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 Vows
Are you a poet? Writing your own vows is a great way to let your creative side take wing as you dedicate your life to your loved one.
If you aren't going to have a religous official conduct your wedding, some states will let a friend obtain a one day officiating license and you can write the entire ceremony for him or her.
 Vows can go to the short and simple to elegant and long to repeated in the language of your family from other shores.
In general, the progression of the ceremony is generally in this order.
- The Greeting
- The Declaration of Consent (Vows)
- The Exchange of Rings
- Blessings and Readings
- The Pronouncement
Here are a few samples. |
Greetings |
| Friends, we are gathered together in the sight of God to witness and bless the joining together of Groom and Bride in Christian marriage. The covenant of marriage was established by God, who created us male and female for each other. With his presence and power Jesus graced a wedding at Cana of Galilee, and in his sacrificial love gave us the example for the love of husband and wife. Groom and Bride come to give themselves to one another in this holy covenant. |
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We are gathered here to witness and celebrate the joining together of Name and Name in marriage, to be with them and rejoice with them in the making of this commitment.
Love is a gift from God. Marriage means the pledging of His love, and its strength is built upon imponderables of the spirit, loyalty, trust, joy, laughter and tears. It is the Holy covenant of marriage into which Name and Name come now to be joined.
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Vows or Declaration of Consent |
| Simple |
I, (Bride/Groom), take you (Groom/Bride), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.
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| Christian |
| Groom I, _____, take you, ______, to be my wedded wife. With deepest joy I receive you into my life that together we may be one. As is Christ to His body, the church, so I will be to you a loving and faithful husband. Always will I perform my headship over you even as Christ does over me, knowing that His Lordship is one of the holiest desires for my life. I promise you my deepest love, my fullest devotion, my tenderest care. I promise I will live first unto God rather than others or even you. I promise that I will lead our lives into a life of faith and hope in Christ Jesus. Ever honoring God's guidance by His spirit through the Word, And so throughout life, no matter what may lie ahead of us, I pledge to you my life as a loving and faithful husband.
Bride I, _____, take you, ______, to be my wedded husband. With deepest joy I come into my new life with you. As you have pledged to me your life and love, so I too happily give you my life, and in confidence submit myself to your headship as to the Lord. As is the church in her relationship to Christ, so I will be to you. _____, I will live first unto our God and then unto you, loving you, obeying you, caring for you and ever seeking to please you. God has prepared me for you and so I will ever strengthen, help, comfort, and encourage you. Therefore, throughout life, no matter what may be ahead of us, I pledge to you my life as an obedient and faithful wife.
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| United Methodist |
| Minister: Christ calls you into union with him and with one another. I ask you now in the presence of God and this congregation to declare your intent. Will you have this man to be your husband, to live together in a holy marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, be faithful to him as long as you both shell live?
Bride: I will.
Minister: Will you have this woman to be your wife, to live together in a holy marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, be faithful to her as long as you both shell live?
Groom: I will.
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| Jewish |
| In Jewish wedding ceremonies, the couple drink from a cup of blessed wine, then as the groom places a wedding ring on the brides finger her recites these words: Behold, you are consecrated unto me with this ring, according to the law of Moses and of Israel. |
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| Hindu |
| Let us take the fourth step, to acquire knowledge, happiness, and harmony by mutual love and trust. ... Finally, let us take the seventh step and become true companions and remain lifelong partners by this wedlock. |
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| Muslim |
| I pledge, in honesty and sincerity, to be for you and helpful/obedient and faithful husband/wife. |
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Ring Exchange
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In token and pledge of our constant faith and abiding love, with this ring I thee wed, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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I give you this ring as a symbol of our love. With it I wed you, and give you my body, soul, and heart. |
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| Take and wear this ring as a symbol of our love. With it I wed you, and give you my body, soul, and heart. |
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| Take and wear this ring as a symbol of my love. With it I wed you, and commit my life to you forever. |
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Blessings and Readings |
| The Rose Ceremony |
"Your gift to each other for your wedding today has been your wedding rings - which shall always be an outward demonstration of your vows of love and respect; and a public showing of your commitment to each other.
You now have what remains the most honorable title which may exist between a man and a woman - the title of "husband" and "wife." For your first gift as husband and wife, that gift will be a single rose.
In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a single rose always meant only one thing - it meant the words "I love you." So it is appropriate that for your first gift - as husband and wife - that gift would be a single rose.
Please exchange your first gift as husband and wife.
(Sometimes a couple will play a special song at this point).
In some ways it seems like you have not done anything at all. Just a moment ago you were holding one small rose - and now you are holding one small rose. In some ways, a marriage ceremony is like this. In some ways, tomorrow is going to seem no different than yesterday. But in fact today, just now, you both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you always remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage.
Groom and Bride, I would ask that where ever you make your home in the future - whether it be a large and elegant home - or a small and graceful one - that you both pick one very special location for roses; so that on each anniversary of this truly wonderful occasion you both may take a rose to that spot both as a recommitment to your marriage - and a recommitment that THIS will be a marriage based upon love.
In every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find the right words.
It is easiest to hurt who we most love. It is easiest to be most hurt by who we most love.
It might be difficult some time to words to say "I am sorry" or "I forgive you"; "I need you" or "I am hurting". If this should happen, if you simply can not find these words, leave a rose at that spot which both of you have selected - for that rose than says what matters most of all and should overpower all other things and all other words.
That rose says the words: "I still love you."
The other should accept this rose for the words which can not be found, and remember the love and hope that you both share today.
Groom and Bride, if there is anything you remember of this marriage ceremony, it is that it was love that brought you here today, it is only love which can make it a glorious union, and it is by love which your marriage shall endure." |
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| The Apache Blessing |
| "Now you will fell no rain, for each of you will the shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth to the other. Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling, to enter into the days of your life together, and may your days be good and long upon the earth."
"Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficult and fear assail your relationship - as they threaten all relationships at one time or another - remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives - remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight." |
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| Cherokee Prayer |
God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honour all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together.
We honour mother-earth - and ask for our marriage to be abundant and grow stronger through the seasons;
We honour fire - and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts;
We honour wind - and ask we sail though life safe and calm as in our father's arms;
We honour water - to clean and soothe our relationship - that it may never thirsts for love;
With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and true happiness as we forever grow young together. Amen. |
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| 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 |
| Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other men's sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love can not face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. |
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| Genesis 2:18-24 |
| The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. |
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| Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 |
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. |
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Pronouncement of Marriage
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In as much as this couple has, in the presence of God and these witnesses, consented together to be joined in the lawful bonds of matrimony, declaring their love for one another and exchanging rings as a symbol of that love, and by the power vested in me by the State, I now pronounce you husband and wife.
You may seal this marriage with a kiss.
And now may God prosper and bless you in this new union, and may your lives together be long and full. Amen.
It is my great pleasure to present for the very first time,
Mr. and Mrs.____________
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