During the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom are invited to recite a prayer for their marriage. It is not obligatory, but can be a very emotional moment of the religious celebration, where the young couple entrust with confidence their expectations and hopes to the Lord.
To prepare the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom can choose a traditional wedding prayer or write their own prayer (discover here a few examples), like they would for the Mass’ prayer of the faithful. Read on to discover our advice on how to write your wedding prayer, and start your life as a couple under God’s blessing!
(Don’t forget to pray for your spouse, even after your wedding ceremony!)
Like the prayers composed by parents for a baptism, the wedding prayers for the bride and groom are generally organised around two main points: a prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer of petition:
The wedding prayer allows you to thank the Lord for finding your soulmate, and the opportunity to let your love grow together.
Example: “Lord, You showed us the way to one another, and allowed this love of ours to grow stronger each day. Today, we stand before You to unite our lives together, with your blessing. We thank you for the immense grace of love you have gifted us, and for letting us experience the joy of offering ourselves to one another.”
This moment can also be an opportunity for the couple to thank God for their family and friends: for their tenderness, their guidance, their presence… and everything that helped your relationship to exist today!
Example: “Lord, we thank You for all the love that we received from our parents, and our friends, because they taught us to open our hearts to others. Today, we are ready to make this engagement with complete confidence.”
The wedding prayer is, above all, a perfect opportunity to entrust your wedding petitions to God. A wedding prayer is slightly different from wedding vows, in that it is not an engagement of the bride and groom to one another, but their engagement to God. Therefore, their petition should involve asking for the Lord’s guidance: that He may accompany you, and work through you in your marriage. You can make petitions about your relationship, and the home that you both want to build.
Example: “Lord, help us to always be attentive to one another, and to always see one another through Your eyes: as the wonderful beings you created. Teach us to love each other sincerely, in the example of Christ’s Love: a love eternal, unconditional, which respects the freedom of the other, with mercy and gentleness.”;
“Lord, help us make our home a warm, benevolent, welcoming place. May we share our joys in happy times, and comfort each other, and everyone that needs it in times of sorrow. Allow us, we implore You, to cultivate our love like a fruitful garden, through our future children, our work, or our engagements.”
To write a beautiful wedding prayer, the most important thing is that you take your time. Your prayer will be the result of a long period of preparation for the ceremony. During this period, you and your future spouse should reserve some time for self-exploration, to figure out where you stand, and where you both want your couple to be.
Take some time on your own: remember how it all started, and the different steps that took you where you are now. How did your love grow? What can you offer to your soulmate? What do they bring you in return? What makes me ready to make this engagement now, with them?
Take some time with your future spouse: ask each other questions about the future: what are your projects? What future do you envision for your couple? How can you work together to make your marriage successful? Saying prayers for engaged couples is a step you can make to find some guidance.
Take some time with the Lord: pray on your own, with your soulmate, with a priest… And ask yourself: what room will you give to God in your new home? What do you want to entrust Him with? In what area do you need His help the most?
Discover two wedding prayer examples to recite during the ceremony. You can use them or draw inspiration from them to compose your own prayer. There are many other prayers, poems, blessings and readings to choose from for your 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.”
“Lord, we thank you for leading us to this joyful day. You offered us to one another: together, we now offer You our love.
Lord, we pray that You keep us united in Your peace. Protect our wedding.
[Grant us the joy of welcoming children in our home.]
Open our hearts to our neighbours.
Grant us the gift of staying faithful to each other throughout our lives.
When comes the time to join You, Lord, open Your Kingdom of Love to us, that we may praise you forever,
in joy and in peace.
Amen. “
Hozana is a social network that offers you to join a wide variety of prayer communities: by connecting with your Christian brothers and sisters around the world, you can learn to strengthen your faith with the support of a community. Say prayer intentions to entrust your special petition to the prayers of other Christians.
Pray every day with Hozana: enjoy a time of relaxation with a daily reading and meditation on the Daily Gospel. Pray for families and future families with a novena to St. Anne, and more!