Wedding reading
Love Is Friendship Caught Fire
Attributed to Ann Landers
“Love Is Friendship Caught Fire” by Attributed to Ann Landers is a prose reading read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 40 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is still in copyright, so the words are not reprinted here — the reader brings a printed copy.
Why the words are not printed here
The Ann Landers credit is the one that travels, and it does not hold up — her column printed a great deal of reader-submitted verse without authorship, and no first appearance has been produced under her name, under "Laura Hendricks", or under the seventeenth-century Jeremy Taylor line people trace it back to. Bring a printed copy in the wording the couple mean, and introduce it as "author unknown" rather than with a name you cannot stand behind.
Pieces still in copyright are listed by title and author only — we name them and tell you where to get them, but we do not reproduce the words. Public-domain text is printed in your script in full.
What it is about
Often asked for, and nobody can show who wrote it. Read it — just do not credit it.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: love is friendship caught fire · friendship becoming love · a long marriage · disputed authorship · often requested · short.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Love Is Friendship Caught Fire” take to read aloud?
“Love Is Friendship Caught Fire” takes about 40 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “Love Is Friendship Caught Fire”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “Love Is Friendship Caught Fire” runs about 40 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “Love Is Friendship Caught Fire” be printed in a ceremony script?
Not by us. It is still in copyright, so we name it and point you at a copy rather than reprinting the words. The Ann Landers credit is the one that travels, and it does not hold up — her column printed a great deal of reader-submitted verse without authorship, and no first appearance has been produced under her name, under "Laura Hendricks", or under the seventeenth-century Jeremy Taylor line people trace it back to. Bring a printed copy in the wording the couple mean, and introduce it as "author unknown" rather than with a name you cannot stand behind.
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- from a letter to Fanny Brawne, 13 October 181925 secondsJohn Keats
- On marriage, from The Devil's Dictionary — five definitionsa minute and a halfAmbrose Bierce
- He’s Not Perfect45 secondsAuthor unknown — widely misattributed to Bob Marley
- On Marriage, from The Propheta minute and a halfKahlil Gibran
- On Becoming Real, from The Velveteen Rabbit55 secondsMargery Williams
- from Obergefell v. Hodgesa minute and a halfJustice Anthony Kennedy