Timeless Wedding Readings From Literature Even BookTok Will Love

Selecting a wedding reading from literature for your big day can give your ceremony a personalized feel without having to write your own vows. You don't have to worry about tripping over your own words when there's someone else reciting lines that have been read millions of times before.

And some of the most beautiful love stories throughout history have been told through the words of great authors. From Shakespeare to Hemingway, romance has found its way onto the page in the form of elegant poetry and prose, and everyday dialogue. There are tales that have been read for centuries and others that capture a more modern day experience of love and yearning.

For the couple planning their ceremony and looking to find an alternative to religious readings that doesn't steer too far in the direction of clever, quippy movie quotes, choosing one of these readings for weddings from literature feels like a fresh departure from the norm. It's meaningful yet relatable, and it's bound to resonate with your guests who have seen themselves in these same lines.

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Here are 15 of the greatest love stories and best wedding readings from literature, and, if you want help finding an officiant who can beautifully deliver every romance-packed line, look to the The Knot Vendor Marketplace for reviews and information.

The Best Wedding Readings From Literature: Classic | Modern | Romantic | Funny | Unique

Wedding Readings from Classic Literature

There are countless wedding readings from classic literature and novels, many of which you probably remember from your high school English class. But they hit differently when they're recited on your big day.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The dreamy words from The Little Prince are a favorite for wedding readings because of the way they speak to the genuine human experience, and Steven Greitzer, Founder and Officiant at Provenance, recommends this particular reading for those who want to focus on looking towards this new chapter.

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

Greitzer also recommends the straightforward words of Ernest Hemingway. Not one for extra flourishes, Hemingway speaks to the reality of being together.

"At night, there was the feeling that we had to come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together."

The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis

Jacqueline Bond, Co-Founder of art novel publishing house Bond & Grace, used literary quotes throughout her wedding day. This short excerpt from The Last Battle would make for a wonderful reading to close a ceremony.

"Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez

This classic Colombian novel has one of the most authentically romantic excerpts in its simple description of continuing to love each other through the years and as life passes on.

"Madly in love after so many years…they enjoyed the miracle of loving each other as much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn-out old people they kept on blooming like little children and playing together like dogs."

Wedding Readings from Modern Literature

There's no rule that says only authors from the 19th century can have the final say on love. These wedding readings from modern literature are equally inspiring.

The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks

If you get teary eyed every time you read or watch The Notebook, then what better novel to quote in your wedding ceremony? This excerpt sums up the movie's steadfast and stubborn romance in a few quick sentences.

"I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough."

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

The Princess Bride is one of those books that has a fanatic fan base, and anyone who's quoted this movie again and again will instantly recognize this alternative wedding reading from literature.

"Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches...I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids…"

A Gift From the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The excerpt on a good relationship is my favorite wedding reading of all time," says Christopher Shelly, wedding celebrant and officiant at Illuminating Ceremonies. Lindbergh writes of the quiet confidence of being together and living in lockstep.

"A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand, only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back—it does not matter which because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it.

The joy of such a pattern is...the joy of living in the moment. Lightness of touch and living in the moment are intertwined. One cannot dance well unless one is completely in time with the music, not leaning back to the last step or pressing forward to the next one, but poised directly on the present step as it comes... But how does one learn this technique of the dance? Why is it so difficult? What makes us hesitate and stumble? It is fear, I think, that makes one cling nostalgically to the last moment or clutch greedily toward the next. [And fear] can only be exorcized by its opposite: love."

Wild Awake, by Hilary Smith

No one is perfect, but everyone is deserving of love. That's the feeling behind this excerpt from Hilary Smith's novel Wild Awake. There will be flaws and cracks, but love looks even deeper than the surface to truly understand another.

"People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn't know were there, even the ones they wouldn't have thought to call beautiful themselves."

Romantic Wedding Readings from Literature

Some people have a way with words, and, conveniently for the rest of us, they've put everlasting love onto the page, ready to be recited on your big day. These are some of the most romantic wedding readings from literature.

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

For those who want a more romantic reading, full of beautifully strung together words and metaphors, look no further than the timeless words of Les Misérables.

"The future belongs to hearts even more than it does to minds. Love, that is the only thing that can occupy and fill eternity. In the infinite, the inexhaustible is requisite.

Love participates of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like it, it is the divine spark; like it, it is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable. It is a point of fire that exists within us, which is immortal and infinite, which nothing can confine, and which nothing can extinguish. We feel it burning even to the very marrow of our bones, and we see it beaming in the very depths of heaven."

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

The Jane Eyre devotees will be delighted to use such a classic reading. The fiery, strong imagery used here adds undeniable romance to your ceremony.

"I have for the first time found what I can truly love — I have found you. You are my sympathy — my better self — my good angel; I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you — and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one."

Funny Wedding Readings from Literature

If you want to garner a few chuckles from your guests, choose one of these classic excerpts that remind us that love should be lighthearted.

Oh the Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss

Great love is a journey, and Dr. Seuss' fun, whimsical book reminds us that, together, we can go to incredible places. This reading goes over particularly well when there are kids in attendance!

"Congratulations!/ Today is your day./ You're off to Great Places!/ You're off and away!/ You have brains in your head./ You have feet in your shoes./ You can steer yourself any direction you choose./ You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go./ You'll look up and down streets. Look'em over with care. About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there." With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down a not-so-good street./ And you may not find any you'll want to go down. In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town. It's opener there in the wide open air./ Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you./ And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew. Just go right along. You'll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You'll Go!/ You'll be on your way up!/ You'll be seeing great sights!/ You'll join the high fliers who soar to high heights./ You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed. You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest./ Except when you don't./ Because, sometimes, you won't.

You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?/ Yes! You will, indeed!/ (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)/ Kid, you'll move mountains!/ So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places!/ Today is your day!/ Your mountain is waiting./ So…get on your way!"

The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman

This excerpt from The Sandman has to be read with a lightheartedness or it can seem dark and pessimistic. With the right officiant, it's quirky and upbeat, reminding everyone what it's like to be freshly in love.

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life … You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you."

Unique Wedding Readings from Literature

Sometimes the reason a reading resonates it's that it isn't obviously about love, yet it hits home for you two—and that's what matters.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

While the words of The Little Prince don't immediately seem like a love story, they tell the true tale of the work that goes into love. It's the care and attention that makes it special.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty,' he went on. 'One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you - the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose."

The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

This favorite passage from a beloved childhood book is heartwarming, tear jerking, and another testament to the unique quality of finding your person.

"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."

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, by Louis De Bernieres

This excerpt is bound to make your most buttoned up guests a little bit uncomfortable, but the sentiment is charming. It speaks to the love that's there after the honeymoon period is long gone — and what should already be set into place by the time you walk down the aisle.

"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."