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About Bible Wedding Ceremony Readings

Scripture Readings for the Marriage Ceremony

by Mariano Tomaszewski
Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved

The adjective “popular” comes from the Latin word “popularis” meaning “of the people.”  Thus the popular wedding readings are those which appeal to the general public and are appreciated by a wide range of people.  Popular wedding readings don’t have to be, by definition, of a religious character, yet in the majority of marriage celebrations wedding readings remain spiritual in their nature.  Among various options for popular wedding ceremony reading, Bible readings are the most prominent and meaningful element for the couples of a Christian background.  Bible readings are rather a standard component of wedding ceremonies officiated in churches and chapels.  At the same time numerous outdoor celebrations of marriage involve a selection of one, two, three or even four fragments from the Bible including readings from the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament and Gospels. 

The number of popular wedding ceremony readings depends largely on how many texts you find that will be appealing to you to the point of incorporating them into your ceremony.  In some churches, particularly at Roman Catholic parishes, the priest or the minister may insist that you have a determined number of Scripture wedding readings because it is a part of the wedding liturgy of that church. Thus, in general, church marriage ceremonies are more rigid in terms of their contents and structure.  This may be a policy of a particular church and not necessarily a fixed idea of a clergy person.  For the Catholic wedding ceremonies typically there is a wedding reading from the Old Testament followed by a Responsorial Psalm and a reading from the New Testament.  After that the priest proclaims a reading from one of the Gospels that in some ways relates either to marriage, wedding or Christian life of a married couple.

Outdoor wedding ceremonies, either Catholic, non-denominational or other kinds of a spiritual Christian celebration of marriage are more flexible in terms of the number of wedding Scripture readings. Sometimes couples think that having three or four Bible wedding readings will take too much time and unnecessarily add to the overall length of the ceremony.  This concern, in my experience, is unfounded.  First of all Bible wedding readings are not long, typically just a few verses. You may also prepare a custom-made Scripture wedding reading that includes only the verses that carry an emphatic spiritual meaning to you.  It might be a good idea to discuss this with your officiant first.  Not only to get his or her approval which in some church wedding ceremonies might be necessary, but also to make sure that your officiant and the person(s) who will be reading a fragment from the Bible during your wedding ceremony have the same text in mind and on the actual paper.  Sometimes wedding officiants, in addition to Bible itself or a church lectionary, may have a prepared selection of Scriptural readings on a special card, pamphlet or in a decorative binder which will be handled to the delegated reader at the time of performance.  If things are not checked in advance it might happen that the wedding reading from the Bible is either shorter or longer than what you originally planned.  Attention should be also paid to the existence of various versions of wedding ceremony readings involving the Bible.  Also in this case it might happen, if things are not double-checked just before the ceremony, that the wedding scripture readings you had given to your reader(s) to practice sound a little different from what is in the texts that are about to be used during the ceremony.  Needless to say, because of different words employed in different translations, some readers while already performing might encounter certain words that they don’t know how to pronounce.  The embarrassing outcome can be imagined.  In brief, make sure, or have someone do it for you, that the length and the versions of your Bible wedding readings that are about to be proclaimed are exactly as planned.  There will be no second chance to improve the quality of the proclamation of your wedding ceremony readings.

Presently this website offers free samples and lists of suggestions of popular wedding ceremony readings: Catholic wedding readings, wedding Bible readings, and wedding scripture readings.  For most couples it is obvious that the above categories are the same thing, namely, biblical wedding readings.  Marriage-related scriptural samples found on this website remain among the most popular wedding readings.  While you may look for additional texts you can’t basically go wrong, in terms of appropriateness, meaningfulness, and expectations of your guests, if you use one of the proposed popular wedding readings from the Bible offered here.  In addition to the texts in English there is also a section dedicated to Catholic wedding readings in Spanish (Spanish wedding readings) and Catholic wedding readings in Italian (Italian wedding readings). 

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