20 Romantic Wedding Readings (No Religion, Just Love)

Ted Johnson Marriage Celebrant Brisbane
Dec 19, 2024
9 min read

Updated: Apr 20

I'll always suggest including a reading or three on your special day, and many of my new clients immediately point out, "Oh no, we don't want a religious ceremony."

This comment always gives me a smile, because this is when we begin a conversation about how we can work together to include those who are near and dear to you in your ceremony.

Readings don't have to be religious at all. Just Google "non-religious wedding readings" and you'll find more inspiration than you'll find in any scripture.

I've listed 20 of my personal favourites below, and I'm sure you'll find at least one that resonates with you and your partner.

20. Love Is An adventure

by Pierre Tielhart de Chardin

Love is an adventure and a conquest. It survives and develops, like the universe itself, only through perpetual discovery. The only right love is that between couples whose passion leads them both, one through the other, to a higher possession of their being.

Put your faith in the spirit that dwells between the two of you. You have each offered yourself to the other as a boundless field of understanding, of enrichment, of mutually increased sensibility.

You will meet above all by entering into and constantly sharing one another's thoughts, affections, and dreams. There alone, as you know, in spirit, which is arrived through flesh, you will find no disappointments, no limits.

There alone the skies are ever open for your love; there alone lies the great road ahead.

19. We Will Always Collide

by R.M. Drake

We will always collide...

You will be the clouds, and I will be the sky.

You will be the ocean, and I will be the shore.

You will be the trees, and I will be the wind.

Whatever we are, you and I will always collide.

18. A Marriage

by Mark Twain

A marriage makes two fractional lives whole, it gives two purposeless lives a purpose, and doubles the strength of each to perform it.

It gives two questioning natures a reason for living and something to live for.

It will bring new gladness to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers, new beauty to the earth, and a new mystery to life.

17. Always

by Lang Leav

You were you and I was I; We were two before our time.

I was yours before I knew, and you have always been mine too.

16. Buried Light

by Beau Taplin

Home is not where you're from, it's where you belong.

Some of us travel the whole world to find it.

Others find it in a person.

15. I Will Always Be Here

by Steven Curtis Chapman

If in the morning when you wake, if the sun does not appear, I will be here.

If in the dark we lose sight of love, hold my hand and have no fear, I will be here.

I'll be here when you feel like being quiet, and when you need to speak your mind, I'll listen.

Through the winning, losing, and trying, we'll be together, and I will be here.

If, in the morning, when you wake, and the future is unclear, I'll be here.

As sure as seasons are made for change, our lifetimes are made for years. I will be here.

I will be here, and you can cry on my shoulder when the mirror tells us we're older.

I will hold you, to watch you grow in beauty, and tell you all the things you are to me.

We'll be together, and I will be here. I will be true to the promises I've made to you and to the one who gave you to me.

I'll always be here.

14. Blessing Of The Hands

by Rev. Daniel L Harris

* Ideal for a family member or dear friend to share during a handfasting ritual.

These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever.

These are the hands that will work alongside yours as you build your future together.

These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.

These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.

These are the hands that will, countless times, wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.

These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.

These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.

These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.

And lastly, these are the hands that, even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.

13. Mutual Weirdness

by Robert Fulghum

We are all a little weird, and life is a little weird. When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutual weirdness, and call it love.

12. To Love Is Not To Possess

by James Kavanaughz

To love is not to possess, to own or imprison, nor to lose one's self in another.

Love is to join and separate, to walk alone and together, to find a laughing freedom that lonely isolation does not permit.

It is finally to be able to be who we are, no longer clinging to childish dependency or docilely living separate lives in silence. It is to be perfectly oneself and perfectly joined in a permanent commitment to another, and to one's inner self.

11. I'll Always Be With You

by A. A. Milne

Piglet sidled up to Pooh. "Pooh?" he whispered. Yes, Piglet?

Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. I just wanted to be sure of you.

We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh? Asked Piglet.

Even longer, Pooh answered. If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together,

There is something you must always remember.

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.

But the most important thing is, even if we're apart,

I'll always be with you.

10. Love Is

by Susan Polis Schutz

Love is being happy for the other person when they're happy, being sad for the other person when they're sad, and being together in both good times and bad times.

Love is the source of strength.

Love is being honest with yourself at all times, being honest with the other person at all times, telling the truth, listening to it, respecting it, and never pretending.

Love is the source of reality.

Love is an understanding that is so complete you feel as if you are a part of the other person. You accept the other person just the way they are, without trying to change them into something else.

Love is the source of unity.

Love is the freedom to pursue your own desires while sharing your experiences with the other person, and the growth of one individual alongside and together with the growth of another individual.

Love is the source of success.

Love is: the excitement of planning things together, the excitement of doing things together.

Love is the source of the future.

9: Cinderella

by Richard Bach

So This Is Love

So this is love—the magic that makes life divine.

I'm all aglow, and now I know the key to all heaven is mine.

My heart has wings—oh, I can fly! I'll touch every star in the sky.

So this is the miracle I've dreamed of…So this is love.

The Bridge Across Forever

A soulmate is someone whose locks fit our keys, and whose keys fit our locks.

When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our most authentic selves step out, and we can be completely and honestly who we are. We can be loved for who we are, not for who we're pretending to be.

Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person, we're safe in our paradise.

Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person.

Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

8: The Art Of Marriage

by Wilferd Arlan Peterson

It is:

Sharing a mutual sense of values and common dreams.
Standing together, facing the world as one.
Forming a circle of love that embraces your whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not out of duty, but with a spirit of joy. It is speaking gratitude aloud and showing appreciation in thoughtful ways.

It is:

Not expecting perfection, but cherishing growth.
Cultivating patience, humour, and understanding.
Having the strength to forgive and the wisdom to forget.

It gives each other space to flourish, and a love that makes growing old a gift.

It is a shared search for all things good and beautiful.

A true partnership means:

Independence that's equal,
Dependence that's mutual,
And a bond that's reciprocal.

Marriage isn't just about finding the right person—it's about being the right partner.

7: That Still And Settled Place

by Edward Monkton

In that still and settled place, there's nobody but you.

You're the oxygen I breathe, the horizon of my view.

When the world grows loud and restless, my heart remembers true - it returns to that quiet space and dances there with you.

6: That's Relativity

by Albert Einstein

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.

How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?

Put your hand on a stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.

Sit with that special girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.

That's relativity.

5: They brought you to me

by Pablo Neruda

I love your feet because they have wandered over the earth, and through the wind,

and water, until they brought you to me.

4: Carrie's Poem

Excerpt from Sex and the City

His hello was the end of all her endings.

Her laugh—their first step down the aisle.

His hand would be hers to hold forever.

His forever was as simple as her smile.

He said she was what was missing. She said she knew—

She was the question, and his answer was "I do."

3: The Velveteen Rabbit

by Margery Williams

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nanna came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful.

"When you are Real, you don't mind being hurt." Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes droop out, and you get loose in your joints and look very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.

2: On Children

by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children, as living arrows, are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

1: The Beauty of Love

Anonymous

The question is asked: "Is there anything more beautiful in life than a young couple clasping hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be anything more beautiful than young love?"

And the answer is given: "Yes, there is something more beautiful."

"It is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey together on that path.

Their hands are gnarled but still clasped; their faces are seamed but still radiant; their hearts are physically bowed and tired but still strong with love and devotion.

Yes, there is a more beautiful thing than young love.

Old love."

Click here to learn how to write unforgettable wedding vows: https://www.tedjohnson.com.au/post/how-to-write-unforgettable-wedding-vows

Please don't feel in any way obliged to ask any of your loved ones to read something written by somebody else.

Wouldn't it be amazing if they wrote and shared something original, something personal and special about you, or even about the two of you?

I hope this has been helpful and inspiring.

I'm here to help you save money, inspire you with new ideas, and to help make your special day as fun, as unique and as safe, but most importantly, as memorable as possible.

Yours sincerely,