The Wedding Vows

The vows are the core of the marriage ceremony reflecting your love, values and aspirations for your future together.

The following are examples of vows, traditional, religious and contemporary, that you may choose or adapt to suit you:

"I, Bill/Mary, take you (thee) Mary/Bill 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 'til death do us part, (some stop here) according to God's holy ordinance, thereto I plight thee my troth, (thereto I pledge my love)"

"I, Bill/Mary, take you Mary/Bill, to be my wife/husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life."

"Mary/Bill, today, before our family and friends, I join myself to you as your husband/wife.
May our days together be long, based on our mutual love, respect and understanding."

"Today Mary/Bill, I join my life to yours, not merely as your husband/wife, but as your friend, your lover and your confidant. 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."

"Mary/Bill, I take you to be my wife/husband. Whatever life may bring I will love, honour and cherish you through our future together."

"In love I take you Mary/Bill as my wife/husband. Before our families and friends (these witnesses) I promise to respect and care for you. I have chosen you to share my life, in the hope that we will become all that we can be."

"Bill/Mary, will you take Mary/Bill to be your wife/husband? Will you love, comfort and honour her/him? Will you share with her/him in sickness and in health your fears and your failures, your aspirations and triumphs, your hopes and dreams from this day forward?........I will"

"Mary/Bill, I love you more than all the stars in the sky. Before our families and friends, I accept you as my wife/husband. I promise to share my life openly with you, to respect and care for you, to trust you with all my heart for as long as we both shall live."

I promise to give you the best of myself
and to ask of you no more than you can give.

I promise to respect you as your own person
and to realise that your own interests, desires and needs
are no less important than my own.

I promise to share with you my time and attention
and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship.

I promise to keep myself open to you,
to let you see through the window of my world
into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.

I promise to grow along with you,
to be willing to face changes in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting.

I promise to love you in good times and in bad,
with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how,
completely and forever.

- Dorothy R. Colgan