The 10 best modern and traditional readings for your wedding ceremony

It's not just the reception that you can personalise, no matter what type of ceremony you plan on having, there are ways to make it personal to you as a couple and reflect your relationship. 

Once you've chosen your celebrant or officiant they'll help you start shaping up your ceremony. This will include your vows, any rituals and traditions you want to include, and readings from yourselves or loved ones. 

To get you started with ceremony readings, we've put together some ideas...

Modern and secular wedding readings

In non-religious ceremonies, readings can include poems, quotes or passages from books that are meaningful to the couple. 

1. He Never Leaves The Seat Up, Pam Ayres

Even if you swear poetry isn’t for you, check out this humorous and very readable piece. It’s a great option for a friend or sibling to read on your behalf, as it focuses on the everyday moments of being in love.

"He never leaves the seat up
Or wet towels upon the floor
The toothpaste has the lid on
And he always shuts the door!

She’s very clean and tidy
Though she may sometimes delude
Leave your things out at your peril
In a second they’ll have moved!

He’s a very active person
As are all his next of kin
Where as she likes lazy days
He’ll still drag her to the gym!

He romances her and dines her
Home cooked dinners and the like
He even knows her favourite food
And spoils her day and night!

She’s thoughtful when he looks at her
A smile upon his face
Will he look that good in 50 years
When his dentures aren’t in place?!

He says he loves her figure
And her mental prowess too
But when gravity takes her over
Will she charm with her IQ?

She says she loves his kindness
And his patience is a must
And of course she thinks he’s handsome
Which in her eyes is a plus!

They’re both not wholly perfect
But who are we to judge
He can be pig headed
Where as she won’t even budge!

All that said and done
They love the time they spent together
And I hope as I’m sure you do
That this fine day will last forever.

He’ll be more than just her husband
He’ll also be her friend
And she’ll be more than just his wife
She’s be his soul mate ‘till the end."

2. How Falling In Love Is Like Owning a Dog, Taylor Mali

We're dog people through and through, so when we saw this adorable poem about love and devotion, we simply had to share it with you.

"First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain’t no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don’t you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go out for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise. It will run you around the block
and leave you panting, breathless. Pull you in different directions
at once, or wind itself around and around you
until you’re all wound up and you cannot move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops."

3. Today I Marry My Best Friend, Bertrand Russell

Short but oh-so-sweet, this poem could work well for a bride or groom who wants to do a reading themselves, but is nervous about taking on a longer piece.

"Today I marry my best friend, the one I have laughed with and cried with, the one I have learned from and shared with, the one I have chosen to support, encourage and give myself to through all the days given us to share.

Today I marry the one I love."

4. Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton 

This description about feeling love in everyday moments by journalist Dolly Alderton is a beautiful depiction of life together. 

 "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."

You'll need to fill out the M10 Marriage Notice Application Form ahead of your wedding to make the ceremony legal. Find out how to fill out the M10 form

5.  I Wanna Be Yours, John Cooper Clarke

Arctic Monkeys fans will recognise the words of this uniquely direct and humorous love poem, which was used as the lyrics to their 2013 song by the same name.

"I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
Breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
Let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat
For those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
When you want to sail away
Let me be your teddy bear
Take me with you anywhere
I don’t care
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out
I wanna be the electric heater
You’ll get cold without
I wanna be your setting lotion
Hold your hair in deep devotion
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
That’s how deep is my devotion."

Traditional and religious wedding readings

Typically readings during a religious ceremony will include passages from religious texts, while traditional ones come from older or historic.

1. Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare

Famously used in the 1995 film of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, this is one of the Bard’s most widely recognised poems. 

The idea of reading Shakespeare can sound pretty daunting, but don’t be put off: this one is short enough to be read in its entirety, and the language is fairly straightforward compared to some of his work.

"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."

2. Happy Is The Bride That Rain Fell Upon

If the blue skies and fair weather you’ve been dreaming of all the way through your wedding planning fail to materialise on the day itself, console yourself with this reading. 

Originally from Ireland, it has a Christian message and a strong sense of optimism for the couple’s future.

"Happy is the bride that rain falls on
May your mornings bring joy and your evenings bring peace.
May your troubles grow few as your blessings increase.
May the saddest day of your future
Be no worse than the happiest day of your past.
May your hands be forever clasped in friendship
And your hearts joined forever in love.
Your lives are very special,
God has touched you in many ways.
May his blessings rest upon you
And fill all your coming days.
We swear by peace and love to stand,
Heart to heart and hand to hand.
Hark, O Spirit, and hear us now,
Confirming this our Sacred Vow."

3.  A Red, Red Rose, Robert Burns

In a wedding featuring kilts, bagpipes and a dram or two, it would be rude not to include some lines from Scotland’s own Bard. 

Just make sure your chosen reader can handle the Scots dialect – or play it for laughs by asking a guest from further afield to give it a go!

4. On Marriage, Kahlil Gibran 

This 1923 poem, by Lebanese-American writer and painter Kahlil Gibran, speaks eloquently about loving each other without losing yourself, a message that’s as relevant today as it ever was.

"Then Almitra spoke again and said, And
what of Marriage, master?
     And he answered saying:
     You were born together, and together you
shall be forevermore.
     You shall be together when the white
wings of death scatter your days.
     Ay, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.
     But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
     And let the winds of the heavens dance
between you.
 
     Love one another, but make not a bond
of love:
     Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.
     Fill each other’s cup but drink not from
one cup.
     Give one another of your bread but eat
not from the same loaf.
     Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
     Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
 
     Give your hearts, but not into each
other’s keeping.
     For only the hand of Life can contain
your hearts.
     And stand together yet not too near
together:
     For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
     And the oak tree and the cypress grow
not in each other’s shadow."

5. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Love is patient, love is kind

A classic for a reason, these biblical verses cut to the heart of what it means to love. 

They contain no direct references to God or Christianity, so are a good option if you’re personally not religious but are facing familial pressure to include Christian elements in your big day.

"13 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. ² 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. ³ 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.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ 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. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

How long should a wedding ceremony be? 

Depending on which type of ceremony you're having and what you would like to include, the timing can range from a 10 minute registry office ceremony to an hour-long religious ceremony. 

You don't want to feel rushed on your big day, but bear in mind that you don't want your guests to feel like this part is dragging on either. Aiming for around 20-30 minutes should be a comfortable amount of time for a non-religious ceremony, while a church ceremony may last a bit longer. 

How many readings should be in a wedding ceremony? 

To keep your ceremony from being too long, one to three readings is nice balance between personalising your ceremony and it having too many elements. Keep in mind the length of each reading when making the call. 

When do readings happen during a ceremony? 

Your officiant will keep you right with this and will create the ceremony to include all of the elements you want. 

Typically readings will happen between the officiant's welcome and the couple exchanging their vows and rings. During this time the ceremony can also include rituals or songs.