No matter where, no matter when, no matter who, when it comes to the wedding ceremony, most couples in the UK still choose a romantic reading to set the mood – here are some of the most popular choices. Send us your own particular favourite and we’ll add it to the collection.

1 Corinthians. 13:4-13 

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love

 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways... 

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

 

I Love You...  

I love you.

You are my best friend.

Today I give myself to you in marriage.

I promise to encourage and inspire you,

to laugh with you, and to comfort you

in times of sorrow and struggle.

I promise to love you in good times and in bad,

when life seems easy and when it seems hard,

when our love is simple, and when it is an effort.

I promise to cherish you,

and to always hold you in highest regard.

These things I give to you today,

and all the days of our life. 

 

An Apache Blessing 

Now you will feel no rain, for

each of you will be shelter for the other.

Now you will feel no cold, for

each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now there will be no loneliness, for

each of you will be companion to the other.

Now you are two persons, but

there is only one life before you.

May beauty surround you both in the

journey ahead and through all the years.

May happiness be your companion and

your days together be good and long upon the earth.

 

Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and

remind yourselves often of what brought you together.

Give the highest priority to the tenderness,

gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.

When frustration, difficulties and fear assail your relationship, as

they threaten all relationships at one time or another,

remember to focus on what is right between you,

not only the part which seems wrong.

In this way, you can ride out the storms when

clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives -

remembering that even if you lose sight

of it for a moment, the sun is still there.

And if each of you takes responsibility for

the quality of your life together,

it will be marked by abundance and delight.

 

Our Pledge 

We pledge to each other to be loving friends and partners in marriage.

To talk and to listen, to trust and appreciate one another;

to respect and cherish each other's uniqueness; and to

support, comfort and strengthen each other through life's joys and sorrows.

We promise to share hopes, thoughts and dreams as we build our lives together.

May our lives be ever intertwined, our love keeping us together.

We will build a home that is compassionate to all,

full of respect and honour for others and each other.

May our home be forever filled with peace, happiness and love.

 

Kahlil Gibran on Marriage 

From Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet

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.

 

I Promise 

by Dorothy R. Colgane

I promise to give you the best of myself

and to ask of you no more than you can give.

 

I promise to respect you as your own person

and to realise that your interests, desires and needs

are no less important than my own.

 

I promise to share with you my time and my attention

and to bring joy, strength, and imagination to our relationship.

 

I promise to keep myself open to you,

to let you see through the window of my world into my innermost

fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.

 

I promise to grow along with you,

to be willing to face changes in order to keep our relationship

alive and exciting.

 

I promise to love you in good times and bad,

with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how.

Completely and forever.

 

I take you as my partner... 

I take you as my partner, my friend and my love.

My hopes and dreams will now be intermingled with yours.

I will seek to balance my needs with those of our community and family.

I will openly draw from our combined experience

and feelings in our search for truth and meaning.

I will strive for harmony through compromise and understanding.

 

I will be forgiving, but not complacent.

From this day forward, I take shared responsibility

for our marriage, family, community and myself,

regardless of our successes or failures.

 

I promise to be faithful and true to you in mind,

body, and spirit; to cherish you and respect you;

and to be a source of comfort and encouragement,

free and bound by our love, as long as we shall live.

 

As We Renew Our Vows 

Today, we reaffirm our commitment to each other

as beloveds and partners in marriage.

We continue to strive to be sensitive to each other's needs,

to be open and understanding with each other,

and to share our thoughts, our feelings,

and our experiences with each other.

We renew our promise to try always to

bring out the qualities of forgiveness, compassion,

and integrity in our selves and in each other.

We continue to cherish each other's uniqueness.

We continue to share in life's joys and remain steadfast

and comfort each other through life's sorrows.

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds - Sonnet 116

By William Shakespeare

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-fixèd 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 proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

 

If Thou Must Love Me

bY Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

If thou must love me, let it be for naught

Except for love's sake only. Do not say,

'I love her for her smile - her look - her way

Of speaking gently, for a trick of thought

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day' -

For these things in themselves, beloved, may

Be changed, or change for thee - and love, so wrought,

May be unwrought so. Neither love me for

Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:

A creature might forget to weep, who bore

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!

But love me for love's sake, that evermore

Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

 

I Will 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 will be here,

When you feel like being quiet,

When you need to speak your mind I will listen.

Through the winning, losing, and trying we'll be together,

And I will be here.

If in the morning when you wake,

If the future is unclear,

I will be here.

As sure as seasons were made for change,

Our lifetimes were 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 will be here.

 

To My Bride

By Steven Reiser

To my bride, I give you my heart

Sharing love each day, from the very start

To my bride, I give you my kiss

Filling each day with joy and bliss

To my bride, I give you my being

To love, to play, to work and to sing

To my bride, I give you my mind

Learning each day to be more kind

To my bride, I give you my soul

Growing together to be more whole

To my bride, I give you my life

Rejoicing each day that you are my wife.

 

Yes, I'll Marry You

By Pam Ayres

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,

And here's the reason why;

So I can push you out of bed

When the baby starts to cry,

And if we hear a knocking

And it's creepy and it's late,

I hand you the torch you see,

And you investigate.

Yes I'll marry you, my dear,

You may not apprehend it,

But when the tumble-drier goes

It's you that has to mend it,

You have to face the neighbour

Should our labrador attack him,

And if a drunkard fondles me

It's you that has to whack him.

Yes, I'll marry you,

You're virile and you're lean,

My house is like a pigsty

You can help to keep it clean.

That sexy little dinner

Which you served by candlelight,

As I do chipolatas,

You can cook it every night!

It's you who has to work the drill

and put up curtain track,

And when I've got PMT it's you who gets the flak,

I do see great advantages,

But none of them for you,

And so before you see the light,

I do, I do, I do!

 

By the Seaside 

As we stand beside the ocean tide,

may our love always be as constant and unchanging

as these never-ending waves that pour beneath our feet,

flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea;

your love came softly upon my heart,

just as the foam comes softly upon the sand,

and just as there will never be a morning

without the ocean's flow,

so there will never be a day

without my love for you.

I pledge myself to you this day.

Our love will be as unchanging

and dependable as the tide;

as these waters nourish the earth

and sustain life, may my constant devotion

nourish and sustain you

until the end of time.

 

The Key to Love

Author Unknown

The key to love is understanding.

The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word

But those unspoken gestures,

The little things that say so much by themselves.

The key to love is forgiveness.

To accept each others faults and pardon mistakes

Without forgetting, but with remembering

What you learn from them.

The key to love is sharing.

Facing your good fortune as well as the bad, together.

Both conquering problems, forever searching for ways

To intensify your happiness

The key to love is giving.

Without thought of return,

But with the hope of just a simple smile

And by giving in but never giving up.

The key to love is respect.

Realising that you are two separate people, with different ideas.

That you don't belong to each other,

You belong with each other, and share a mutual bond.

The key to love is inside us all.

It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients.

It is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work..

But the rewards are more than worth the effort.

And that is the key to love!