I Love You wedding reading

Here’s the next in my series of awesome wedding readings you might like to include in your wedding ceremony!

Readings are absolutely not a compulsory part of a marriage ceremony. They’re a way of expressing something in a way that’s different from anything you or I can come up with, and they’re also a way of including additional people in the ceremony if you want to.

We’re not necessarily talking about Bible readings here, although you can include Bible passages if you want. You might like to consider poems, passages from films or books (especially those written for children), or song lyrics. To give an even more personal touch, some couples ask their loved ones to write something specifically for their ceremony. There are plenty of options!

I Love You, by Erich Fried

Fun fact: You may find a very similar poem to this attributed to Roy Croft – it is believed that Roy Croft is the pseudonym used by whomever translated the poem from its original German!

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what you have made of yourself,
But for what you are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me that you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
And passing over all the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern, but a temple;
Out of the works, of my every day
Not a reproach, but a song.

I love you
Because you have done more than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it by being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.