Here we go! A list of the 25 most romantic wedding readings from movies and TV for you to choose from on your big day. Your ceremony should be reflective of you as a couple, so choose readings that are significant to your history, or speak to you both in terms of what you wish for the future.
For some of these passages, I recommend using them as inspiration and perhaps taking just a few words, and working them into your own version of readings and/or your vows. Or mentioning a line, and then talking about how these characters perfectly capture your feelings and relationship. For example, your reader might say, “In the Office, Jim and Pam say this…” and then “Their commitment reminds me of another couple I know…”
It could be a good chance for your readers to connect with the crowd using light, pop culture references in an otherwise semi-serious ceremony.
Don’t feel obligated to reenact an entire scene or monologue in the readings or in your vows 🙂 Edit and change the words as you see fit. Have fun with it and enjoy the process!
25 Romantic Wedding Readings
from Movies and TV
1. Parks and Recreation
April and Andy’s wedding vows (and aftermath)
April: I guess I kind of hate most things. But I never really seem to hate you. So I want to spend the rest of my life with you, is that cool?
Andy: I want to spend the rest of my life, every minute, with you. And I’m the luckiest man in the galaxy.
Andy: I really think you should just do whatever makes you happy. That’s what April and I did. We are in love, so we didn’t overthink it. I mean, seriously, I cannot emphasize how little we thought about this.
“The things that you have done for me, to help me, support me, surprise me, to make me happy, go above and beyond what any person deserves. You’re all I need. I love you and I like you.” —Leslie
2. The Office
Michael’s Proposal to Holly
Holly: [everyone in the office is standing in the kitchen with a lit candle] Hi guys.
Michael: This is where our love faces its toughest test. After this, its just smooth sailing for the rest of our lives.
Jim: Holly, will you marry me?
Holly: No.
Stanley: Marry me Holly.
Holly: No.
Michael: That guy’s got more than he can handle as it is.
Oscar: Will you marry me?
Holly: No.
Michael: That marriage would be a sham.
Gabe: Will you marry me?
Holly: No.
Michael: Easy no.
Angela: Will you marry me?
Holly: No.
Michael: That would be hot. I would pay to see that.
Ryan: Will you marry me Holly?
Holly: No.
Michael: Only one that I was kind of worried about.
Michael: [the area where Holly’s desk is is filled with lit candles] This is where I fell in love with you. And this is where I ask you to marry me. It started with.. [fire sprinklers go on] Holly Flax, marrying me will you be?
Holly: Your wife becoming me will I. [everyone in the kitchen starts cheering, then enters annex]
Kevin: That’s awesome!
Pam: Congratulations!
Jim: Congratulations!
Michael: Thank you. So guys, guys, guys. We’re moving to Colorado.
Kevin: All of us?
Michael: Yep.
Jim: Wait, what?
Michael: Holly has to go back to Colorado. I’m going with her. I’m leaving.
3. Star Trek: Voyager
Chakotay: I’ve been trying to make sense of it. I fell in love with her twice; I thought she could do the same. We were the same two people on the same ship. Why didn’t it happen again? I keep going over and over our last conversation, trying to think if there was something I could have said, could have done. But nothing comes to mind.
Neelix: Commander, I don’t think you can analyze love. It’s the greatest mystery of all. No one knows why it happens, or doesn’t. Love is a chance combination of elements. Any one thing might be enough to keep it from igniting – a mood, a glance… a remark. And if we could define love, predict it – it would probably lose its power.
4. Schitt’s Creek
David and Patrick
“I love our relationship. I love it when you order me pizza.
I love when you use words like inventory!
I even love those stupid rubber things you put on your fingers ’cause you think they flip the pages faster.
They don’t flip the pages faster. They don’t flip the pages faster!”
— David Rose
The Best by Tina Turner – Sung to David by Patrick in one of TV’s most romantic moments of all time
I call you when I need you, my heart’s on fire
You come to me, come to me wild and wired
Oh, you come to me, give me everything I need
Give me a life time of promises and a world of dreams
Speak the language of love like you know what it means
Mm, and it can’t be wrong, take my heart and make it strong, babe
You’re simply the best, better than all the rest
Better than anyone, anyone I ever met
I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say
Tear us apart, baby, I would rather be dead
In your heart I see the start of every night and every day
In your eyes I get lost, I get washed away
Just as long here in your arms I could be in no better place
You’re simply the best, better than all the rest
Better than anyone, anyone I ever met
5. Game of Thrones
Grey Worm tells Missandei that she is his weakness
Grey Worm: Y-you are my weakness.
Missandei: That’s what I am? Your weakness?
Grey Worm: When Unsullied are young, the masters learn their fears. One boy is scared of dogs, one boy hates high places, one is frightened of the ocean. They make the boy sleep with dogs or climb a cliff. They throw him in the water. If he learns to swim, good. If he drowns, good. Either way, strong Unsullied. But I had no fears. I was never the biggest, never the strongest… but I was bravest, always. Until… I meet Missandei from the Isle of Naath. Now I have fear.
Khaleesi and Khal Drogo’s Wedding
“As you are the Moon of his life, he shall be your Sun and Stars. Your love shall be as ever present as those two celestial bodies… even though they are sometimes hidden from one another’s sight. Your love will be the guiding force that charts the course of your tomorrows, holds your world together in difficult times, and will make life itself shine bolder and brighter than we human beings have a right to dream of.”
6. This is Us
Too many to count! Here are a few romantic monologues from This is Us that can be used in wedding readings or vows.
“I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t think that we would end up together. The single most extraordinary thing I’ve ever done with my life is fall in love with you. I’ve never been seen so completely, loved so passionately and protected so fiercely.”
– Beth to Randall
“Our marriage wasn’t perfect, it’s true. But none are. Your father wasn’t perfect either, but he was pretty damn close. As close as they come. He pushed a stranger on me, and that stranger became my child, and that child became my life. He became you.”
– Rebecca to Randall
“You’re not just my great love story, Rebecca, you are my big break. And our love story? I know it may not feel like it right now, baby, but I promise you, it’s just getting started.”
– Jack to Rebecca
“He loves you like he’s in a Disney movie or something. He hears tiny forest animals singing or playing kazoos or something, whenever you walk into a room. But if you’re sad, then you should talk to him. He’ll tell you you’re exceptional and he’ll say it so easy that you’ll believe it.”
– Deja to Beth
“I think that’s sort of how it works you know? We go through life slowly but surely collecting these little pieces of ourselves that we can’t really live without until we eventually have enough of them to feel whole.”
-Kevin
7. Mad Men
Don Draper’s pitch
“Nostalgia — it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, ‘nostalgia’ literally means ‘the pain from an old wound’. It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.
This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It let’s us travel the way a child travels — around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved.”
8. Meet Joe Black
William Parrish: I know it’s a cornball thing, but love is passion. Obsession. Someone you can’t live without. I say fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy, and who’ll love you the same way back. How do you you find ’em? Well, you forget your head and you listen to your heart. I’m not hearing any heart. Because the truth is, honey, there’s no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven’t lived a life at all. But you have to try, because if you haven’t tried, you haven’t lived.
9. Friends
“For so long I wondered if I would ever find my prince, my soul mate. Then three years ago, at another wedding, I turned to a friend for comfort. And instead, I found everything that I’d ever been looking for my whole life. And now here we are with our future before us, and I only want to spend it with you, my prince, my soulmate, my friend.”
—Monica Geller-Bing
10. One Tree Hill
Lucas Scott: Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always. A promise. Like a reward for persisting through life so long alone. A belief in each other and the possibility of love. A decision to ignore, simply rise above the pain of the past. A covenant, which at once binds two souls and yet severs prior ties. A celebration of the chance taken and the challenge that lies ahead. For two will always be stronger than one, like a team braced against the tempest civil world. And love will always be the guiding force in our lives. For tonight is mere formality. Only an announcement to the world of feelings long held. Promises made long ago. In the sacred spaces of our hearts.
11. Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith’s speech to Derek
Meredith Grey: Okay here it is. Your choice. It’ s simple. Her or me. And I’m sure she’ s really great. But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big – pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window – unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me. Choose me. Love me.
“So this, I am sure. You are my partner. My lover. My very best friend. My heart. My heart beats for you. And on this day, the day of our wedding, I promise you this. I promise you to lay my heart in the palm of your hands; I promise you…me.” —Dr. Preston Burke
12. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel’s monologue on passion
Passion.
It is born, and though uninvited, unwelcome,
unwanted…like a cancer it takes root.
It festers. It bleeds. It scabs…
only to rupture and bleed anew.
It grows…it thrives…until it consumes.
It lives, so it must die. It lies in all of us.
Sleeping, waiting, and though unwanted, unbidden,
it will stir–open its jaws and howl.
It speaks to us, guides us. Some to despair…
it drives others to murder and others to madness.
Passion rules us all, and we obey.
What other choice do we have?
Passion is the source of our finest moments:
the joy of love, the clarity of hatred,
and the ecstasy of grief.
It hurts sometimes more than we can bare.
Passion is the source of hope and the cause of despair.
It is the source of life and the cause of death.
If we could live without passion,
maybe we’d know some kind of peace.
But we would be hollow.
Empty rooms, shuttered and dank.
Without passion, we’d be truly dead.
“When I say, ‘I love you,’ it’s not because I want you or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I’ve seen your kindness and your strength. I’ve seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You’re a hell of a woman. You’re the one.”
—Spike
13. Boy Meets World
Topanga: I wasn’t sure this day would ever come, but you were. I wasn’t sure love could survive everything we put it through, but you were. You were always strong and always sure. And now I know I want you to stand beside me for the rest of my life. That’s what I’m sure of.
Cory: Ever since I was young I never understood anything about the world, and I never understood anything that happened in my life. The only thing that ever made sense to me was you, and how I felt about you. That’s all I’ve ever known and that’s enough, that’s enough for me, for the rest of my life. Topanga, we gonna get married?
Topanga: Yea, we are.
Cory: Good, cause, umm I have these rings… I love you Topanga.
Topanga: I love you too, Cory.
14. The Wedding Singer
Adam Sandler’s character’s song, sung to Drew Barrymore on the plane
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, growin old with you.
I’ll miss you, kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold.
Need you, feed you, I’ll even let you hold the remote control.
So let me do the dishes in the kitchen sink
Put you to bed when you’ve had too much to drink.
Oh I could be the man to grow old with you.
I wanna grow old with you.
15. The Notebook
“Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can’t control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That’s what it was like for me. I didn’t plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of use could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that’s why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory.” —Noah
“I love you, Allie. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I’ve ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.
And, my darling, you will always be mine.”
16. Sex and the City
“Carrie’s Poem” from 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”
17. The Apartment
You know, I used to live like Robinson Crusoe;
I mean, shipwrecked among 8 million people.
And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand,
And there you were.”
18. The Wedding Planner
Best Man: May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, enough trials to keep you strong, enough hope to keep you happy, enough friends to give you comfort, enough determination to make each day a better day then yesterday. Congratulations guys i love you both. WOO!
19. The Fault in Our Stars
“I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” – Augustus
20. How I Met Your Mother
“But love doesn’t make sense. You can’t logic your way into or out of it. Love is totally nonsensical. But we have to keep doing it, or else we’re lost and love is dead and humanity should just pack it in. Because love is the best thing we do.”
21. Beverly Hills 90210
“I look at you, and I see my best friend. Your energy and passion inspire me in ways I never thought possible. Your inner beauty is so strong that I no longer fear being myself. I no longer fear at all. I never thought that I could find someone to love who would love me back unconditionally. And then I realized that although we are often apart, you are always with me, that you are my soul mate. You give me purpose when I feel I have none. Without you, my soul would be empty, my heart broken, and my being incomplete. I thank God every day that you were brought into my life, and I thank you for loving me.”
—Donna Martin
22. Sleepless in Seattle
“It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together…and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I’d ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car, and I knew. It was like…magic.” —Sam Baldwin
23. Twilight
“It’s an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can bare your soul to, and who will accept you for what you are. I’ve been waiting, what seems like a very long time, to get beyond what I am. And [now] I feel like I can finally begin… No measure of time with you will be long enough. But let’s start with forever.”
—Edward
24. Chasing Amy
“I love you. Very simple, very truly. You’re the epitome of every attribute and quality I’ve ever looked for in another person…I can’t stand next to you without wanting to hold you. I can’t look into your eyes without feeling that longing you only read about in trashy romance novels. I can’t talk to you without wanting to express my love for everything you are. I’ve never felt this before, and I like who I am because of it. There isn’t another soul on this planet who’s ever made me half the person I am when I’m with you. I’m forever changed because of who you are and what you’ve meant to me.” —Holden
25. The Time Traveler’s Wife
“I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.” —Audrey Niffenegger
BONUS!
Stardust
“My heart, it feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange — no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine.” —Yvaine
That’s all! 🙂 You may also like these posts that I’ve written:
