Shakespeare’s words have been quoted at weddings for 100’s of years, both during the ceremony and in speeches at wedding receptions. Here’s a selection of quotes from Shakespeare’s poetry and plays commonly used at weddings – by the bride and the groom addressing each other, the pastor, the father of the bride, the groom’s, the bride’s, the best man’s speeches, and anyone else proposing a toast.
1. ‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.’
Romeo and Juliet
2. ‘Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.’
Sonnet 116
3. ‘Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.’
Hamlet
4. ‘Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service.’
The Tempest
5. ‘There’s beggary in love that can be reckoned’
Antony and Cleopatra
6. ‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?’
As You Like It
7. ‘Now join hands, and with your hands your hearts’
Henry VI Part 3
8. ‘When Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Love’s Labours Lost
9. ‘Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.’
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
10. ‘I love you more than words can wield the matter,
Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty.’
King Lear
11. ‘Love is a spirit all compact of fire.’
Venice and Adonis
12. ‘Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken’
Sonnet 116
13. ‘I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss.’
Cymbeline
14. ‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.’
Romeo and Juliet
15. ‘The sight of lovers feedeth those in love’
As You Like It
16. ‘Beshrew your eyes,
They have o’erlooked me and divided me.
One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
Mine own, I would say. But if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.’
The Merchant of Venice
17. ‘To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.’
The Winter’s Tale
18. ‘I would not wish any companion in the world but you.’
The Tempest
19. ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.’
Sonnet 18
20. ‘Love hath made thee a tame snake.’
As You Like It
21. ‘For where thou art, there is the world itself,
And where thou art not, desolation.’
Henry IV Part 2
22. ‘Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you,
Did my heart fly at your service.
The Tempest
23. ‘Her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of love’
Antony and Cleopatra
24. ‘Love is like a child
That longs for everything it can come by.’
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
25. ‘For you and I are past our dancing days.’
Romeo and Juliet
26. ‘Come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy,
That one short minute gives me in her sight.’
Romeo and Juliet
27. ‘I, Beyond all limit of what else i’ th’ world
Do love, prize, honour you.’
The Tempest
28. ‘Excellent wetch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee, and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.
Othello
29. ‘A heart to love, and in that heart,
Courage to make love known’
Macbeth
30. ‘Honor, riches, marriage, blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you.
Juno sings her blessings on you.’
The Tempest
31. ‘In thy youth wast as true a lover,
As ever sighed upon a midnight pillow.’
As You Like It
32. ‘She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;
She’s a woman, and therefore to be won.’
Henry VI Part 1
33. ‘To be wise and love,
Exceeds man’s might.’
Troilus and Cressida
34. ‘She will die if you love her not.’
Much Ado About Nothing
35. ‘You have witchcraft in your lips.’
Henry V
36. ‘They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together;
Clubs cannot part them’
As You Like It
37. ‘I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say ‘I love you.’’
Henry V
38. ‘I’ll make my heaven in a lady’s lap.’
Henry VI Part 3
39. ‘I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster.’
Much Ado About Nothing
40. ‘Kiss me, Kate, we shall be married o’ Sunday’
The Taming of the Shrew
41. ‘Lovers ever run before the clock’
The Merchant of Venice
42. ‘My love is deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, both are infinite.’
Romeo and Juliet
43. ‘The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.’
As You Like It
44. ‘Love is a smoke and is made with the fume of sighs.’
Romeo and Juliet
45. ‘You cannot call it love, for at your age the heyday in the blood is tame’
Hamlet
46. ‘For ever and a day’
As You Like It
47. ‘This is the very ecstasy of love.’
Hamlet
48. ‘In thy face I see the map of honour, truth and loyalty.’
Henry IV Part 2
49. ‘My love’s more richer than my tongue.’
King Lear
50. ‘A kind heart he hath: a woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart.’
The Merry Wives of Windsor
That’s all of out Shakespeare quotes for weddings. Know of any other relevant wedding quotes from Shakespeare? Let us know in the comments section below.
That’s it folks! What’s your favorite Shakespeare quote for weddings, and why? Share in the comments section below.
relationship is like a house. When a lightbulb burns out you do not go and buy a new house, you fix the light bulb ????
That’s from one of Shakespeare’s lost plays, I suppose
Did Shakespeare write a quote
Have three, love two and marry one””
Great phrase! Not one we’ve heard before, but can confirm it’s definitely not a Shakespeare quote.