Choose a wedding prayer for your ceremony

When you are planning a religious marriage ceremony, you’ll want to include at least one wedding prayer. There are plenty of beautiful wedding prayers to choose from and you could even write your own prayer to make the occasion a little bit special. Make sure you check the suitability with your minister.

Prayers created to be utilised in wedding ceremonies tend to have similar themes that may include thankfulness for the couple finding each other, gratefulness that family and friends are gathered together for the special occasion, hope that the union will be happy, long, and fruitful.

Typically, you would include a wedding prayer in your ceremony after you have been pronounced husband and wife. Some prayers are made to be read out loud by the couple themselves, while others are designed to be recited by the minister, a single guest, a child, or by the entire congregation altogether.

Here are some common wedding prayers:

Some couples wish to have a simple blessing to finish their wedding ceremony, and this can be presented in the order of service to be recited by the congregation. Here is a famous Irish wedding prayer that can be utilised as a final blessing:

Irish wedding prayer

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
and may the hand of a friend always be near

May God be with you and bless you;
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

 

The kind of wedding prayer that you pick will depend on whether you wish to read the prayer as a couple, or whether you wish the minister or guests to read it. Here are two examples of couples’ prayers, including a famous prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson:

A short couples’ prayer

Lord, help us to remember when we first met and the strong love that grew between us.
To work that love into practical things so nothing can divide us.
We ask for words both kind and loving, and for hearts always ready to ask forgiveness as well as to forgive.
Dear Lord, we put our marriage into Your hands.
Amen.

Wedding Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen.

The wedding prayer that you wish to go with might also depend on your religious denomination. These two short wedding prayers are to be read by the minister or congregation at Protestant or Catholic weddings:

Catholic wedding prayer

Father, you have made the bond of marriage a holy mystery,
a symbol of Christ’s love for his Church.
Hear our prayers for ____ and ____.
With faith in you and in each other they pledge their love today.
May their lives always bear witness to the reality of that love.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Protestant wedding prayer

Eternal God, our creator and redeemer, as you gladdened the wedding in Cana of Galilee by the presence of your Son, so by his presence now bring your joy to this wedding. Look in favour upon ____ and ____ and grant that they, rejoicing in all your gifts, may at lengths celebrate with Christ the marriage feast which has no end.