Ceremony Readings · 12 readings
Wedding Blessings and Prayers
Wedding blessings and prayers — Irish blessings, the Book of Common Prayer, the Prayer of St. Francis and more — with notes on origin and when to use each.
A blessing is the most communal kind of reading: it is said over the couple rather than about them, and it often belongs to a grandparent, a godparent or the whole room. Blessings work at the close of a ceremony, as a grace before the wedding meal, or at the start of the toasts.
Several of the best-known wedding blessings have murky origins — the “Apache” blessing was written for a 1947 novel, and the Prayer of St. Francis first appeared in 1912 — and our notes say so. For the Jewish wedding blessings, see the Seven Blessings.