Deciding on a poem that eloquently embodies your partner on your special day is not an easy task. Your spouse-to-be is every beautiful word all at once and you want to personify that feeling in your wedding ceremony. This is the moment you get to share that beauty with your loved ones. It’s special. We hope that these poems give you a glimpse into your own love story. If you are planning a wedding or know someone who is mapping out their day, we encourage you to share this list with them. In a world that sometimes gets overshadowed by negativity, let’s share the words that bring light and love. Cheers to you and your wonderful story of love!

1.) Lighthouse - Nayyirah Waheed

I am your friend

a soul for your soul

a place for your life. home

know this. sun or water. here or away.

we are a lighthouse. we leave. and we stay.

2.) Touched by an Angel - Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

3.) Wedding Toast - James Bertolino

May your love be firm,

and may your dream of life together

be a river between two shores—

by day bathed in sunlight, and by night

illuminated from within. May the heron

carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring

the sea’s blue grace. May your twin thoughts

spiral upward like leafy vines,

like fiddle strings in the wind,

and be as noble as the Douglas fir.

May you never find yourselves back to back

without love pulling you around

into each other's arms.

4.) In One Another’s Souls - Rumi

The moment I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing how useless that was.

Lovers don’t meet somewhere along the way.

They’re in one another’s souls all along.

5.) In Your Light I Learn How to Love - Rumi

In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.

6.) Devoted - Lori Eberhai

My heart can be your home,
my soul can be your refuge.
You can turn to me when you are weak,
you can call to me when the way is not clear.
I will be your promise and your prayer,
I will always be there,
Constant and complete.
Run to me,
reach out for me,
and I will love you in a unique and tender way.
Bring your love to me,
share your love with me,
sing your love to me,
and I will offer you peace, ease and comfort.

7.) Our Souls Are Mirrors - Rupi Kaur

god must have kneaded you and i
from the same dough
rolled us out as one on the baking sheet
must have suddenly realized
how unfair it was
to put that much magic in one person
and sadly split that dough in two
how else is it that
when i look in the mirror
i am looking at you
when you breathe
my own lungs fill with air
that we just met but we
have known each other our whole lives
if we were not made as one to begin with

8.) Habitation - Margaret Atwood

Marriage is not
a house or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
The edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert
the unpainted stairs
at the back where we squat
outside, eating popcorn
where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this far
we are learning to make fire

9.) You Came Too - Nikki Giovanni

I came to the crowd seeking friends
I came to the crowd seeking love
I came to the crowd for understanding

I found you

I came to the crowd to weep
I came to the crowd to laugh

You dried my tears
You shared my happiness

I went from the crowd seeking you
I went from the crowd seeking me
I went from the crowd forever

You came, too

10.) I Carry Your Heart With Me - E.E. Cummings

I carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)