Choosing special ceremony readings from songs, books, movies or poems is one of the most fun parts of building your LGBTQ wedding ceremony. Gay wedding readings can be difficult to come by, though, as many inspired passages may use pronouns or other gendered language that don’t fit for your ceremony.

Here are some really beautiful pieces about love — culled from a variety of sources — to inspire your gay wedding vows. Whether you’re looking for a short and sweet one-liner to add to your gay wedding ceremony ideas or full-blown gay marriage poems to add touching moments to your same-sex wedding, we’ve got you covered. Of course, your marriage celebrant will help you create your ceremony and may have additional ideas for readings to personalize your wedding.

Scroll these gay wedding readings to find the perfect passages for your LGBTQI wedding!

Moulin Rouge

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return."

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Hodges v. Obergefell

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Barbara Cage

“Love is a partnership of two unique people who bring out the very best in each other, and who know that even though they are wonderful as individuals, they are even better together.”

Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith

"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 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."

Warsan Shire

"When I love, I love: wholly, thoroughly, completely, drowning in everything. Every glance can be a conversation, eyes just playing and saying what needs to be said. Silence is loud, and the air becomes heavy. I want you. I want all of you."

The Art of Marriage by Wilferd Arlan Peterson

"A good marriage must be created. In the art of marriage 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 each day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. 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 not only marrying the right partner –- It is being the right partner."

Maya Angelou

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”

The Wedding Singer

"I wanna make you smile whenever you're sad. Carry you around when your arthritis is bad. All I wanna 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 ya 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 wanna grow old with you"

This is my personal favourite that we used in our wedding. Sounds great if you have guitarist sing it like we did.

Amy Tan

“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”

i carry your heart with me" by ee 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)"

"Untitled" by Christina Rossetti

"What is the beginning? Love. What the course. Love still. What the goal. The goal is love. On a happy hill.

Is there nothing then but love? Search we sky or earth There is nothing out of Love Hath perpetual worth: All things flag but only Love, All things fail and flee; There is nothing left but Love Worthy you and me."

"And I Have You" by Nikki Giovanni

"Rain has drops Sun has shine Moon has beams That makes you mine Rivers have banks Sands for shores Hearts have heartbeats That make me yours Needles have eyes Though pins may prick Elmer has glue To make things stick Winter has Spring Stockings feet Pepper has mint To make it sweet Teachers have lessons Soup du jour Lawyers sue bad folks Doctors cure All and all This much is true You have me And I have you"

So there you have some gender neutral readings, but once again, remember that a reading within a ceremony is not necessarily religious (it can be, but it doesn't have to be). I have had many couples over the years choose text from a favourite movie scene, song lyrics and all sorts of pieces of text read during their ceremony. There are no rules.

Wedding Readings For Gay Couples