The Essential List of Wedding Ceremony Readings

As we all know, the wedding ceremony readings are a huge part of your big day and give a sense of who you are as a couple, as well as the things that are important to you. This is something that will set the tone for the day and communicate the more gushing sentiments that you might feel shy about putting into your vows!

Whether you're someone who adores classics like Shakespeare and Beethoven, a fan of sweet and sentimental poetry, or a modern romantic who loves books and music, we have cherry-picked our favourite readings that will suit every kind of wedding ceremony. We've even compiled them in one easy list for you to peruse. Handy right?

Of course many of these wedding ceremony readings cross multiple categories, many of the child-friendly readings for example are also short, some of the most romantic poems are also Irish, and of course, any of these could be read at at a same-sex wedding.

But hopefully breaking them down into categories, will help navigate your way through the selection but do check out the other categories too - you might be surprised! Oh and if you're writing your own ceremony, this step-by-step guide is very helpful!

– Excerpt from The Great Gatsby – Thoughts in a Garden by R. Gerhardt – Maya Angelou on Love and Liberation – Us Two by AA Milne – Excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit – Excerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – I Carry Your Heart With Me by E.E. Cummings

– Love by Roy Croft – Blessing of the Hands by Rev. Daniel L. Harris – Union by Robert Fulghum – Love and Death by Lord Byron – An Excerpt from The History of Love by Nicole Krauss – A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton – Have You Got a Biro I Can Borrow? by Clive James – My Golden Shield Of Brightness by Shilow – Albert Einstein on Relativity

– All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham – The Good Morrow by John Donne – Paths and Journeys (from Far from the Madding Crowd) by Thomas Hardy – To My Dear and Loving Husband – A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

– Invitation to Love by Paul Laurence Dunbar – He's Not Perfect by Bob Marley – Excerpt from Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey – Variation on the Word Sleep by Margaret Atwood

– Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney – Twice Shy by Seamus Heaney – He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W. B. Yeats – A Poet to his Beloved by W.B. Yeats – Her Praise by W.B Yeats – The Indian to His Love by W.B. Yeats – Lines Written for a Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary by Eavan Boland

– Oh, Call it By Some Better Name by Thomas Moore – We Are Made One with What We Touch and See by Oscar Wilde – Her Voice by Oscar Wilde – Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney – I Love You, Woman by Emmett Kirwan – Begin by Brendan Kennelly – The Planter's Daughter by Austin Clarke

– Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms by Thomas Moore – We Are Made One with What We Touch and See by Oscar Wilde – Just to Be Beside You... by Gabriel Fitzmaurice – Bluebells for Love by Patrick Kavanagh – Chance by Kerrie O'Brien

– Dear One by Mary Lambert – Excerpt from the SCOTUS Same Sex Marriage Ruling – I Belong In Your Arms by Deborah Brideau – You Are The Bubbles by Rachel Bright

– How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog – Let Me Put It This Way by Simon Armitage – A Vow by Wendy Cope – Greg's Love Island Declaration of Love – Love Me When I’m Old by Bee Rawlinson – When You Marry – Sweet Misery

– To My Valentine by Ogden Nash – Yes, I'll Marry You by Pam Ayres – To My Valentine by Ogden Nash – The Giraffe and the Monkey by Daniel Thompson – I'll Be There For You by Louise Cuddon – The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman

– Game of Thrones Wedding Vows – You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac – When The Right One Comes Along by Striking Matches – Quote from The Apartment – I Do speech from The Good Witch – Carrie's Poem from Sex And The City – Romantic excerpts from The Notebook

– Happiness Is You by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash – Thank You by Led Zeppelin – Excerpt from Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom – Origins of Love from Plato's Symposium – Harry's Speech from When Harry Met Sally – Excerpt from The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman – How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) by Marvin Gaye

– Excerpt from The Humans by Matt Haig – Excerpts from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I Want To Grow Old With You from The Wedding Singer – Excerpt from Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Ceremony Reading – The Beginning of Everything: A Quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald

– Never to Heaven by Lana Del Rey – One Swaying Being by from The Book of Love by Rumi – That's No Way to Say Goodbye by Leonard Cohen – Extract from Blue-eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas – Extract from Every Day by David Levithan – Quote from Sleepless In Seattle – Excerpt from Love in the Time of Cholera

– Extract from the script of Star Trek Voyager – Love is a Song from Bambi – Different Kind of Love Song by Cher – In My Life by John Lennon – The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields – Dance Me to the End of Love By Leonard Cohen – Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) By Baz Luhrmann

– God Only Knows by The Beach Boys – If I Should Fall Behind by Bruce Springsteen – The Greatest Adventure from The Hobbit's Tale by JRR Tolkien – I Love You Because by Jim Reeves – "Monica's Vows" from Friends – Gorecki by Lamb – L.O.V.E by Frank Sinatra

– How Sweet It Is by James Taylor – What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman – Everything I Know about Love by Dolly Alderton – Just Kids by Patti Smith – The Priest's Speech from Fleabag

– Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – Jim and Pam quote from The Office – You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams – Love is Awful from Fleabag – Come What May from Moulin Rouge

– You, Therefore By Reginald Shepherd – Childhood Sweethearts Share An Innocence by Nicholas Gordon – One Hundred Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda – What Is A Soulmate by Emily Matthews – A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway – Only Once In Your Life – Rings by Carol Ann Duffy

– Nuptials by John Agard – I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke – I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg – Touched by an Angel by Maya Angelou – Love Is Friendship Caught Fire by Laura Hendricks – Love is More Thicker Than Forget by E.E. Cummings – The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel

– You Came, Too by Nikki Giovanni – Richard Bach on Soulmates – Heart to Heart by Rita Dove – Invisible Kisses by Lemn Sissay – All I Know About Love by Neil Gaiman – You Deserve a Lover by Frida Kahlo – The Love of a Friend – What I Didn't Know Before by Ada Limón

– A Creed To Live By by Nancye Sims – There Should Be a Word – Love is an Adventure by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – Thoughts on Marriage by Kahlil Gibran – My Symphony by William Ellery Channing – I Knew That I Had Been Touched By Love – I Belong in Your Arms by Deborah Bridea – Chapter One of One Thousand by O. J. Preston

– The Master Speed by Robert Frost – If You Can Love Each Other – I Promise by Dorothy R. Colgan – Marriage Joins Two People In The Circle Of Its Love by Edmund O'Neill – Thank You, My Soul Mate by Marlina Bee Bryant – This Day I Married My Best Friend – The Magic of Love by Helen Steiner Rice

– Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman – My Undeniable Miracle by John Mark Green – The One by Cheryl Barclay – Nothing Short of Love by Chris Jester-Young – I loved you first: but afterwards your love by Christina Rossetti – With you in My Heart by Mick Jennings – Litany by Billy Collins

– You are my Magic in Bloom by Shilow – I Love You Because by Jim Reeves – Wedding Day by Rowena Edlin-White – How to Make a Beautiful Life Together – My Golden Shield of Brightness by Shilow – Highs and Lows by Morgan Harper Nichols

– Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare – A Marriage by Mark Twain – Ever Mine, Ever Thine, Ever Ours by Beethoven – How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning – An Excerpt from The Art Of Marriage by Wilferd Arlan Peterson – Forever is Composed of Nows by Emily Dickinson – Love and Friendship by Emily Brontë

– She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron – Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley – Never Doubt Love from Hamlet by William Shakespeare – Marriage Morning by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – This Marriage by Rumi – Look to this Day by Kalidasa – Two Hearts As One by Unkown Author – The Confirmation by Edwin Muir

– Love is Always Patient and Kind: A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians – Where You Go, I Will Go from the Book of Ruth (1:16-17) – Our Love is Not to be Just Words

– An Excerpt from Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith – An Excerpt From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – Always by Lang Leav – These I Can Promise by Mark Twain – A Glimpse by Walt Whitman – I Do Not Want to Have You by Rupi Kaur – Close Close All Night by Elizabeth Bishop – Why Not Us Too by Rob Ryan

– She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep by Robert Graves – Not Anyone Who Says by Mary Oliver – When I Love by Warsan Shire – A Game of Tennis by Elizabeth Jennings – J.R.R. Tolkien's Poem for his Wife – You Will Be the Clouds by R.M. Drake

– This Marriage by Rumi – A Love Song for Lucinda by Langston Hughes – Life is Unpredictable by Erin Hanson – Pathways by Rainer Maria Rilke – Wedding Day by Adrian Lamos

– An Excerpt from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – To Love Is Not To Possess by James Kavanaugh – I'd Rather Rise in Love With You by By Jana Lynne Umipig

– Some Things Go Together by Charlotte Zolotow – An excerpt from Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton – Getting Married Means You'll Have by Nicholas Gordon – How Children See Your Day by Sandra Cook – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

– From Disney's Sleeping Beauty – The Owl and The Pussycat by Edward Lear – A Story from Humans of New York – An Excerpt from Disney's UP – The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

– Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr Seuss – Extract from The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton – Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

– The Voyage by Christy Moore

– The Invitation by Oriah – Love Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda – Fidelity by D.H. Lawrence

– Invitation to Love by Paul Laurence Dunbar – She Tells her Love while Half Asleep by Robert Graves – Life is Unpredictable by Erin Hanson – What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman – Monna Innominatai (Wish I Could Remember) by Christina Rossetti

– Love and Friendship by Emily Brontë – Rings by Carol Ann Duffy – A Glimpse by Walt Whitman – You, Therefore by Reginald Shepherd – Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr Seuss

– Quote from The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton – Quote from Sleepless In Seattle by Nora Ephron – Extract from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – Quote from The Holiday – Quote from Love Actually

– You are the Bubbles by Rachel Bright – Quote from The Apartment by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond – Quote from When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron

Looking for church readings or tips on planning your ceremony readings? Click here to see more tips on wedding readings for your big day!

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The Essential List of Wedding Ceremony Readings

The Essential List of Wedding Ceremony Readings

The Essential List of Wedding Ceremony Readings

Of course many of these wedding ceremony readings cross multiple categories, many of the child-friendly readings for example are also short, some of the most romantic poems are also Irish, and of course, any of these could be read at at a same-sex wedding.

The Essential List of Wedding Ceremony Readings

But hopefully breaking them down into categories, will help navigate your way through the selection but do check out the other categories too - you might be surprised! Oh and if you're writing your own ceremony, this step-by-step guide is very helpful!

The Essential List of Wedding Ceremony Readings

– Excerpt from The Great Gatsby – Thoughts in a Garden by R. Gerhardt – Maya Angelou on Love and Liberation – Us Two by AA Milne – Excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit – Excerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – I Carry Your Heart With Me by E.E. Cummings

Popular Alternative Wedding Readings

Popular Alternative Wedding Readings

– All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham – The Good Morrow by John Donne – Paths and Journeys (from Far from the Madding Crowd) by Thomas Hardy – To My Dear and Loving Husband – A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

Popular Alternative Wedding Readings

– Invitation to Love by Paul Laurence Dunbar – He's Not Perfect by Bob Marley – Excerpt from Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey – Variation on the Word Sleep by Margaret Atwood

Popular Alternative Wedding Readings

– Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney – Twice Shy by Seamus Heaney – He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W. B. Yeats – A Poet to his Beloved by W.B. Yeats – Her Praise by W.B Yeats – The Indian to His Love by W.B. Yeats – Lines Written for a Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary by Eavan Boland

Wedding Readings by Irish Writers

– Oh, Call it By Some Better Name by Thomas Moore – We Are Made One with What We Touch and See by Oscar Wilde – Her Voice by Oscar Wilde – Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney – I Love You, Woman by Emmett Kirwan – Begin by Brendan Kennelly – The Planter's Daughter by Austin Clarke

Wedding Readings by Irish Writers

– Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms by Thomas Moore – We Are Made One with What We Touch and See by Oscar Wilde – Just to Be Beside You... by Gabriel Fitzmaurice – Bluebells for Love by Patrick Kavanagh – Chance by Kerrie O'Brien

Wedding Readings by Irish Writers

– Dear One by Mary Lambert – Excerpt from the SCOTUS Same Sex Marriage Ruling – I Belong In Your Arms by Deborah Brideau – You Are The Bubbles by Rachel Bright

Wedding Readings for LGBTQ+ Weddings

– How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog – Let Me Put It This Way by Simon Armitage – A Vow by Wendy Cope – Greg's Love Island Declaration of Love – Love Me When I’m Old by Bee Rawlinson – When You Marry – Sweet Misery

Funny Wedding Readings

– To My Valentine by Ogden Nash – Yes, I'll Marry You by Pam Ayres – To My Valentine by Ogden Nash – The Giraffe and the Monkey by Daniel Thompson – I'll Be There For You by Louise Cuddon – The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman

Funny Wedding Readings

– Game of Thrones Wedding Vows – You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac – When The Right One Comes Along by Striking Matches – Quote from The Apartment – I Do speech from The Good Witch – Carrie's Poem from Sex And The City – Romantic excerpts from The Notebook

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

– Extract from the script of Star Trek Voyager – Love is a Song from Bambi – Different Kind of Love Song by Cher – In My Life by John Lennon – The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields – Dance Me to the End of Love By Leonard Cohen – Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) By Baz Luhrmann

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

– God Only Knows by The Beach Boys – If I Should Fall Behind by Bruce Springsteen – The Greatest Adventure from The Hobbit's Tale by JRR Tolkien – I Love You Because by Jim Reeves – "Monica's Vows" from Friends – Gorecki by Lamb – L.O.V.E by Frank Sinatra

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

– How Sweet It Is by James Taylor – What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman – Everything I Know about Love by Dolly Alderton – Just Kids by Patti Smith – The Priest's Speech from Fleabag

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

– Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – Jim and Pam quote from The Office – You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams – Love is Awful from Fleabag – Come What May from Moulin Rouge

Wedding Readings from Songs, Books, TV and Films

– You, Therefore By Reginald Shepherd – Childhood Sweethearts Share An Innocence by Nicholas Gordon – One Hundred Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda – What Is A Soulmate by Emily Matthews – A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway – Only Once In Your Life – Rings by Carol Ann Duffy

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

– Nuptials by John Agard – I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke – I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg – Touched by an Angel by Maya Angelou – Love Is Friendship Caught Fire by Laura Hendricks – Love is More Thicker Than Forget by E.E. Cummings – The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

– You Came, Too by Nikki Giovanni – Richard Bach on Soulmates – Heart to Heart by Rita Dove – Invisible Kisses by Lemn Sissay – All I Know About Love by Neil Gaiman – You Deserve a Lover by Frida Kahlo – The Love of a Friend – What I Didn't Know Before by Ada Limón

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

– You are my Magic in Bloom by Shilow – I Love You Because by Jim Reeves – Wedding Day by Rowena Edlin-White – How to Make a Beautiful Life Together – My Golden Shield of Brightness by Shilow – Highs and Lows by Morgan Harper Nichols

Modern Romantic Wedding Readings

Classic Wedding Readings

Classic Wedding Readings

– Love is Always Patient and Kind: A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians – Where You Go, I Will Go from the Book of Ruth (1:16-17) – Our Love is Not to be Just Words

Catholic Wedding Readings

Short Wedding Readings

– She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep by Robert Graves – Not Anyone Who Says by Mary Oliver – When I Love by Warsan Shire – A Game of Tennis by Elizabeth Jennings – J.R.R. Tolkien's Poem for his Wife – You Will Be the Clouds by R.M. Drake

Short Wedding Readings

– This Marriage by Rumi – A Love Song for Lucinda by Langston Hughes – Life is Unpredictable by Erin Hanson – Pathways by Rainer Maria Rilke – Wedding Day by Adrian Lamos

Short Wedding Readings

– An Excerpt from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – To Love Is Not To Possess by James Kavanaugh – I'd Rather Rise in Love With You by By Jana Lynne Umipig

Feminist Wedding Readings

– Some Things Go Together by Charlotte Zolotow – An excerpt from Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton – Getting Married Means You'll Have by Nicholas Gordon – How Children See Your Day by Sandra Cook – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

Wedding Readings for Children

– From Disney's Sleeping Beauty – The Owl and The Pussycat by Edward Lear – A Story from Humans of New York – An Excerpt from Disney's UP – The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

Wedding Readings for Children

– Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr Seuss – Extract from The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton – Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

Wedding Readings for Children

– The Voyage by Christy Moore

Wedding Readings for Couples With Children

– The Invitation by Oriah – Love Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda – Fidelity by D.H. Lawrence

Wedding Readings for an Elopement

– Invitation to Love by Paul Laurence Dunbar – She Tells her Love while Half Asleep by Robert Graves – Life is Unpredictable by Erin Hanson – What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman – Monna Innominatai (Wish I Could Remember) by Christina Rossetti

Wedding Readings for Winter Weddings

– Love and Friendship by Emily Brontë – Rings by Carol Ann Duffy – A Glimpse by Walt Whitman – You, Therefore by Reginald Shepherd – Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr Seuss

Wedding Readings for Winter Weddings

– Quote from The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton – Quote from Sleepless In Seattle by Nora Ephron – Extract from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – Quote from The Holiday – Quote from Love Actually

Wedding Readings for Christmas Weddings

– You are the Bubbles by Rachel Bright – Quote from The Apartment by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond – Quote from When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron

Wedding Readings for New Year's Eve Weddings

Looking for church readings or tips on planning your ceremony readings? Click here to see more tips on wedding readings for your big day!