25 Nerdy Wedding Readings for Unique Ceremonies

It’s really hard to find nerdy and unique wedding readings that aren’t lame or played out. I really tried to find the readings I thought were the best and that could be incorporated into a larger wedding theme. Many of these are really cool AND beautiful. I hope you find what you’re looking for!

If you’re interested in seeing my huge collection of other wedding readings on this blog (that I literally spent weeks compiling! And includes readings from Harry Potter, movies, TV series, and more), you can find them here.

#1 This for you by Neil Gaiman

A reading written for two of his friends on their wedding day —

This for you, for both of you,

a small poem of happiness
filled with small glories and little triumphs
a fragile, short cheerful song
filled with hope and all sorts of futures

Because at weddings we imagine the future
Because it’s all about “what happened next?”
all the work and negotiation and building and talk
that makes even the tiniest happily ever after
something to be proud of for a wee forever

This is a small thought for both of you
like a feather or a prayer,
a wish of trust and love and hope
and fine brave hearts and true.

Like a tower, or a house made all of bones and dreams
and tomorrows and tomorrows and tomorrows

#2 The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

“I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me.”

#3 Obergefell v. Hodges (the Supreme Court’s ruling on same sex marriage)

“From their beginning to their most recent page, the annals of human history reveal the transcendent importance of marriage. Marriage is sacred to those who live by their religions and offers unique fulfillment to those who find meaning in the secular realm. Its dynamic allows two people to find a life that could not be found alone, for a marriage becomes greater than just the two persons.

Rising from the most basic human needs, marriage is essential to our most profound hopes and aspirations. The centrality of marriage to the human condition makes it unsurprising that the institution has existed for millennia and across civilizations. Since the dawn of history, marriage has transformed strangers into relatives, binding families and societies together.

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.” – Justice Anthony Kennedy

#4 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Definition: ‘Love’ is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometres away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope.

Statement: This definition, I am told, is subject to interpretation. Obviously, ‘love’ is a matter of odds. Not many meatbags could make such a shot, and strangely enough, not many meatbags would derive love from it.

Yet for me, love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose, against statistically long odds.

-HK-47

#5 If I Didn’t Have You by Tim Minchin

I’m not undervaluing what we’ve got when I say that given the role chaos inevitably plays in the inherently flawed notion of “fate” it’s obtuse to deduce that I’ve found my soulmate at the age of seventeen. It’s just mathematically unlikely that at a university in Perth I happened to stumble on the one girl on Earth specifically designed for me.

And if I may conjecture a further objection, love is nothing to do with destined perfection. The connection is strengthened, the affection simply grows over time, like a flower or a mushroom or a guinea pig or a vine or a sponge or bigotry… or a banana.

And love is made more powerful by the ongoing drama of shared experience and the synergy of a kind of symbiotic empathy or… something.

#6 Star Trek: Voyager

“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.” – Neelix (Unforgettable, 1998)

#7 Stardust

“You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn’t true. I know a lot about love. I’ve seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars — pain, lies, hate… It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves… you could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable, and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and… what I’m trying to say, Tristan is… I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I’d know it for myself. My heart… it feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it’s trying to escape because it doesn’t belong to me any more. 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

#8 Wedding Readings from Doctor Who

“You know when sometimes, you meet someone so beautiful – and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they’re as dull as a brick; but then there’s other people. And you meet them and you think, ‘Not bad, they’re okay,’ and then when you get to know them… Their face just sort of becomes them, like their personality’s written all over it, and they just – they turn into something so beautiful. Rory’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.” – Amy Pond (The Girl Who Waited)

“Do you wanna come with me? ‘Cause if you do, then I should warn you – you’re gonna see all sorts of things. Ghosts from the past. Aliens from the future. The day the Earth died in a ball of flame. It won’t be quiet, it won’t be safe, and it won’t be calm. But I’ll tell you what it will be: The trip of a lifetime!” – The Ninth Doctor

#9 Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

#10 Game of Thrones Wedding Readings

“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.” – From Khal Drogo and Khaleesi’s Dothraki wedding

“Father. Smith. Warrior. Mother. Maiden. Crone. Stranger. I am hers, and he is mine, from this day, until the end of my days.” – Robb Stark marries Talisa

#11 The X-Files

“Well, it seems to me that the best relationships – the ones that last – are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is… suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.” – Dana Scully

#12 Buffy The Vampire Slayer

“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

“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.”
– Angel

#13 The Princess Bride by William Goldman

“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…

I love you. Okay? Want it louder? I love you. Spell it out, should I? I ell-oh-vee-ee why-oh-you. Want it backward? You love I.”

#14 From Babylon 5, the Declaration of Principles

The universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice. … It speaks in the language of hope
It speaks in the language of trust
It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion
It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.
But always it is the same voice
It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us,
And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born
It is the small, still voice that says
We are one
No matter the blood No matter the skin No matter the world
No matter the star: We are one
No matter the pain No matter the darkness No matter the loss
No matter the fear: We are one
Here, gathered together in common cause, we agree to recognize the singular truth and this singular rule:
That we must be kind to one another
Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us and each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future.
We are one. We are one.

#15 The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

“You were the one who taught me… I never looked at you without seeing the sweetness of the way the world goes together, or without sorrow for its spoiling. I became a hero to serve you, and all that is like you. Also to find some way of starting a conversation…
I would enter your sleep if I could, and guard you there, and slay the thing that hounds you, as I would if it had the courage to face me in fair daylight. But I cannot come in unless you dream of me… I love whom I love.”

#16 Wedding Readings from Disney Movies

Pocahontas
If I never knew you.
If I never felt this love.
I would have no inkling of.
How precious life can be.
And if I never held you.
I would never have a clue.
How at last I’d find in you.
The missing part of me.
If I never knew you.
I’d be safe but half as real.
Never knowing I could feel.
A love so strong and true.
I’m so grateful to you.
I’d have lived my whole life through.
Lost forever.
If I never knew you.

Tangled
“And at last I see the light
And it’s like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it’s like the sky is new
And it’s warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you.”

The Princess and the Frog
“For the way you changed my plans
For being the perfect distraction
For the way you took the idea that I have
Of everything that I wanted to have
And made me see there was something missing
For the ending of my first beginning
And for the rare and unexpected friend
For the way you’re something that I’d never choose
But at the same time, something I don’t wanna lose
And never wanna be without ever again
You’re the best thing I never knew I needed
So, when you were here, I had no idea
You are the best thing I never knew I needed
So now it’s so clear, I need you here always.”

Nightmare Before Christmas
My dearest friend, if you don’t mind
I’d like to join you by your side
Where we can gaze into the stars
And sit together, now and forever
For it is plain as anyone can see
We’re simply meant to be.

#17 Scientific Romance by Tim Pratt

Written for his wife

If starship travel from our
Earth to some far
star and back again
at velocities approaching the speed
of light made you younger than me
due to the relativistic effects
of time dilation,
I’d show up on your doorstep hoping
you’d developed a thing for older men,
and I’d ask you to show me everything you
learned to pass the time
out there in the endless void
of night.

If we were the sole survivors
of a zombie apocalypse
and you were bitten and transformed
into a walking corpse
I wouldn’t even pick up my
assault shotgun,
I’d just let you take a bite
out of me, because I’d rather be
undead forever
with you
than alive alone
without you.

If I had a time machine, I’d go back
to the days of your youth
to see how you became the someone
I love so much today, and then
I’d return to the moment we first met
just so I could see my own face
when I saw your face
for the first time,
and okay,
I’d probably travel to the time
when we were a young couple
and try to get a three-way
going. I never understood
why more time travelers don’t do
that sort of thing.

If the alien invaders come
and hover in stern judgment
over our cities, trying to decide
whether to invite us to the Galactic
Federation of Confederated
Galaxies or if instead
a little genocide is called for,
I think our love could be a powerful
argument for the continued preservation
of humanity in general, or at least,
of you and me
in particular.

If we were captives together
in an alien zoo, I’d try to make
the best of it, cultivate a streak
of xeno-exhibitionism,
waggle my eyebrows, and make jokes
about breeding in captivity.

If I became lost in
the multiverse, exploring
infinite parallel dimensions, my
only criterion for settling
down somewhere would be
whether or not I could find you:
and once I did, I’d stay there even
if it was a world ruled by giant spider-
priests, or one where killer
robots won the Civil War, or even
a world where sandwiches
were never invented, because
you’d make it the best
of all possible worlds anyway,
and plus
we could get rich
off inventing sandwiches.

If the Singularity comes
and we upload our minds into a vast
computer simulation of near-infinite
complexity and perfect resolution,
and become capable of experiencing any
fantasy, exploring worlds bound only
by our enhanced imaginations,
I’d still spend at least 10^21 processing
cycles a month just sitting
on a virtual couch with you,
watching virtual TV,
eating virtual fajitas,
holding virtual hands,
and wishing
for the real thing.

#18 The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman

“That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and
stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didn’t notice it because
That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was the zombie day, it was
Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us
A ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold,
and the cameraman could
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you did not see them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods
day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true
brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across
the land, and killer bees,
But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day, the zombie day,
The Ragnarok and fairies day, the
day the great winds came
And snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.”

#19 Harry Potter

A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the Forest lifted the hair at Harry’s brow. He knew that they would not tell him to go, that it would have to be his decision.
‘You’ll stay with me?’

‘Until the very end,’ said James.

‘They won’t be able to see you?’ asked Harry.

‘We are part of you,’ said Sirius. ‘Invisible to anyone else.’ Harry looked at his mother.

‘Stay close to me,’ he said quietly.

#20 The Book of Love by Stephen Merritt

“The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It’s full of charts and facts, some figures and instructions for dancing
But I,
I love it when you read to me.
And you,
You can read me anything.
The book of love has music in it,
In fact, that’s where music comes from.
Some of it is just transcendental,
Some of it is just really dumb.
But I,
I love it when you sing to me.
And you,
You can sing me anything.
The book of love is long and boring,
And written very long ago.
It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes,
And things we’re all too young to know.
But I,
I love it when you give me things.
And you,
You ought to give me wedding rings.”

#21 Charmed: Piper and Leo’s Wedding

Leo’s vows
Piper, throughout the tears and struggles I always knew it in my heart that we’re gonna make it here. I promise to love and respect you from this point forward as your husband. As my wife. My lover. My friend. And my soulmate. All I am is yours.

Piper’s vows
Leo, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I was afraid that you were too good to be true. That maybe I didn’t deserve someone so pure and beautiful and loving as you are. But here we are, surrounded by the people that I love the most. And I feel so proud and so blessed to be your wife. Leo, I was born to love you. And I always will.

Handfasting Spell
“Heart to thee,
Body to thee,
Always and forever,
So mote it be.”

#22 Outlander

“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone,
I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.
I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.”

“But just then, for that fraction of time, it seems as though all things are possible. You can look across the limitations of your own life, and see that they are really nothing. In that moment when time stops, it is as though you know you could undertake any venture, complete it and come back to yourself, to find the world unchanged, and everything just as you left it a moment before. And it’s as though knowing that everything is possible, suddenly nothing is necessary.”

#23 Troy

“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”
― Achilles

#24 The Matrix Revolutions

“I wish I hadn’t. That was my last thought. I wished I had one more chance to say what really mattered; to say how much I loved you, how grateful I was for every moment I was with you. But by the time I said what I wanted to, it was too late. But you brought me back. You gave me my wish. One more chance to say what I really wanted to say… Kiss me, once more. Kiss me.” – Trinity

Neo: I just have never…
Rama-Kandra: …heard a program speak of love?
Neo: It’s a… human emotion.
Rama-Kandra: No, it is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see that you are in love. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection?Neo: Anything.

#25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Guide:
“The Encyclopedia Galactica chapter on love states that it is far too complicated to define. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of love: Avoid, if at all possible.”