Readings in wedding ceremonies
Readings in wedding ceremonies can be great for two main reasons:
- they’re a great way of including someone in your wedding who isn’t in the wedding party or otherwise involved
- they’re a great way of including some sentiments about love and marriage written better than you or I can manage!
What is a wedding reading?
Now I’m not only talking about Bible readings. When I introduce the topic of readings at couple meetings, I often get the response, “oh we’re not religious.” That’s okay! The term “readings” covers all sorts of things:
- poems
- quotes
- passages from films
- passages from books
- entire kids’ books
- song lyrics
- and yes, Bible readings if that’s your thing.
I have a huge collection of readings that are awesome for wedding ceremonies; I can send them to you in a readings pack or you can check out my blog series of awesome wedding readings!
How many readings?
This is entirely up to you. I’ve had wedding ceremonies with no readings. I think my record is four wedding readings in a single ceremony. There’s no rules here!
If you’ve got more than one person you’d like involved, you don’t have to have multiple readings. Many of my collected readings work well with more than one reader.
Choosing people to read
I have two requests when you’re thinking about readings.
Please don’t choose people for whom public speaking is a burden. The last thing you want is for someone to be dreading coming to your wedding because they have to give a reading. I had a wedding many years ago featuring two readings. Both readers approached me before the ceremony to say, “I really don’t want to do this, is there any way out of it?” That’s not the vibe you want at your ceremony! Make sure you choose readers who are excited and honoured to speak at your ceremony, not people who will dread it.
Please do choose people who will inject some life into what they’re reading. Often people read these beautiful words like robots, and it hurts my soul. We do not want to do damage to my soul, do we?
Sometimes the couple wants to read something themselves. Sometimes they choose me to read something special for them. Both those options are also totally fine!
More information
Click here to find an overview of a traditional Australian wedding ceremony.
Read all the posts in my series about Australian wedding ceremonies here.
Find all the posts in my series about marriage legalities here.