How To Write Great Wedding Vows
If you haven’t found the creative inspiration to write your vows, or you’ve tried and it still just doesn’t feel right, you’ve come to the right place.
The fact of the matter is that you’re not the first, and certainly not the last, bride or groom-to-be who’s felt like you have nothing to say to someone you’ve spoken to so much. We all want the same thing; for our vows to be perfect. You’d think that wouldn’t be a lot to ask for considering the commitment you’ve made to having and holding this same person for the rest of your life. Putting so many feelings into so little wording might initially seem impossible, but we might have possibly brought the right ingredients together, to do just that.
Don’t forget that you’re in this together so it’s important to know that you can also talk to your partner about your vows and ask which direction they’re taking. Whether it’s deeply romantic or slightly comedic, or even both, find what resonates with the two of you the most and go with that!
To start, map out the general structure that you might want your vows to follow and then tackle each section one at a time.
Begin thinking about a few of your best memories together and choose one or two. You might struggle to narrow down the things you like about your partner, so start writing a couple of them down and try to think of a time where these qualities glistened. The trick is to just write rough notes, even if you think they sound terrible, and then pull the best parts out. You’ll be surprised at your own poetic capabilities once you’ve found a few different and beautiful memory snippets to materialise into your written promise.
HERE ARE A FEW QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT HELP GET THE BALL ROLLING:
-How did you meet?
-What made you decide this was your forever person?
-What about this person made you a better one?
-What do they do that makes you smile?
-Have you got plans or dreams together for your future?
-What do you want them to know most in this world?
Once you’ve scribbled down all of these thoughts, summarise and refine them. Take out any unnecessary, flowery words or phrases to retain the essence of what you’re saying. You also don’t want to arrive on your special day, only to be tongue-tied and terrified, trying to pronounce words like, “faithfulness” or “unfathomable”.
You’ll want to keep what you say concise and personal, aim to write about 250 words. That’s two minutes worth of speaking!
Once you’ve gotten your ideas down, it’s time to order them to ensure the narrative flows and that your sentences sound just as you wanted them to.
Remember that it’s also more than alright to take bits and pieces from examples you’ve seen and to use those words to express your feelings.
When it comes to the delivery, you can make the decision to memorise or read your final vows. Avoid using notes on your phone, we’d suggest having a beautiful notebook to write or print them in, so as to steer clear of screen light on your face or technical difficulties that your photographer could be faced with. You can also decide to not do vows altogether. It’s your day, if it’s truly making you anxious, don’t sweat it.
Overall, we know it’s a cliché, but it’s one for a reason; just speak from the heart. Perfection is overrated and as long as you’re true to yourself and feel relaxed, it’ll all work out.
Here are some examples of vows for you to refer to or to use as your own, just in case you’re feeling overwhelmed or lost for words!
