As a wedding celebrant, I attend a lot of weddings and get to hear so many different beautiful readings. There’s a bottomless pit of incredible resources out there to pick from, particularly if you are looking for non-religious wedding ceremony readings.

Picking something that really speaks to you as a couple is always best. When things are authentic, it really strikes a chord with the audience listening and can make for a beautiful, heartfelt moment in the ceremony.

Poetry from yesteryear, while beautiful, doesn’t always feel relevant for contemporary couples. So when picking a ceremony reading, remember to think outside the box and draw inspiration from anything that has moved you, old and new – from movies, songs, TV, poetry and literature.

If there’s something that resonates with you both and links into your relationship – lyrics from a favourite song you both share, a movie that has some significance in your relationship etc., – it will make your ceremony all the more personal. I married a couple recently who were in the middle of renovating their first home together from scratch, and their best man read out a poem called “Scaffolding” by Seamus Heaney. The guests absolutely loved it because it was so relevant to them.

Below is a selection of some of my favourite modern readings as a wedding celebrant. If you are looking for more guidance, be sure to read my ultimate tips on how to choose your wedding readings.

1. Dolly Alderton, from the book “Everything I Know About Love”

I know that love can be loud and jubilant…It can be dancing in the swampy mud and the pouring rain at a festival and shouting “YOU ARE AMAZING” over the band. It’s introducing them to your colleagues at a work event and basking in pride as they make people laugh and make you look lovable just by dint of being loved by them.

It’s laughing until you wheeze.

It’s waking up in a country neither of you have been in before.

It’s skinny-dipping at dawn. It’s walking along the street together on a Saturday night and feeling an entire city is yours.

It’s a big, beautiful, ebullient force of nature.

I also know that love is a pretty quiet thing.

It’s lying on the sofa together drinking coffee, talking about where you’re going to go that morning to drink more coffee. It’s folding down pages of books you think they’d find interesting.

It’s hanging up their laundry when they leave the house having moronically forgotten to take it out of the washing machine.

It’s saying ‘You’re safer here than in a car’ as they hyperventilate on an EasyJet flight to Dublin.

It’s the texts: ‘Hope your day goes well’, ‘How did today go?’, ‘Thinking of you today’ and ‘Picked up loo roll’.

I know that love happens under the splendour of moon and stars and fireworks and sunsets but it also happens when you’re lying on blow-up airbeds in a childhood bedroom, sitting in A&E or in the queue for a passport, or in a traffic jam.

Love is a quiet, reassuring, relaxing, pottering, pedantic, harmonious hum of a thing; something you can easily forget is there, even though its palms are outstretched beneath you in case you fall.

2. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis De Bernieres 

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. 

No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love," which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

3. “I Wanna Be Yours” by John Cooper Clarke

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat
for those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
when you want to sail away
Let me be your teddy bear
take me with you anywhere
I don’t care
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out
I wanna be the electric heater
you’ll get cold without
I wanna be your setting lotion
hold your hair in deep devotion
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
that’s how deep is my devotion

4. “Northern Lights” by Philip Pullman

I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment.
And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart.

Every atom of me and every atom of you...
We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds
and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams...

And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight.

5. "The Art of Marriage" by Wilferd A. Peterson 

The little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.

It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating
gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

6. “Gift From The Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

When you love someone, you do not love them all the time,
in exactly the same way, from moment to moment.
It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to.
And yet this is exactly what most of us demand.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships.
We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb.
We are afraid it will never return.
We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity;
when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass,
but partners in the same pattern.

The only real security is not in owning or possessing,
not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even.
Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia,
nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation,
but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now.
Relationships must be like islands,
one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea,
and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.

7. "From Beginning to End" by Robert Fulghum 

The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, "You know all those things we've promised and hoped and dreamed—well, I meant it all, every word." Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another—acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. 

For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this—is my husband, this—is my wife.

8. “How being in love is like owning a dog” by Taylor Mali

First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.

On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security: when you’re walking down
the street late at night and you have a leash on love ain’t no one going to mess with you.

Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable. Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and
stay healthy.

Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.

It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad!
Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.

Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece
of newspaper and swat love on the nose, not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know don’t you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go out for
a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise. It will run you around the block and leave you panting, breathless. Pull you in different directions
at once, or wind itself around and around you until you’re all wound up and you cannot move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common
but love stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back, again, and again, and again.

But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.

And in return, love loves you and never stops.

9. "Buried Light" by Beau Taplin 

Home is not where
you are from

it is where
you belong.

Some of us
travel the whole
world to find it.

Others,
find it in a person.

10. From the movie "The Wedding Singer" 

I want to make you smile whenever you're sad. Carry you around when your arthritis is bad. All I want to do is grow old with you. I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches. Build you a fire if the furnace breaks. Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you. I'll miss you, Kiss you, Give you my coat when you are cold. Need you, Feed you, Even let you hold the remote control. So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink. Put you to bed if you've had too much to drink. I could be the man who grows old with you. I want to grow old with you.

11. “Guess how much I love you” by Sam McBratney

Little Nutbrown Hare, who was going to bed, held on tight to Big Nutbrown Hare’s very long ears. He wanted to be sure that Big Nutbrown Hare was listening. 
“Guess how much I love you,” he said. 
“Oh, I don’t think I could guess that,” said Big Nutbrown Hare. 
“This much,” said Little Nutbrown Hare, stretching out his arms as wide as they could go. 
Big Nutbrown Hare had even longer arms. “But I love YOU this much,” he said. 
Hmm, that is a lot, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. 
“I love you as high as I can reach.” said Little Nutbrown Hare. 
“I love you as high as I can reach,” said Big Nutbrown Hare. 
That is quite high, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. I wish I had arms like that. 
Then Little Nutbrown Hare had a good idea. He tumbled upside down and reached up the tree trunk with his feet. 
“I love you all the way up to my toes!” he said. 
“And I love you all the way up to your toes,” said Big Nutbrown Hare, swinging him up over his head. 
“But I love you as high as I can hop,” smiled Big Nutbrown Hare - and he hopped so high that his ears touched the branches above. 
That’s good hopping, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. I wish I could hop like that. 
“I love you all the way down the lane as far as the river,” cried Little Nutbrown Hare. 
“I love you across the river and over the hills,” said Big Nutbrown Hare. 
That’s very far, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. He was almost too sleepy to think any more.
Then he looked beyond the thorn bushes, out into the big dark night.
Nothing could be further than the sky. 
“I love you right up to the MOON,” he said, and closed his eyes. 
“Oh, that’s far,” said Big Nutbrown Hare. “That is very, very far.” 
Big Nutbrown Hare settled Little Nutbrown Hare into his bed of leaves. He leaned over and kissed him good night. 
Then he lay down close by and whispered with a smile, “I love you right up to the moon AND BACK.”

12. From the series "Sex and the City" 

His hello was the end of her endings.
Her laugh was 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 instantly she knew.
She was a question to be answered.
And his answer was "I do."

13. “At Last” Etta James

At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh, yeah, yeah

At last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I've never known (oh, yeah, yeah)

You smiled, you smiled
Oh, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in Heaven
For you are mine at last

14. From the series “Fleabag”

“Love is awful. It’s awful. It’s painful. It’s frightening. It makes you doubt yourself, judge yourself, distance yourself from the other people in your life. It makes you selfish. It makes you creepy, makes you obsessed with your hair, makes you cruel, makes you say and do things you never thought you would do. It’s all any of us want, and it’s hell when we get there. So no wonder it’s something we don’t want to do on our own. I was taught if we’re born with love then life is about choosing the right place to put it. People talk about that a lot, feeling right, when it feels right it’s easy. But I’m not sure that’s true. It takes strength to know what’s right. And love isn’t something that weak people do. Being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope. I think what they mean is, when you find somebody that you love, it feels like hope.”

 15. "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 Nana 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 drop out and you get loose in the joints and 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.”

 16. “For me” by Tracey Emin

Hurry
But do not hurry me,
Push
But do not push me,
Hold
But do not crush me’
Love
But do not change me
Let us stay the way we are

Devour
But do not consume me,
Thrill
But do not frighten me,
Excite
But do not scare me.
Teach
But do not change me
Let us learn from the way we are

Kiss
But do not smother me,
Embrace
But do not break me, 
Adore
But do not suffocate me,
Love
Let me love you
Just the way you are.

Gosh, I feel emotional just looking at these beautiful, modern wedding readings! Picking something that is meaningful to you as a couple is key. Working with a great celebrant who really understands you as a couple is so important, and means you will have lots of relevant, personalised recommendations for readings and much more.

If you’d like to hear more about how I work as a wedding celebrant, get in touch. Which of these non-religious ceremony readings do you love most?