If you think love should be a beautiful blend of passion and compassion, then poet and author Raquel Franco has captured this kind of relationship perfectly in her poem All the Ways to Say I Love You. We think it makes for a wonderful modern, and slightly naughty wedding ceremony reading and if you love this, you can follow her on Instagram or read more of her work in her poetry book I’ll Cry if I Want to.

But for your big day, we’ve created a useful and pretty print and go download of this poem below.

All the Ways to Say I Love You by Raquel Franco

Grab my ass in front of the kitchen sink,
with frothy suds on my hands
so I can put them on either side
of your wanting face and plant my lips on you.

Tell me I am beautiful when the night
has done its worst and my skin
is bare and vulnerable. Whisper it
into the yawn of my collar bone.

In every crowded room
find the small of my back.
Let me feel the grip of your fingertips
telling me your mine.

Kiss me on the sidewalk
like I am the protagonist of a rom-com.
Hand at the back of the neck,
thumbs tracing the alcove of my cheekbone.

Curl your body around my bones like a spoon
on days depression sinks its teeth in.
Offer up grace, offer up patience,
offer up space for me to be imperfect.

Ceremony Reading: All the Ways to Say I Love You

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