Dearly beloved,” the Irish road rising to meet you, the Peace Prayer and a prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson: seven blessings and prayers, with honest notes on where they come from.
Readings by occasion
72 readings
Short Wedding Readings
Short wedding readings that take under a minute to read aloud
69 readings
Non-Religious Wedding Readings
Non-religious wedding readings for civil, secular and humanist ceremonies
54 readings
Classic Wedding Poems
Classic wedding poems printed in full
25 readings
Love Poems for Weddings
Romantic love poems for wedding ceremonies, from Donne and Keats to Christina Rossetti, Yeats and Tagore
39 readings
Unique Wedding Readings
Unique and unusual wedding readings that few guests will have heard
6 readings
Readings for Second Marriages
Wedding readings for second marriages, blended families and later-in-life weddings
Ceremony · Readings
The Seven Blessings (Sheva Brachot)
The seven blessings sung beneath the chuppah are among the oldest wedding words still in use. What each one says, who recites them, and how couples make them their own.
Ceremony
How to Write Your Own Vows
From a blank page to two minutes you can say out loud — what to include, what to leave out, and how to get through it standing up.
The most-loved wedding readings
Sonnet 116
William Shakespeare · 50 sLove that does not alter when it alteration finds — the most-read poem at weddings in English.1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
King James Version · 25 s“Charity suffereth long, and is kind” — Paul’s hymn to love, the most-read scripture at weddings.How Do I Love Thee?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning · 1 min 00 sElizabeth Barrett Browning counts the ways — Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese.On Marriage, from The Prophet
Kahlil Gibran · 1 min 20 s“Let there be spaces in your togetherness” — Gibran’s most-read passage.Ruth 1:16–17
King James Version · 30 s“Whither thou goest, I will go” — the Bible’s great vow of loyalty, in two verses.What Is Real, from The Velveteen Rabbit
Margery Williams · 1 min 40 sThe Skin Horse explains what it means to become Real.A Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns · 50 s“O my Luve’s like a red, red rose” — Burns’s promise to love till the seas run dry.The Song of Songs
King James Version · 1 min 10 s“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away” — and love as strong as death.Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
King James Version · 35 s“Two are better than one … a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”Love
Roy Croft · 1 min 25 s“I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.”May the Road Rise to Meet You
1 min 05 sThe Irish blessing — road, wind, sun and rain — with verses for the couple.Wheresoever She Was, There Was Eden
Mark Twain · 1 min 55 sEve can’t explain why she loves Adam, and doesn’t need to — Mark Twain at his most tender.Wedding readings: questions and answers
How many readings should a wedding ceremony have?
Most ceremonies have one to three readings, and two is the most common: often one religious and one secular, or one classic and one modern. A Catholic wedding Mass usually has three (an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading and a Gospel read by the priest), plus a psalm.
How long should a wedding reading be?
One to two minutes is ideal, which is roughly 130 to 250 words at a comfortable speaking pace. Every reading in our library shows its read-aloud time. If a favorite is longer, read an excerpt.
Who should do the readings at a wedding?
Readers are usually people the couple want to honor who are not otherwise in the wedding party: siblings, grandparents, godparents, close friends. Choose people who are comfortable speaking in public, give them the text at least two weeks ahead, and ask them to practice aloud.
What are the most popular wedding readings?
The perennial favorites are 1 Corinthians 13 (“Love is patient, love is kind”), Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee?”, Ruth 1:16–17, the Song of Songs, Kahlil Gibran’s “On Marriage” from The Prophet, the Skin Horse passage from The Velveteen Rabbit, Robert Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” and the Irish blessing.
Can we have a non-religious reading in a church wedding?
Often, yes, but ask first. Many Protestant churches welcome a secular poem alongside scripture; a Catholic wedding Mass takes its readings from an approved lectionary, though a poem may be allowed at another point, such as after communion or at the reception. Civil ceremonies in some places require the opposite: no religious content at all.
Can we print a wedding reading in the ceremony program?
You can print any reading in the public domain, which includes everything printed in full on Today’s Weddings. Modern poems and prose still under copyright should be listed by title and author only; see our guide to modern wedding readings.