10 Wedding Blessings and Prayers

These blessings, prayers, and Bible verses will make any wedding speech memorable.

The best man giving a wedding blessing to a newlywed couple

Looking for the right words for a marriage ceremony? Having difficulty coming up with wedding speech ideas? Whether you are writing your own vows or planning a speech for the wedding reception, we’ve got you covered. These inspiring and uplifting prayers, Bible verses and wedding blessings can help you celebrate this special occasion.

READ MORE: Wedding Day—How to Have the One You Want

10 Wedding Blessings and Prayers:

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1. A Biblical Wedding Blessing

My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. —Song of Solomon 2:10-13

Guests throw rose petals at a couple at their wedding
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2. A Traditional Wedding Prayer

Most gracious God, we give You thanks for Your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us,
to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life.
We thank You, also, for consecrating the union of man and woman in his Name. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of Your blessing upon this man and this woman. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death.
Finally, in Your mercy, bring them to that table where Your saints feast for ever in Your heavenly home;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever. Amen. —Book of Common Prayer

READ MORE: How to Increase Joy in Marriage

The back of a couple holding each other outside at their wedding
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3. The Corinthians Wedding Reading

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. —1 Corinthians 13:4-7

A pug dog standing next to a bride with wedding blessings
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4. A Short Wedding Prayer

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. —Wedding Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson

Married couple hold each other outside at their wedding
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5. A Wedding Bible Verse About Love

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. —1 John 4:16-19

READ MORE: 50 Best Bible Verses About Love and Devotion

a bride and groom hold hands at sunset after hearing wedding blessings
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6. A Short Wedding Blessing

May you each bring your best self to the other. May you each bring intelligence and commitment as well as faith to the task that is set before you. May you maintain enduring respect and trust. May all who follow your lives with interest and affection have cause often to rejoice, not only in your happiness, but also in your brave and generous living. —Unknown

Wedding blessings written on paper with gold rings and flowers
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7. A Short Bible Verse About Marriage

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. —Proverbs 3:3-4

Wedding party says a blessing to the bride and groom at dinner
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8. A Wedding Dinner Blessing

May your love grow like a beautiful tree, sending roots deep and branches high, with new beauty every season of your life together. May you dare to dream dreams not yet dreamt. May you find constant reward and challenge as you pursue the ongoing adventure of learning who you are and where you want to go. May you always have a special sense of your mission in life together, and may you never tire of the endless possibilities of exploring your shared existence. —Unknown

A bride and groom laugh about their wedding blessings while riding a bike on the beach
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9. An Irish Wedding Blessing

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand. —Irish Blessing

Married couple dancing at their wedding
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10. A Wedding Blessing Quote

Lord, help us remember when we first met and the strong love that grew between us, to see the good within the other and find answers to all our problems. Help us to say the kind and loving thing and make us big enough to ask forgiveness of the other. We put our marriage into Your hands. Amen. —Norman Vincent Peale

10 Bible Verses for Wedding Blessings:

A married couple makes a heart with their hands as their wedding blessing
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  1. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. —Ephesians 4:2
  2. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. —1 Thessalonians 5:11
  3. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. —Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
  4. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. —Song of Solomon 6:3
  5. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. —Hebrews 10:24
  6. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. —Romans 12:10
  7. 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. —1 Corinthians 13:2
  8. Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor. —Proverbs 21:21
  9. I found the one my heart loves. —Song of Solomon 3:4
  10. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. —Colossians 3:14

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