Looking for love poems for your wedding? Well, you’ve come to the right place!
Whether you’re hoping to add a love poem to your ceremony, incorporate one into your reception speech or add a little wedding poetry to your wedding website, you’ll find lots of poems for your wedding needs below. We’re sharing 39 of our favourite love poems with something for everyone – short poems, religious poems, modern poems, traditional poems, funny poems and more!
Ready? Let’s get poetical!
Do you need poems for your wedding?
No, poems for your wedding are not mandatory. If you’re not into poetry or would prefer to add a reading or quote to your wedding day instead, you don’t have to choose a poem.
But keep in mind, you don’t have to be a poetry expert or poet yourself in order to incorporate a poem into your wedding day. If you find a poem that resonates with you or a good place to add a poem, go for it!
Even if you don’t recite a poem during your wedding, you may still want to add a wedding poem to your program, website, signage, etc. You could even let a love poem inspire your vows!
How do you choose the best wedding poem?
If you’re familiar with poetry and have a favourite poet or poetry style, head there first. Read through some of your favourite poems and see if any would work well for your wedding day.
If you don’t have a favourite poet or book of poetry, don’t worry! You can still choose a great poem for your wedding day. Start by reading through our list of wedding poems below. See if any stand out to you or inspire you to find similar poetry.
Once you have a wedding poem in mind, take some time to test it out. Practice saying it out loud or asking your wedding reader to recite it. Of course, you’ll also want to make sure your partner is into the poem, if you’re not picking out a poem together.
Where do use poems during a wedding?
You can incorporate poems into so many different parts of your wedding! Below are a few ideas to get you started:
- Ask your officiant to recite a poem during your ceremony script
- Ask your ceremony reader to share a poem
- Add a poem to your wedding program or wedding website
- Recite a poem during your wedding speech or toast
- Add a poem to your wedding decor, such as a wedding sign
- Write lines of poetry into cards for your spouse-to-be
- Use poetry in your wedding vows
39 of the best love poems for your wedding:
The Wedding Poem: I Carry Your Heart With Me – E.E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
Short Wedding Poem: This Day I Married My Best Friend – Unknown
This day I married my best friend
the one I laugh with as we share life’s wonderous zest,
as we find new enjoyments and experience all that’s best.
the one I live for because the world seems brighter
as our happy times are better and our burdens feel much lighter.
the one I love with every fiber of my soul.
We used to feel vaguely incomplete, now together we are whole.
A Wedding Prayer – Robert Louis Stevenson
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Looking for more wedding prayers? Check out the best wedding prayers and blessings!
Best Love Poem for Traditional Couples: These I Can Promise – Mark Twain
I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;
I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold;
I cannot promise you an easy pathway
That leads away from change or growing old.
But I can promise all my heart’s devotion;
A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;
A love that’s ever true and ever growing;
A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.
Wedding Poetry for Readers: Love’s Philosophy – Emily Bronte
Love is like the wild rose-briar
Friendship like the holly tree
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most constantly?
The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air
Yet wait till winter comes again
And who will call the wild-briar fair?
Then, scorn the silly rose-wreath now
And deck with thee the holly’s sheen,
Then when December blights thy brow
He still may leave thy garland green.
A Wedding Poem for Book Lovers: Hope Is The Thing With Feathers – Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chilliest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity
It asked a crumb of me.
A Wedding Toast – James Bertolino
May your love be firm,
And may your dream of a life together
be a river between two shores
by day bathed in sunlight, and by night
illuminated from within. May the heron
carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring
the sea’s blue grace. May your twin thoughts spiral upward
like leafy vines, like fiddle strings in the wind,
and be as noble as the Douglas fir.
May you never find yourselves back to back
without love pulling you around
into each other’s arms.
Classic Marriage Poem: How Do I Love Thee? – 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 an Ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’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 the passion put to use
In my old grief’s, 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.
Traditional Marriage Poetry: Sonnet 116 – 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:
Oh, no! It is an ever-fixed mark.
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
it is the star to every wandering 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.
11. Love (III) – George Herbert
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
Form my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d any thing.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
Short Love Poem: The Minute I Heard My First Love Story – Rumi
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you,
Not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
A Poem About Marriage and Love: The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.
Poem of Marriage: I Belong In Your Arms – Deborah Bridea
I belong in your arms
Finally, I have found a place
Into which I fit Perfectly, Safely
And securely with no doubts,
No fears, No sadness, No tears.
This place is filled with happiness and laughter
Yet it is spacious enough, to allow me
The freedom to move around,
To live my life and be myself.
This wonderful place, which I never believed really existed,
I have found Finally
Inside your arms, Inside your heart, inside your love.
Poem About Marriage & Falling in Love: Falling Stars – Rainer Maria Rilke
Do you remember still the falling stars
that like swift horses through the heavens raced
and suddenly leaped across the hurdles
of our wishes–do you recall? And we
did make so many! For there were countless numbers
of stars: each time we looked above we were
astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,
while in our hearts we felt safe and secure
watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,
knowing somehow we had survived their fall.
Scottish Wedding Poem: O My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose – Robert Burns
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!
Wedding Poem of Love: Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms – Thomas Moore
Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,
Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,
Live fairy-gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.
It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear!
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose!
Classic Love Poem for Wedding: Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
Being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vex’d, a sea norish’d with lovers’ tears;
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Traditional Love Poetry: She Walks in Beauty – Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Short Wedding Love Poem: Love Is A Place – E.E. Cummings
love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds
Poem About Love and Marriage: The Gift – Pam Brown
In you are flowers and firelight,
stars and songbirds,
the scent of summer,
the stillness just before dawn.
I love you today,
dressed in glory.
I will love you always-
dancing, singing, reading, making, planning, arguing.
I will love you cantankerous, and tired,
courageous and in terror,
joyful, fearful and triumphant.
I will love you through all weathers and all change.
For all you are is precious to me.
And every day I live with you
and share your love
is a gift to me.
Romantic Wedding Poem: 20 Sonnet XVII – Pablo Neruda
I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
Funny Wedding Poem: Wedding Vow Haiku – Tracy Davidson
I promise to love
and will gladly honour you
but obey? no way!
Short Wedding Poem: In Your Light I Learn How to Love – Rumi
In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.
A Native American Wedding Ceremony Poem
May the sun bring you new happiness by day;
May the moon softly restore you by night;
May the rain wash away your worries
And the breeze blow new strength into your being,
And all the days of your life
May you walk gently through the world
and know its beauty.
Modern Wedding Poem: Be My Homer – CJ Munn
Be my Homer
I wanna be your Marge.
If I’m your Norfolk Broads
Will you be my barge?
Let’s please be Tom and Barbara,
I will show you The Good Life.
Even though we’re not yet married
I would love to be your wife.
Like Mr and Mrs Huxtable,
We’d smooch even when we’re wrinkly.
I’ll even consider ironing your shirts,
But I hope you like them crinkly.
Like Mr and Mrs Incredible
I’m flexible and you’re tough.
But if you promise to be my true love
That will always be enough.
Like Bonny and that Clyde guy
without all the dying.
Like Gwyneth and that Coldplay man
without all the crying.
My partner in crime, the love of my life,
My muse, my joy, my fun.
Please be my one and only,
Cos you’ve always been ‘The One’.
Love and Marriage Poem: Devoted – Lori Eberhai
My heart can be your home,
my soul can be your refuge.
You can turn to me when you are weak,
you can call to me when the way is not clear.
I will be your promise and your prayer,
I will always be there,
Constant and complete.
Run to me,
reach out for me,
and I will love you in a unique and tender way.
Bring your love to me,
share your love with me,
sing your love to me,
and I will offer you peace, ease and comfort.
Poem for a Couple: Again and Again, However We Know The Landscape of Love – Rainer Maria Rilke
Again and again, however we know the landscape of love
and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,
and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others
fall: again and again the two of us walk out together
under the ancient trees, lie down again and again
among the flowers, face to face with the sky.
Wedding Love Poem: I Saw Two Clouds at Morning – John G. C. Brainard
I saw two clouds at morning,
tinged by the rising sun,
and in the dawn they floated on,
and mingled into one;
I thought that morning cloud was blest,
it moved so sweetly to the west.
I saw two summer currents
flow smoothly to their meeting,
and join their course, with silent force,
in peace each other greeting;
calm was their course through banks of green,
while dimpling eddies played between.
Such be your gentle motion,
‘till life’s last pulse shall beat;
like summer’s beam and summer’s stream,
float on in joy, to meet
a calmer sea, where storms shall cease,
a purer sky, where all is peace.
Short Marriage Poem from Aristotle
Every heart sings a song, incomplete,
until another heart whispers back.
Those who wish to sing always find a song.
At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
Meaningful Wedding Poem: The One – Unknown
When the one whose hand you’re holding
Is the one one who holds your heart
When the one whose eyes you gaze into
Gives your hopes and dreams their start,
When the one you think of first and last
Is the one who holds you tight,
And the things you plan together
Make the whole world seem just right,
When the one whom you believe in
puts their faith and trust in you,
You’ve found the one and only love
You’ll share your whole life through.
Short Poem About Marriage: When Two People Are At One – I Ching
When two people are at one in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.
Classic Wedding Poem: To Love Is Not to Posses – James Kavanaugh
To love is not to possess,
To own or imprison,
Nor to lose one’s self in another.
Love is to join and separate,
To walk alone and together,
To find a laughing freedom
That lonely isolation does not permit.
It is finally to be able
To be who we really are
No longer clinging in childish dependency
Nor docilely living separate lives in silence,
It is to be perfectly one’s self
And perfectly joined in permanent commitment
To another—and to one’s inner self.
Love only endures when it moves like waves,
Receding and returning gently or passionately,
Or moving lovingly like the tide
In the moon’s own predictable harmony,
Because finally, despite a child’s scars
Or an adult’s deepest wounds,
They are openly free to be
Who they really are—and always secretly were,
In the very core of their being
Where true and lasting love can alone abide.
Short Poem on Marriage: The Day Sky – Hafiz
Let us be like
two falling stars in the day sky.
Let no one know of our sublime beauty
as we hold hands with God
and burn
Into a sacred existence that defies
that surpasses
Every description of ecstasy
and love.
Fun Wedding Poem: Roll on the Wedding! – Catherine Smith
The band has been booked, the cake has been made,
the photographer’s chosen, all bills have been paid.
The guests are decided, the menu too;
Something borrowed? Check! Ditto old and blue.
The stationery’s been ordered, along with the flowers,
favours are done after fiddling for hours.
The stag do’s a blur, same goes for the Hen –
won’t be drinking that much in one sitting again!
The dress has been picked, accessories bought;
there’s nothing to schedule, no more to sort.
After endless to-do lists for over a year,
it’s time to relax; the big day is here!
Sitting here with my girls as our hair gets done,
I can’t help feeling lucky to have found ‘the One’ –
Just think, by lunchtime I’ll be his new wife!
Roll on the wedding, and our new married life!
Funny Love Poem: Becalmed Bedazzled Bewitched Besotted – Nick Williams
Across the road,
I watched as you window shopped, bag in hand
And as people and cars rushed past, I stood motionless
as a boat
becalmed…
And at that party,
there was a strange aura that hovered around you,
but maybe it was just you, the cheap wine, and me
feeling
bedazzled…
And for weeks after that,
my every waking thought (when my mind was clear enough to think)
has been of you, leaving me
spellbound,
bewitched…
And now here we are,
nervous, on show and in clothes we’ll never wear again,
and I’m still staring at you,
totally
besotted.
Love Poetry for Weddings: Touched by an Angel – Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
Wedding Love Poem: The Lark in the Clear Air – Unknown
Dear thoughts are in my mind and my soul it soars enchanted
As I hear the sweet lark sing in the clear air of the day
For a tender beaming smile to my hope has been granted
And tomorrow he shall hear all my fond heart longs to say
I will tell him all my love, all my soul’s pure adoration
And I know he will hear my voice and he will not answer me nay
It is this that gives my soul all it’s joyous elation
As I hear the sweet lark sing in the clear air of the day.
Religious Wedding Poem: Slow Me Down, Lord! – Wilferd A. Peterson
Let me look upward
into the branches of the towering oak
and know that it is great and strong
because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord,
and inspire me to send my roots deep
into the soil of nature’s enduring values
that I may grow towards the stars
of my greater destiny.
Spiritual Wedding Poem: Stardust – Lang Leav
If you came to me with a face I have not seen, with a name I have never heard, I would still know you. Even if centuries separated us, I would still feel you. Somewhere between the sand and the stardust, through every collapse and creation, there is a pulse that echoes of you and I.
When we leave this world, we give up all our possessions and our memories. Love is the only thing we take with us. It is all we carry from one life to the next.
One of the Best Poems for Your Wedding: My Love – Jane Graham
You say you love me
I know it’s true
Without your love
What would I do?
My heart will sing
‘you kiss my soul’
This is the thing
That makes us whole
Together we will face our life
You as my husband
Me your wife
Sharing, caring, journeying on
With only love notes
For our song.
Not sure about poems for your wedding? Try these!
If you’re not sure a poem is for you or if you’re looking for more beautiful words to add to your wedding day, then check out our list of wedding readings, quotes, scripture, sayings, jokes, wedding prayers, blessings and more!
- Our Top 10 Readings for Weddings
- Wedding Ceremony Readings from Songs
- Romantic Wedding Ceremony Readings
- Wedding Ceremony Readings from TV & Movies
- Wedding Ceremony Readings from Literature
- Offbeat Wedding Ceremony Readings
- Alternatives to 1 Corinthians 13 for Your Wedding
- The Best Wedding Prayers & Blessings for Your Wedding Ceremony
- 33 Wedding Love Quotes to Include in Your Wedding Ceremony
- 29 Modern Wedding Readings for Your Ceremony
- 43 Romantic Marriage Quotes for Your Wedding Day
- 48 Hilarious Wedding Puns, Jokes & Quotes
Riana Ang-Canning has been working with Young Hip & Married since 2017. She is a professional content writer with experience in travel, lifestyle and weddings. Riana not only writes Young Hip & Married blog posts but is also involved with the company's internal communications, social media, copywriting and more. She knows YHM, and the wedding world, inside and out!
