Are you prepping for your time with the mic? Have you combed through your memories, jotted down notes, and skimmed through others’ examples just yet? How about fine-tuning your speech with some beautiful quotes? Whether you’re the father of the bride or the maid of honor, sprinkling a few key phrases within your good wishes could jazz things up and add an extra bout of flair to your big moment.
We’ve compiled some of our favorite lines from the movies, literature, songs, the Bible, and even some good ones from history itself. All of these could make a special mark on your own speech and give the happy couple much more to smile about. Let’s dive right in!
From the Movies
“This is supposed to be exciting. It’s your wedding — you only get a few of these!” – The Five-Year Engagement
“The you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.” – If I Stay
“Love is that can’t-eat, can’t-sleep, reach-for-the-stars, over-the-fence, World Series kinda stuff.” – Angels in the Outfield
“I vow to fiercely love you in all your forms, now and forever. I promise to never forget that this is a once in a lifetime love. And to always know in the deepest part of my soul that no matter what challenges might carry us apart, we will always find our way back to each other.” – The Vow
“Make of our hands one hand. Make of our hearts one heart. Make of our vows one last vow. Only death will part us now.” – West Side Story
“Love is passion, obsession, someone you can’t live without. If you don’t start with that, what are you going to end up with?” – Meet Joe Black
“I love you very much, probably more than anybody could love another person.” – 50 First Dates
“Sometimes you love a person because of all the reasons they’re not like you. And sometimes you love a person just because they feel like home.” – Bridget Jones’s Baby
“I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental — like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both… If there’s anything you need, I won’t be far away.” – Forrest Gump
“The heart’s not like a box that gets filled up. It expands in size the more you love.” – Her
From Literature
“You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.” – Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.” – One Hundred Love Sonnets: “XVII” by Pablo Neruda
“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.” – The Princess Bride by William Goldman
“I have for the first time found what I can truly love — I have found you. You are my sympathy — my better self — my good angel — I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wraps my existence about you — and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one. It was because I felt and knew this, that I resolved to marry you.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
“Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past. It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.” – “Love Is Friendship Set On Fire” by Laura Hendricks
“When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke — the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing.
Because when you know the language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.” – The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life — to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?” – Adam Bede by George Eliot
“Within this blessed union of souls, where two hearts intertwine to become one, there lies a promise. Perfectly born, divinely created, and intimately shared, it is a place where the hope and majesty of beginnings reside. Where all things are made possible by the astounding love shared by two spirits. As you hold each other’s hands in this promise, and eagerly look into the future in each other’s eyes, may your unconditional love and devotion take you to places where you’ve both only dreamed. Where you’ll dwell for a lifetime of happiness, sheltered in the warmth of each other’s arms.” – The Promise by Heather Berry
“That night, there was a feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone.
Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others…But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together.” – A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
“I don’t know how you are so familiar to me — or why it feels less like I am getting to know you and more as though I am remembering who you are. How every smile, every whisper brings me closer to the impossible conclusion that I have known you before, I have loved you before — in another time, a different place, some other existence.” – “Soul Mates” by Lang Leav
From Songs
“I’m thinking ’bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe just the touch of a hand.” – “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran
“I won’t be afraid just as long as you stand, stand by me.” – “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King
“Open up your heart, and just let it begin. Open up your heart. Acceptance is the key to be, to be truly free.” – “Unconditionally” by Katy Perry
“However far away, however long I stay, whatever words I say, I will always love you.” – “Love Song” by Adele
“It’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away.” – “Beautiful Day” by U2
“Every little thing gonna be alright!” – “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and the Wailers
“Don’t you know that there ain’t no mountain high enough. Ain’t no valley low enough,ain’t no river wide enough. To keep me from getting to you, baby.” – “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
“I’ll be better when I’m older. I’ll be the greatest fan of your life.” – “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain
“All you need is love, love. Love is all your need.” – “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles
“Cause all of me loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections.” – “All of Me” by John Legend
From the Bible
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. Genesis 2:23
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Colossians 3:19
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. – Proverbs 31:9-10
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. 1 Peter 3:7
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Ephesians 5:28
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. – Proverbs 18:22
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. – Proverbs 31:10
From The Famous
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn, actress
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France, French writer
“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the sense.” – Lap Tzu, Chinese philosopher
“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer and poet
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle, philosopher
“Love is a lot like a backache. It doesn’t show up on X-Rays but you know it’s there.” – George Burns, comedian, actor, and writer
“Have a short memory and a lot of forgiveness.” – Gabrielle Reece, professional volleyball player
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss, author
“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, only with what you are expecting to give—which is everything.” – Katharine Hepburn, actress
“Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.” – Henry David Thoreau, author and poet
“Two hearts can enlighten the whole world.” – Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann, Austrian author and filmmaker
“I like to believe that love is a reciprocal thing, that it can’t really be felt, truly, by one.” – Sean Penn, actor
