If you’re planning a humanist or civil wedding ceremony and the idea of sitting with a blank piece of paper, being expected to write a list of meaningful and romantic wedding vows to your partner seems challenging, kick-start your creativity by having a read through these sample wedding vows.
While you can’t say your own vows during a religious wedding ceremony, writing your own wedding vows is not just for civil ceremonies either. You may be planning to have a low-key legal wedding followed by a humanist or more personalised marriage ceremony in your own style with a wedding celebrant. These tips for writing your wedding vows are ideal for both of these non-religious ceremonies.
Tips on Writing Your Wedding Vows
Just remember that the vows you say when you initially get married, and also if you later renew your vows, are purely supposed to be promises about the strength of your feelings for your husband- or wife‐to‐be, and how you will honour those feelings by behaving in the best way you can towards them once you are married.
This is the purpose of vows, whether you choose traditional wedding vows or vows that have a more relaxed and non‐religious tone (such as for a civil wedding ceremony.)
For a civil wedding, you can make your vows touching or humorous, or both, but it’s good to make sure they go together- as one very deep and meaningful set of vows followed by something humorous might not seem so appropriate on the day!
Start by sitting together, (or apart if you find it easier), and think about your partner, how much you love and respect them and how you could show this by behaving in a particular way towards them.
Sample Wedding Vows
I promise to love and respect you and to put energy into keeping our love alive. I will be there for you in good times and bad. I will help you when you need help and make space for you to be yourself. I will try to bring you happiness.
I will dedicate myself to you wholeheartedly. I will make time for you and support you in everything you do. I will help you to raise our children to become loving people, and support you in the fundamental role of parent.
I pledge my life to you. I will love, honour and respect you in happy and sad times. I promise to be faithful to only you as long as we both live.
I __, promise to love and cherish you__, for the rest of your life. I will try to bring laughter to your life, and make you happy, I will consider you in the decisions I have to make, and value your opinions. Today I vow to be your husband/wife for the rest of our lives.
I will seek to always be loving unto you. I will share your joys and your sorrows, and will be devoted unto you until the ultimate parting.
__, I __, take you to be my husband/wife. To have, to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death us do part, and this is my solemn vow.
__, today I promise to respect you always. I will share the good times and bad times with you, be a support and guide. Above all, I will love you from now until our days end.
I, ___ ___, promise to be to you, __ __, a true and loving companion. I promise to be the best husband/wife and parent that I can be and to commit myself forever to our relationship together.
Today I promise to be your husband/wife. I will be faithful and honest, loving and trustworthy. I will seek to bring you stability and order in a chaotic world. I will be your partner and friend for life.
___, in this beautiful garden I dedicate myself to you. Although our lives may change like the seasons, I will love you. As our love grows like a seed to a beautiful flower, I will love you. When the winds of doubt blow through, I will love you. We will stand together, strong, nurtured by each other’s love until the end.
More Sample Wedding Vows
If it makes it easier you could write your vows in a question and answer format, so that the minister reads your vows for you. For example:
Registrar/celebrant:__, today you have come to promise to share your life with__.
Do you promise to love and protect her, to be faithful to her and to be always supporting and understanding? Do you promise to share your life with each other, to trust and be honest and faithful to each other? Will you live in a spirit of tolerance, mutual support and concern for each other’s well being, sharing your responsibilities and joys?
Groom: I do
Registrar/celebrant: We have come together today to witness the vows that __ and __ are about to make. ___, do you now agree to take __ as your wife, understanding and expecting that she will be your partner for life? Will you love her, support her and help her to achieve her potential? Will you share your love through whatever is to come, until the end of your life?
Groom: I will.
Ask your registrar or celebrant for more guidance if you need to as they hear wedding vows every day and are therefore in the perfect position to be able to advise you.
Wedding Vow Books
Having your wedding vows hand-written into a little book that you each bring to the ceremony will make it easier to remember what you want to say. These vow books can also be personalised with your names and the date of your wedding to make a very special keepsake. You could remind each other of your promises and feelings for each other on every anniversary (or whenever you’re not seeing eye to eye!) These lovely little pocket books come in grey or ivory linen to complement any wedding colour scheme.
For more help and inspiration on writing your marriage vows, please visit the professional speech writers who will be able to advise you. Discover some amazing alternative ceremony inspiration at Unity Ceremony Ideas and read all about the very beautiful and symbolic Sand Ceremony Guide.
