Choosing and/or writing your own vows can be fun, and it’s really quite easy. It can also be a meaningful exercise for you and enhancing to your wedding ceremony and your marriage. Vows are meant to serve you for your lifetime together.
If you are writing your own vows, begin by thinking about your partner. Think about why in all the world, is this the right person for you. Think about your relationship and your future. What your significant other means to you. What are the promises you want to make to this person? What are words that will tell your significant other what they mean to you? What things are important to you both as you enter into the unknown future together?
Below are many examples of wedding vows, from traditional to creative. One of these samples may say exactly what you need to express. Or, you may choose to use a part of one, mixed with a part of another. As you read through the samples, speak them aloud. Try them on for fit. You will know what is right for you.
Or, if you are comfortable and ambitious, you may choose to write your own vows. You can start from one of the samples and then go from there!
Ideas for Personal Vows
1. All that I am and all that I have, I offer to you, my love, my friend – in joy, in service, in sacred union.
2. ____, I will share and support your hopes and visions, helping to fulfil them in any way I can. I will strive to maintain joy, imagination, and newness in our union. I will keep our highest good as my first intention. I will never do anything to compromise what we have, and in keeping with this, I will remain conscious to never take you for granted. When life becomes difficult, I will share your burden and divide your pain. I will give you strength of spirit, nurture your body, and protect your heart. I will also continue to take care of myself, to inspire your love, and to ensure, as best I can, that you’ll always want what you have. When you laugh, I will share and delight in your joy. I ask that we challenge each other to become all that we can be. My hands will be forever open to you so that we may continue to walk this world together. I cannot express in words how much I love you, and it would take me a lifetime to show you just how much you mean to me. And that is what I intend to do, spend my life with you, demonstrating my respect, my admiration, and my love, completely and forever.
3. Thank you for coming into my life and for being such a wonderful partner. ____, I choose you to be my husband/wife. In the knowledge that I will never do this perfectly, I promise to, as consciously as I can, always be grateful for your presence in my life. I promise to choose my words with care, knowing that what I say to you will either nurture our love or begin the process of its destruction. I choose to create a safe haven for you to grow and be; a place to heal and to feel accepted. I offer my care, my comfort, my love, my wisdom, truth, patience, and kindness, and when necessary, my forgiveness. I offer the gift of listening – listening to your joys and sorrows, confusion and tribulations. I promise to treat with care your emotional well-being. I will celebrate your joys and victories and rejoice in your achievements. I promise to remember love is an action and not a feeling, and to act that way always. I’ll be your best friend. I promise to always be truthful and faithful to myself and to you. I promise to take good care of myself, because without me there is no us. I commit myself to my own growth, and to yours, in this bond of marriage.
4. I believe in you, the person you will grow to be and the couple we will be together. With my whole heart, I choose you acknowledging and accepting your faults and strengths, as you do mine. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. I will dream with you, celebrate with you and walk beside you through whatever our lives may bring. I promise to be faithful and supportive and to always make our family’s love and happiness my priority. I take you to be my spouse. I promise to love you in word and deed, to do the hard work of making now into always. To laugh with you, cry with you, grow with you, and create with you. To honour the goodness in you, of you, and around you. To be your partner in all of life’s adventures. Loving what I know of you and trusting what I don’t know yet, I give you my hand. I give you my love. I give you myself.
5. ____, with a free and unconstrained soul, I give you all I am and all I am to become. I give you my heart and with it faith, respect, patience, and love, for all the days of my life.
6. From this day on, I choose you, my beloved ____, to be my husband/wife. To live with you and laugh with you. To stand by your side, and sleep in your arms. To bring joy to your heart and food to your soul. To bring out the best in you always, and to be the most that I can be. To laugh with you in the good times and to struggle with you in the bad. To give you solace when you are downhearted. To wipe your tears with my hands. To comfort you with my body. To mirror you with my soul. To share with you all of my riches and honors. To play with you as much as I can. I promise you this, from my heart and with my soul, for all the days of my life.
7. I, ____, accept you, ____, as my husband/wife/partner in life. To join our lives and energy together. To spend our days in friendship and love. To support and encourage your growth as my own. To always be open and willing to listen. To seek to be centred in love and serenity through all the changes of life. To nurture and tend the divine light in you and in myself. To manifest the highest good for ourselves, for those we love and for beings everywhere.
8. In the presence of this community, I, ____, choose you, ____, to be my partner from this time forward. To love you. To be a comfort and safe haven in your life. To hold you close. To listen deeply when you are sad or angry. To learn compassion with you. To nourish you with gentleness. To love your body as it ages. To weigh the effects of the words I speak and of things I do.
9. ____, I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband/wife. Before these witnesses, I vow to love you and care for you as long as we both shall live. I take you, with all your faults and your strengths, as I offer myself to you with my faults and my strengths. I will help you when you need help, and will turn to you when I need help. I choose you as the person with whom I will spend my life.
10. I promise to you today, before God, our family, and friends, to stand by your side, and unfailingly share and support your hopes and dreams. I vow to always be here for you through thick and thin. When you fall, I will catch you. When you cry, I will comfort you. When you laugh, I will share your joy. No matter what lies ahead for us, I will see it as a journey –
one that can only be completed by the two of us together. From this moment, everything I am and everything I have is yours, and for eternity, my love for you will remain.
11. ____, from this day forward, I will be here for you. I will sing your joys, cry your sorrows, and stand by your side through whatever life may bring your way. From this day forward, through good times and bad, I will live with you, change and grow old with you, and do all that I can to keep our marriage strong and happy, and alive with possibilities.
From this day forward, I will cherish you. With joy, I look toward the path of our tomorrows, finding peace and happiness, knowing we will walk together, side by side, hand in hand, and heart to heart. We have waited such a long time, and now that we are here, let us make our joys and dreams come true, with our love growing through the years.
12. Love has given us wings, and our journey begins today. ____ and ____, wherever the wind may carry me, I will stay by your side as your husband/wife. Where there has been cold, you have brought warmth,
Where my life has been dark, you have brought light. From this day forward, let us make our two lives, one life, and let us always care for and respect each other. I ______, take you ______to be my (husband/wife), knowing in my heart that you will be my constant friend, my faithful partner and my one true love. I promise to be there when you need me, to fill your days with love, to comfort you and encourage you, to help you reach your goals and to love you with all of my heart, for all of my life. I give you this ring as a symbol of our love. With it, I wed you, and give you my body, heart and soul.
13. The day I met you I knew you were the one for me. I love you so much and I am so happy that we are here today to show our love to one another and share it with our loved loves. I always dreamed of the perfect partner, but you have gone beyond all my dreams. You make me whole, you complete my life. There are no words good enough to tell you how much I love you, but I hope that you can feel it in your heart. I want you to know that I will always love you unconditionally and I promise that I will always be there for you whenever you need me. I am honoured to have you as my husband/wife and I will forever do my best to make you the happiest and most loved man/woman on earth.
14. ____, do you, in the true spirit of sharing, wish to live your life with ____? Will you honour and respect each other’s rights as individuals and will you cherish your love for each other as you both flourish in the bonds of marriage?
15. ____, I promise always to love, honour, and protect you; to promote your dreams and aspirations; to share in your triumphs and failures; to be true to myself and true to you; to cherish your laughter and your beautiful smile; to build a loving family; and to nurture our love forever. I say these things with all my heart.
16. ____, I love, respect, and honour you above all others, and I am committed to our partnership in life. I promise to express my thoughts and emotions to you, and to listen to you in times of joy and in times of sorrow. I will strive to broaden our horizons, expand our boundaries and explore the wonders of life with you. From this day forward, I will join you as your life companion, offering to you the essence of all that I am.
17. ____, I promise to strengthen our love with every passing day, to listen to you with my heart, to catch you if you fall, to fill you life with love and never stop loving you. ____, I promise you that I will always hold your dreams in my heart, be a source of strength and tenderness for you, respect the sanctity of our relationship, and build a legacy of love that we will pass on to our family.
18. You are the first and last man/woman I have ever loved. Years ago, in my mind, I pictured you, just as you are now. I imagined our friendship, our love, and our commitment. And I searched for you – every day, year after year. When I saw you, I recognized you instantly, not by your face, but by your heart and your soul. My quest has finally ended and now I am prepared for the exciting journey that awaits us. From now on there is no “me.” There is only “we.” We will share our successes, our failures, our hopes and doubts. Thank you for being my companion in life. I love you.
19. I, ____, take you, ____, to be my husband/wife, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love today, tomorrow and forever. I will trust you and honour you. I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and worst, through the difficult and the easy. Whatever may come, I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep. I love you!
20. ____, will you take ____ to be your partner in matrimony, to live together in the bond of marriage? Will you love and cherish him/her in sickness and health, in times of abundance and times of lack, in good times and in bad, through your life together? If so, say “I will.”
21. ____, you have been my beloved and my friend for ____ years. You have sustained and heartened me through the dark times and danced with me through the light. In gratitude for what has been, and in trust of what is yet to be, I say to you before this gathered community, that I commit my love to you for the rest of my life.
22. I accept you today as my partner in life – to join our lives and hearts together, to spend our days in friendship and love, to support and encourage you in your growth, to always be open and willing to listen, and to love you through all the changes in your life.
23. Today, by the grace of God, I take you as my husband/wife. I vow to dedicate myself to your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, and I promise that wherever our paths lead, I will love, honour, respect, and support you. I will be your most loyal friend. May God give me the strength and guidance to be a devoted and loving husband/wife to you and see you in each moment as the Divine Spirit that you are.
24. I, ____, take you, ____, to be my husband/wife. As your friend, your lover, and your confidante, let me be the shoulder you lean on, the rock on which you rest, the companion of your life. With you I will walk my path from this day forward. Love is when you look into someone’s eyes and suddenly you go all the way inside their soul and you both know it.
25. I, ____, take you, ____, to be my husband/wife, knowing in my heart that you will be my constant friend, my faithful partner, and my one true love. I promise to be there when you need me, to fill your days with love, to comfort you and encourage you, to help you reach your goals, and to love you with all of my heart, for all of my life. I give you this ring as a symbol of our love. With it, I wed you and give you my body, heart, and soul.
26. Through the best and the worst I will love you faithfully, joyfully, and honestly – not forever, but for real.
I will remember your song, and sing it to you when you forget.
I will seek your happiness as my own.
I will strive to be a clear mirror for your beauty, wholeness, and innocence.
I will be honest with you and faithful to you in word, deed and thought.
I will listen to you with an understanding heart, and clear and spacious mind.
I will trust always in the goodness of your heart and respect the fertile weight of our union.
I vow to appreciate you without judging,
to join you without invading,
to invite you without demanding,
to respect you in your choices,
and to honor you in the paths you take.
For tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, I do.
27. I’m so lucky to be marrying the man/woman I love and respect so much. Your mind challenges me, your sensitivity and compassion lifts me. Your drive inspires me. In turn, I promise to look at our life as a journey, one we will travel together. I promise to be the one you look to for support and laughter. I promise to take time each day to remind you how special you are to me.
28. ____, I choose you to be my husband/wife, in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer. I’ll always love to love you. Because your spirits lift my spirits higher than they could possibly go alone, and because I respect you and admire all you are, I take you to be my lawful and wedded husband/wife. I pledge to you my never-ending devotion, through sickness and health, poverty and wealth, and I pledge to you my heart, with a vow that we’ll never part. Forever, together.
29. I, ____, take you, ____, to be my beloved husband/wife, to have and to hold you, to honor you, to treasure you, to be at your side in sorrow and in joy, to laugh with you in the good times, to comfort and solace you in the bad, and to love and cherish you always. I promise you this from my heart, with my soul, and for all the days of my life, eternal.
30. I choose you this day to love and confide in, to hold on to and reach out from. I choose you this day to believe in and to share with, to learn from and grow with. I choose you this day to give you my heart. You make my days richer and add meaning to my life. I give you this ring today as a symbol of my love for you.
31. I, ____, take you, ____, to be my spouse and life partner. I promise above all else to live in truth with you and to communicate fully and fearlessly. I give you my hand and my heart as a sanctuary of warmth and peace. I pledge my love and devotion, faith and honour, as I join my life with yours.
32. ____, I accept you today as my partner in life – to join our lives and hearts together, to spend our days in friendship and love, to support and encourage you in your growth, to always be open and willing to listen, and to love you through all the changes in your life.
33. You are my beloved. You are my dearest friend. Today, I promise to be your life-long partner. I promise to laugh with you, to listen and learn from you. I promise to share my life openly and honestly with you and to encourage and nurture your growth. I promise to savour each day, revelling in our loving relationship and in our pursuit of happiness. Together, we continue this journey of exploration, trust and communication.
