Guide

Wedding vow examples — and how to write your own.

Twenty original vows to read for inspiration, plus a gentle four-part builder that turns your answers into a vow you can print on two elegant cards.

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Vow builder.

Four short answers become a vow you can read aloud, copy, or print on two elegant cards.

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Twenty vows to borrow a line from

All written by us — read one aloud and notice which cadence sounds like you. Tap Copy to save one to your notes.

Traditional

The classic form, our way

I take you to be my partner, from this day forward — to have and to hold, in easy years and hard ones, in laughter and in the quiet. I promise you my patience, my honesty, and my whole heart, for as long as we are both alive.

Steady and simple

Before the people we love, I promise to be your husband. I will stand beside you in joy, and beside you in trouble. I will keep no part of my life from you. I will love you when it is easy, and I will love you when it is not, and I will do this every day of our lives.

A vow of tending

I choose you today, and I will choose you every day after. I will honor your dreams as I honor my own. I will make room for your grief and cheer for your happiness. In sickness and in health, in wealth and in want, I am yours — freely, gladly, forever.

A pledge before family

In front of the people who raised us and the people who chose us, I promise to be your wife. I will tell you the truth kindly, listen when it is my turn to listen, and build a home with you that feels like a soft place to land. Today, tomorrow, and every day we have.

Modern

The small things

I promise to make your coffee the way you like it. To ask how the meeting went, and mean it. To be the one you text first, and the one you come home to. I will take your side in an argument and your hand in a crowd. I will love you loudly, and I will love you in the small quiet ways nobody else ever sees.

Two people, one team

You and me, on the same side of every table. I promise to say the hard thing out loud, to fight fair, and to say sorry first when I'm wrong. I promise to keep noticing you — the way you laugh, the way you think, the way you show up. I will choose us again every morning.

Grown-up promises

I promise to build a life with you that is bigger than either of us alone. I will keep learning who you are, because you are always becoming. I will make space for your ambition and your rest. I will love you through the changes, and I will love the person you keep becoming.

For the everyday

I promise you Tuesdays. Grocery lists and slow mornings and long drives and dishes in the sink. I promise the birthdays and the boring bits and the parts nobody photographs. And I promise that when the big days come, I'll be there — the same person you are marrying today.

Funny-warm

The honest one

I promise to always let you have the last slice, unless it's pizza. I promise to laugh at your jokes, even the second time, even the fourth. I promise to be your emergency contact, your bad-day person, and the one who kills the spiders. I love you completely — and I have witnesses, so no take-backs.

Warm chaos

I promise to keep loving you when you are grumpy, when you are hungry, and when the wifi is down. I promise to remember our anniversary, mostly. I promise to be the one who checks the oven and the one who takes the trash out — and to be the person you actually want to spend a random Sunday with, forever.

A soft roast

I promise to love you even when you leave one square on the toilet paper roll. Even when you narrate the movie. Even when you send me articles at midnight. I promise you all of my patience and most of my snacks, and a life so full of the ordinary that we will forget we were ever anywhere else.

Short

Eight lines

I promise to love you well. To listen. To grow with you. To be honest when it's hard. To be your safe place, and your loudest fan. To choose you every day. Today, and always.

A single breath

You are my person. I will love you steadily, honestly, and every day for the rest of my life.

Two promises

I promise you my whole heart, kept honest. And I promise that whatever happens next, I will face it beside you.

Religious-neutral

A quiet covenant

Before all we hold sacred, I take you to be mine. I will love you with a love that is patient and unhurried. I will honor the promise we make today with my hands, my words, and my life. May every year we share deepen what we begin now.

A blessing offered

I offer you my love as a gift given freely and forever. I will be gentle with your heart. I will be brave for us both when I need to be. May our life together be full of meaning, kindness, and rest — and may the promises we make today hold us all our days.

Second-marriage

Beginning again

I did not think I would stand here again — and then there was you. I promise to love you with everything I have learned, and everything I still have to give. I will not take a single ordinary day for granted. Thank you for choosing me. I choose you back, freely, and for the rest of my life.

For the family we're becoming

Today I marry you, and I welcome your people as my own. I promise to love your children, honor your past, and build a home wide enough for all of us. I will be steady. I will be kind. I will be the one who stays.

Grateful and grown

I know what love costs, and I know what it gives. I promise to spend it wisely with you — with patience, with laughter, with the honest kind of love that gets better the longer you live it. You are my best surprise and my last first kiss.

A calmer vow

I don't need forever to sound loud. I promise you a quiet, faithful love. Coffee in the morning. Your hand in mine at the movies. The truth, kindly told. A life we build slowly and mean completely — from today, and for every day after.

How to write your own vows — the four-part frame

  1. Start with how you met. One sentence about the moment, the season, or the story that led here. Ground the vow in something real.
  2. Say what you love about them. Two or three specific things — not adjectives, moments. The way they laugh at their own jokes; the way they call their sister every Sunday.
  3. Make three promises. Concrete, keepable promises. 'I will listen when it's my turn to listen.' 'I will make your coffee the way you like it.' Small vows outlast big ones.
  4. Close with one line that lands. One sentence you'll remember saying and they'll remember hearing. Read it aloud until it feels like yours.

Questions people ask

How long should wedding vows be?
Aim for about a minute spoken — roughly 100 to 150 words. Long enough to say what matters, short enough to keep the ceremony moving.
Should both partners write their own vows?
Talk about it beforehand. Either both write, both use a traditional form, or one of each — as long as you agree, either choice is lovely.
Is it okay to read vows from a card?
Absolutely. Print them on nice paper and hold the card. Most couples read; nobody notices.

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