Wedding readings and poems are a great way to express certain feelings and share romantic and heartfelt language that is meaningful to you both.

Here are five classic and favorite wedding readings that focus on love.

On Love

Love.

- Diane Ackerman, A History of Love Love Is A Mighty Power

What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love's spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable? Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days...The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being loved.

Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good.
Love alone lightens every burden, and makes rough places smooth.
It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable.

-- Thomas à Kempis (1379-1471)

Nothing is sweeter than love,
Nothing stronger,
Nothing higher,
Nothing wider,
Nothing more pleasant,
Nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God.

Love

True Love
True Love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally.
None can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones,
And hears with a gentle ear.
True love gives with an open heart.
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands.
It neither rules nor binds.
And true love holds with gentle hands,
The heart that it entwines.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;

I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.

-- William Shakespeare What is your favorite wedding reading about love?

Love's not Time's fool,
though rosy lips and cheeks,
Within his bending sickle's compass come: