Wedding ceremony readings
Non-religious wedding readings
A non-religious wedding reading is one that works in a ceremony with no religious framing at all — no scripture, no prayer, no blessing invoked. That leaves the love poetry, the prose passages about partnership, and a few pieces from children’s books that adults find they cannot get through dry-eyed.
These are the readings for a ceremony that is about the two people and the room, and nothing else. Nobody has to be uncomfortable, and nothing has to be quietly skipped.
Some of them come from religious traditions and still read as entirely secular out loud — which is the point of the tag. The list below is filtered on whether a passage works without faith, not on where it came from.
41 non-religious wedding readings, shortest first
- 10 secondsA Word to HusbandsOgden Nash · Four lines of marriage advice, and the shortest laugh available. Bring it printed.Reader brings a copy
- 20 secondsMay the Road Rise Up to Meet YouTraditional Irish · Ends warm and ends fast. Works at both a wedding and a funeral.
- 25 secondsfrom Song of the Open RoadWalt Whitman · Twenty-five seconds, and it ends on a question the couple answer with the vows.
- 25 secondsDeep Peace (from the Invocation of Peace)Fiona Macleod (William Sharp) · Barely religious, deeply calming. The real Gaelic-revival poem, not the choral version.
- 30 secondsRuth 1:16–17aKing James Bible · Said between two women, and the most quoted promise in scripture.
- 30 secondsSong of Solomon 8:6–7King James Bible · Fierce rather than sweet. "Many waters cannot quench love."
- 30 secondsA BirthdayChristina Rossetti · Pure gladness, and over in half a minute.
- 30 secondsA Closing, with no prayerOfficiantScript · Ours. Closes a service without a blessing, and gives the room a job.
- 35 secondsEcclesiastes 4:9–12King James Bible · Plain and practical. Works at a service with almost no religious framing.
- 40 secondsSong of Solomon 2:10–13King James Bible · The one that sounds like a love letter, because it is one.
- 40 secondsApache Wedding BlessingTraditional, widely anthologised · Often asked for. Its origin story is not what people think — worth knowing.Reader brings a copy
- 45 seconds1 Corinthians 13:4–8aKing James Bible · The short form — the one most people mean by "the love passage".
- 45 secondsA Red, Red RoseRobert Burns · Scots dialect. Give the reader the words in advance so it does not ambush them.
- 45 secondsTo My Dear and Loving HusbandAnne Bradstreet · Written in 1670 and still the plainest statement of the thing.
- 45 secondsi carry your heart with meE. E. Cummings · Short and much loved. The punctuation trips readers — rehearse it.Reader brings a copy
- 50 secondsSonnet 130William Shakespeare · Thirteen lines of insults, then a last couplet that beats every compliment in the book. It teases the sonnets sitting next to it.
- 50 secondsMake Me an Instrument of Your PeaceAttributed to St Francis of Assisi · First printed in 1912 and not actually by St Francis — but it is the one people want.
- 50 secondsSonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"Pablo Neruda · Ask which translation. They are not interchangeable.Reader brings a copy
- 55 secondsSonnet 18William Shakespeare · "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Everyone half-knows it, which is a help.
- 55 secondsSonnet 43Elizabeth Barrett Browning · "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." The most requested after Sonnet 116.
- 55 secondsOn Becoming Real, from The Velveteen RabbitMargery Williams · Good for a child reader, and for a couple who have already been through something.
- a minute and a halfSonnet 116William Shakespeare · "Let me not to the marriage of true minds." Warn your reader: the last two lines need slowing down.
- a minute and a halfSonnet 75Edmund Spenser · "One day I wrote her name upon the strand." She gets the better of him halfway through.
- a minute and a halfOn marriage, from The Devil's Dictionary — five definitionsAmbrose Bierce · This one bites — mordant, not gently teasing, and only for a couple with a dry, self-aware sense of humour. Read all five before you offer it: the entry on marriage makes an 1881 joke about masters and slaves.
- a minute and a halfUnionRobert Fulghum · The best-known modern wedding reading. Your reader brings the book.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfOn love, from Letters to a Young PoetRainer Maria Rilke · The "two solitudes" passage. Which translation matters a great deal here.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfA Lovely Love StoryEdward Monkton · The dinosaur one. A minute long, and about as easy as a reading gets.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfThe Impressive Clergyman’s speech — "Mawage"William Goldman, for the 1987 film of The Princess Bride · Everyone asks. It is film dialogue, not the novel — nod to it in your own words instead.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfLove Is a Temporary MadnessLouis de Bernières · The unsentimental one, about what is left after the fireworks.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfOn Marriage, from The ProphetKahlil Gibran · The Prophet entered the public domain, so this one we can print in full.
- a minute and a halffrom Extracts from Adam's Diary — selected entriesMark Twain · Adam is baffled by Eve for four entries and then says the truest thing in the book. Tell the reader to slow right down for the last one.
- a minute and a halfThe Country of MarriageWendell Berry · For a couple who want something with more weight than the standards.Reader brings a copy
- a minute and a halfOh, the Places You'll Go!Dr. Seuss · Read from the book itself, not a printout — the rights here are actively enforced.Reader brings a copy
- two minutesThe Owl and the Pussy-catEdward Lear · Nonsense verse the whole room half-remembers, and the one piece here nobody has ever objected to. Made for a child reader.
- two minutesfrom The Importance of Being Earnest, Act IOscar Wilde · Dialogue, so it wants two readers or one who can mark the switch. Algernon has nothing kind to say about marriage, including a line on the Divorce Court — that is the joke, but know it is coming.
- two minutes1 Corinthians 13:1–13King James Bible · The whole chapter, including "through a glass, darkly".
- two minutesYes, I'll Marry You, My DearPam Ayres · A crowd-pleaser at British weddings. Bring a properly sourced copy — the versions online differ.Reader brings a copy
- 3 minutesHow Falling in Love Is Like Owning a DogTaylor Mali · The dog one. Several minutes long, and it earns them — but your reader needs to rehearse it.Reader brings a copy
- 4 minutesA recorded songThe family’s choice · For anything modern. Add the title, and the run-sheet gives it a cue and a slot.Reader brings a copy
- 4 minutesA live performanceA family member or musician · Someone performing live. Plan for the possibility they cannot get through it.Reader brings a copy
- 8 minutesMusic as people arriveThe venue · You say nothing. It is on the run-sheet so the clock tells the truth.Reader brings a copy
Questions
Non-religious wedding readings: what is usually chosen?
A non-religious wedding reading is one that works in a ceremony with no religious framing at all — no scripture, no prayer, no blessing invoked. That leaves the love poetry, the prose passages about partnership, and a few pieces from children’s books that adults find they cannot get through dry-eyed.
Which of these can be printed in the script?
25 of the 41 readings on this page are public domain, so their full text is printed on this site and can go into a ceremony script or an order of service. The rest are named with their author and a note on where to get a copy — we do not reproduce text that is still in copyright.
Texts last checked 2026-07-25.
The reading is two minutes. The ceremony is the rest of it.
Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole thing written out — the welcome, their story, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — with your chosen readings already in place and the timing worked out around them.
Start your ceremony scriptReady in 15 minutes · no sign-up · read your draft first