Wedding reading
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Charles Wesley, 1747
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” by Charles Wesley, 1747 is a hymn read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 4 minutes read aloud, usually by everyone together. It is in the public domain but too long to print in a ceremony script, so this page points at a full text rather than reproducing one.
Why the words are not printed here
Public domain. The most-sung hymn at English-speaking church weddings.
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
The default church-wedding hymn, and the one guests are most likely to know.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: a church wedding · traditional · well known · congregational.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” take to read aloud?
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” takes about 4 minutes 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 Divine, All Loves Excelling”?
Everyone together, rather than one reader. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” runs about 4 minutes and needs the words in front of the room — in an order of service, on a screen, or led line by line by the officiant.
Can “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” be printed in a ceremony script?
Not in full here. Public domain. The most-sung hymn at English-speaking church weddings.
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
- The Lord's My Shepherd (Crimond)4 minutesScottish Psalter, 1650
- Be Thou My Vision4 minutesAncient Irish, trans. Mary Byrne 1905
- Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee3 minutesHenry van Dyke, 1907
- Sonnet 1855 secondsWilliam Shakespeare
- Sonnet 4355 secondsElizabeth Barrett Browning
- The Lord's Prayer40 secondsMatthew 6, King James Bible