Wedding Ceremony Vows: Examples, Traditional Texts & Your Own

The traditional exchange

The vows most people mean by "traditional" come from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, first printed in English in 1549 and revised in 1662. This is the 1662 groom's vow, word for word:

I N. take thee N. to my wedded wife, to have and 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, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

The bride's 1662 vow added one promise, "to love, cherish, and to obey", and ended "I give thee my troth". The 1549 original closed "til death us departe".

Most American ceremonies use a modern version of those words, spoken by each partner in turn:

I, ___, take you, ___, to be my wedded wife/husband, to have and 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 do us part.

Some couples swap "till death do us part" for "as long as we both shall live", a line borrowed from the question the officiant asks just before the vows ("so long as ye both shall live" in 1662). Outside churches with fixed vows, small changes like these are yours to make.

A civil ceremony version

There is no single official civil text: each clerk's office and officiant uses its own. One short version:

I, ___, take you, ___, to be my lawfully wedded wife/husband, to love, honor, and cherish, from this day forward.

Some court clerks use the longer traditional words instead; the Montgomery County, Maryland clerk's script ends "until death do us part".

What the law asks you to say

Less than most couples expect. No state law we have read prescribes the wording of vows. California, New York and Minnesota require only that you each declare, in front of your officiant and witnesses, that you take each other as spouses; Texas, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania name no words at all. Your county clerk sets the license and witness rules, so confirm them there and with your officiant. (Some countries do prescribe exact words, England and Wales among them.)

Religious traditions

Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and other traditions each carry their own vow or declaration forms, and many are fixed liturgy rather than personal writing: the Catholic rite and the Church of England, for example, do not allow rewritten vows. If you are marrying within a tradition, your officiant will tell you exactly what is said and where personal words can go (in a reading or prayer within the ceremony, at the rehearsal dinner, or at the reception). Beyond the historic prayer-book wording above, WedGenie does not reproduce liturgical texts; your officiant's version is the authoritative one.

Making the traditional vows yours

A middle path some couples take: speak the traditional exchange in the ceremony, and trade personal vows privately that morning or at the reception. If you want your own words as well, draft them from your real moments with the generator below and say them after the traditional exchange.

Wedding vows for her: groom to bride, heartfelt, about two minutes

Priya,

[pause]

Nine days without heat, that first winter, and I thought we were in for the worst week of our lives together. Instead I came home to find a tent pitched in the middle of our living room, blankets everywhere, and you grinning like you'd planned it all along. That's when I understood something about you I'm still learning every day — you don't just survive a hard thing, you turn it into a place people want to be.

[pause]

That's also, I'll admit, why the list on the fridge doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. "Things Daniel said he would fix." Three pages now. You cross things off yourself when I'm too slow, and I used to be embarrassed by that list. Now I just see it for what it is — proof that you don't wait around for the world to be perfect. You just make it work, with or without me, and somehow always with a little love left over for the mess I make of things.

[pause]

And every Sunday, that chai — your grandmother's recipe, made exactly her way, no substitutions, no help allowed. But you always save me the first cup. That's you in one gesture: fierce about doing things your own way, and still thinking of me first.

[pause]

So here is what I promise. I promise to keep trying to earn my way off that list, even knowing I'll never quite catch up to you. I promise to build tents when the world goes cold, and let you save me the first cup, every single Sunday, for the rest of our lives.

[pause]

I love you. I choose you. Today and always.

---

Vows for Leah: wedding vows for her, funny-leaning, under a minute

Leah — [pause] the first thing you ever did to me was steal my umbrella. Then you stood in the rain, dripping, arguing it was yours by "spiritual right." I knew right there I'd lost the umbrella and possibly the argument, forever.

That's kind of been us since. You hold funerals for houseplants I forget to water — full eulogies, sometimes a eulogy for a fern named Gary — and I laugh, but I notice: you never let anything go without honoring it first.

You did that for me too. Every day at the hospital, then in that car park, crosswords in hand, so I'd never drive home alone.

So here's my promise, plainly: [pause] I will water the plants. I will hand back the umbrella. And I will never let you sit alone in any car park, ever again.

---

Wedding vows for him, funny-leaning, about one minute

Sam,

[pause]

Four years ago, I signed up for a pottery class hoping to make something beautiful. Instead, I made a disaster and fell in love with the guy at the wheel next to me making an even bigger one.

That lopsided bowl you made? You still tell people it's "art." It's not. It's where the car keys live now. But you display it like it's the Mona Lisa, and honestly, that's when I knew — you don't need things to be perfect to love them completely.

[pause]

You've proven that every single time you've shown up at the bus stop after my worst days, dog in tow, no questions asked. Just you, waiting.

So today, I promise to keep choosing you — on the good days, the bad days, and all the lopsided ones in between.

I love you, keys-in-a-bowl and all.

---

Wedding vows for him, quiet and classic, about two minutes

Marcus,

I want to tell you about a night nine years ago that I think about more than almost any other. My mother was sick, and before I could even finish the sentence on the phone, you were already finding your keys. You drove four hundred miles through the dark, no map but the one in your head, and you didn't ask what it would cost you — in sleep, in work, in anything. And then you did something harder than the driving. You sat in a hospital hallway for three weeks. Not fixing anything. Just staying. [pause]

That's who you are. You don't announce your love, Marcus — you just show up in it, over and over, until showing up becomes a shape I can recognize with my eyes closed.

I see it every Sunday, too, in something so small it almost doesn't count as a story. You make two cups of coffee. Mine goes cold on the counter while I sleep in, and when I finally wake, you don't hand me the cold one — you make a fresh one, quietly, like it's nothing. Nine years of that. Nine years of choosing me again in the smallest hour of the week, when no one was watching and it would have been so easy not to. [pause]

So today, in front of everyone who loves us, I promise to be the kind of steady you've been for me. I promise to drive through the night when you need me to, and to make the coffee fresh, again and again, for as long as we both are lucky enough to wake up beside each other.

I choose you — today, and every quiet Sunday after.

---

My Vows to Caleb: Christian wedding vows, personal, about two minutes

Caleb —

[pause]

I want to start with the chairs.

The first morning I saw you, everyone else had already scattered — coffee cups abandoned, the room emptying out — and you were the one still there, quietly stacking chairs like no one was watching. I didn't know yet that this was who you were. I just knew I wanted to stay and help. You still stay to stack the chairs, every single week, and I love you for the kind of steady, unnoticed faithfulness that only God really sees.

[pause]

Our first real conversation was about Ruth — where you go, I will go, your people shall be my people. You told me that night you didn't just want a wedding, you wanted that kind of covenant. Not a feeling. A direction. I think I started falling in love with you right there, over cold coffee, talking about a promise made three thousand years before we were born.

[pause]

And then this year, when I lost my job and felt like I'd lost my footing, you didn't try to fix me or tell me what came next. You just prayed with me — every single morning before work, hand in mine — and let God be the one to lead. You showed me what it looks like to trust Him more than your own answers.

[pause]

So Caleb — where you go, I will go. I promise to keep Christ at the center of our home, to pray with you the way you prayed with me, and to stay — even when the room empties out — because that is what love, and faithfulness, and you, have taught me to do.

---

Short wedding vows, under a minute

Jordan,

[pause]

I used to think love was grand gestures. Then I watched you hunch over a laptop, squinting at my mother's face on a video call, folding dumplings that looked like sad little accidents.

[pause]

You messed up the pleats. You messed up the filling. You kept going anyway. Now yours are better than mine, and my mother will never let me forget it.

[pause]

That's who you are — you pull over. Every single scenic overlook, every time, no matter how late we're running. I used to sigh. Now I just roll down the window, because you're always right. The view is always worth it.

[pause]

So here's my promise: I'll pull over for you. I'll bring the same patience to loving you that you bring to dumplings and dumb roadside signs — messy at first, then better every year.

I choose you. Again and again, at every overlook.

---

Want the full walkthrough of structure, length and nerves? Read how to write wedding vows — or skip straight to drafting with the generator above.

Aim for one to two minutes each — roughly 130 to 260 words spoken aloud at a calm pace. Zola puts most vows at one to two minutes; The Knot and Toastmasters allow up to three. Time a draft by reading it out loud slowly, never by counting lines: nerves make most people speed up.

• 30 seconds, about 65 words. One promise, plainly said — the shape of a civil ceremony, or a second set of vows spoken after the traditional exchange.
• 1 minute, about 130 words. One moment and two or three promises — the short vows above.
• 2 minutes, about 260 words. A story with a turn, then the promises — the sweet spot for most couples, and the length of the longer examples on this page.
• 3 minutes, about 390 words. The top of most guides' range. Past this, vows start to feel like a speech.

The word counts use the 130-words-per-minute pace the generator writes at. Three rules of thumb: agree on a target length and tone with your partner before either of you writes (one partner at 45 seconds and the other at four minutes is a common vow problem, and officiants say that kind of gap feels awkward to everyone listening; if you want a referee, ask your officiant to read both); keep the promises for the end so they are what the room hears last; and if you have more to say than two minutes holds, the overflow makes a beautiful letter for the morning of the wedding.

Personal vows share one shape. Fill in the five parts below in plain, spoken sentences and you have a first draft.

1. Address them by name. "Sam," — nothing more. No "dearly beloved", no thanking the guests: vows are spoken to one person.
2. The moment. One specific memory that shows why this person: "The night the heating broke, you…" Specific beats sweeping, every time.
3. What it taught you. One sentence that turns the memory into a truth about them: "That's when I understood…"
4. A handful of concrete promises. Three to six is the range The Knot's vow writer suggests. "I promise to ___" — things you could actually do next Tuesday: make the coffee, drive through the night, pull over at the overlook. A light, funny promise among sincere ones is welcome.
5. One plain last line. The vow itself, or simply "I love you": "I choose you — today and every day after."

Read the short vows above (Mei to Jordan) against that list: the dumplings are the moment, "that's who you are — you pull over" is the turn, the promises come last, and the whole thing runs a minute. That is the template at its shortest.

The classic exchange works as a frame around it, too. Some couples say the traditional wedding vows first — "to have and to hold, from this day forward" — and their personal vows after, or keep the ceremony traditional and trade the personal vows privately that morning. Your officiant has seen every combination; the only rule is that whatever you say to each other, you could stand behind on an ordinary Wednesday.