5 of the absolute best bible verses and a based summary of why you should in fact include them at your wedding.

So you want to include a bible reading at your wedding but not quite sure where to start? I got your back;

Below are 5 of the best scriptures couples choose for their wedding ceremonies, along with why they resonate so deeply.

TL;DR — 5 Beautiful Wedding Scriptures (full break down beneath)

1. Ephesians 5:21–33 — Marriage shaped by sacrificial, Christ-like love.
2. 1 Corinthians 13 — Love defined by patience, kindness, and endurance.
3. Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 — Two are stronger together; a threefold cord with God.
4. Genesis 2:18–24 — God’s original design for marriage and companionship.
5. Colossians 3:12–17 — Marriage built on forgiveness, humility, and love.

A wedding ceremony isn’t just about the celebration, it’s about making a covenant before and with God, surrounded by the people who matter most, and who will ultimately hold you to account in your marriage. And including scripture is the perfect way of grounding your wedding day into that, including depth from the living word of God. Where the world speaks of romance and feelings, God’s word speaks to commitment, sacrifice, joy, and the lifelong promise marriage represents.

Wherever you are at in your wedding planning journey, choosing the right Bible reading can help build the full atmosphere for your marriage celebration, and here are a couple of my favourites.

Ephesians 5:21-33

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Reflection:

I absolutely love this reading, as it truly takes marriage back to what it is about; The love that Christ has shown to us; A selfless, generous and giving love. Whilst Submission is a touchy word in today’s day and age, it is instigated in scripture, from Christ and is a beautiful thing when done well.

The passage begins with a call to mutual humility under Christ’s authority “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” From this shared submission to Christ flow distinct, complementary roles within marriage.

The husband is called to loving headship, modelled after Christ. This leadership is not domination or self-interest, but sacrificial service. Just as Christ gave Himself up for the Church, a husband is called to lay down his preferences, comfort, and even his life for the spiritual and emotional flourishing of his wife. His leadership is expressed through responsibility, protection, and self-giving love.

The wife is called to willing, respectful submission to her husband’s leadership, reflecting the Church’s trust in Christ. This submission is not about inferiority or silence, but about ordered partnership, a joyful response rooted in trust, unity, and shared devotion to God.

Marriage ultimately points beyond itself to Christ and His redeemed people. A Christian marriage, therefore, is not centred on personal fulfillment alone, but on displaying God’s grace through love, holiness, and lifelong covenant commitment.

1 Corinthians 13

13 
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Reflection:

This would have to be one of the most common scriptures at weddings, and for good reason! It again shows us how entering into marriage is an act of selfless love.
Biblical love is not merely emotional but covenantal and sacrificial. Paul describes love as patient, humble, and enduring; a reflection of Christ’s love toward His people. Marriage flourishes when love is practiced as daily self-denial for the good of the other.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

⁹ Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?
¹² Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Reflection:

I know, I know, I can’t keep saying how much I love this one, BUT, it is the living word of God, so I think I can say it. Because, I love this one. Marriage reflects God’s design for partnership and mutual strengthening. Husband and wife support one another in weakness, while the “threefold cord” reminds believers that true strength in marriage comes from God’s presence binding them together, not just from one partner being ‘perfect’.

Genesis 2:18–24

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” ¹⁹ Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Reflection:

You know that if God designed marriage for our first parents, then it’s good enough for us! But it’s a true sign that marriage comes from God, it’s not a social construct, it’s an intention design in creation. It highlights sexed piety, that God designed men and women different, to compliment each others strengths.

Colossians 3:12-17

¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Reflection:

These verses are like a good recipe book for marriage. Follow these instructions that God has given and you will find your heart being transformed and your desires aligning more with Christ.

Forgiveness, humility, patience, and love are not optional virtues but evidence of hearts transformed by Christ. A healthy marriage flows from lives first submitted to the Lordship of Jesus.

Summary

These are just 5 of my favourites, I will probably do another post soon with some more as this just very quickly turned into an essay and I don’t even know if you are reading this now! If you have made it this far then I hope this blog was edifying and helps you on your journey.

If you are engaged and looking for a Wedding photographer who truly cares about Marriage and not just the Wedding day then let’s talk!

AND also, if you provide me with a strong pastoral reference I may just have something extra in store for you! (lowkey not joking, and I promise it will be worth it for you)