How to Write Wedding Vows Step by Step

Wedding vows serve as an intimate moment during the wedding ceremony where the couple expresses their love, promise, and commitment to one another for the rest of their lives. Writing your own wedding vows gives the two of you the opportunity to share the special details of how the two of you grew together as a couple throughout the months or years of being together, and provides your guests with a deeper look into the unconditional and true love you have for one another. Every love is a one-a-kind. After customizing your vows to celebrate just how incredibly special your love is, pick up the very best personalized wedding day ceremony and reception essentials, including guestbooks, programs, menus, place cards, napkins, photo boards, and more. And for now, explore our guide on how to beautifully write your wedding vows for your big day:


Wedding guestbook with foil accents

How to Write Wedding Vows Step by Step

Writing memorable wedding vows is all about speaking from the heart and putting your true feelings onto paper. However, it isn’t always easy to find the right words when you’re overwhelmed with emotions and have so much to say about your significant other. To ease your worries, follow our template for writing wedding vows to help you craft perfect words and avoid running into any writer’s block:

  1. Botanical wedding program with custom details and illustrationsStart with a statement about who this person is to you. Your best friend, your lover, your partner in crime, or your everything.
  2. Continue by saying what it is you love about your partner. What about this person has led you to promise forever? When did you realize you were in love? What do you miss when you’re not around each other? Jotting down all of your ideas and each of things you love about this person can make it easier to get your thoughts together, find a theme and focus in on a few items that really stand out. Don’t worry about saying every little thing, if you were to do that your ceremony would go on forever.
  3. Use a story to bring this love to life. This is a great moment to tell a story or use an anecdote to bring your love to life. A personal story is memorable and will give your guests an intimate look into your love for one another.
  4. Lay out exactly what it is you are promising. Make promises to your partner and vow to stick to them. Such as, “I vow to always support you,” or “I promise to never steal the covers unless, you’re hogging them.” Mention specific ways you will show your love— in romantic ways, funny ways and ways only the two of you could understand. If the two of you are celebrating your faith on your wedding day, you can incorporate religious wedding vows and wedding bible verses too. Use words like I vow, I promise and I pledge.
  5. Use romantic wedding vows to personalize your promise. Use romantic wedding vows to encompass your promise, love and devotion.
  6. Use funny wedding vows to personalize your promise. Your wedding day will be one of the happiest days of your life. Add humor to your wedding vows so they stay true to the two of you.
  7. Mention specific things the two of you will do together. Continue this portion of your vows by mentioning the specific things you will accomplish together. Using phrases like: “With you,” “I will,” and “Together.”
  8. Don’t forget to add that you’ll be there even when times get rough. Reassure your partner that this is for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.
  9. Wrap your vows up with a look towards the future. Think about your goals, aspirations and future. Will your love help you through the home remodel? How will your love set the tone for the way you raise your family? What are you looking forward to sharing with this special person.
  10. “As long as we both shall live.” End your vows with one last promise, the promise of forever, for eternity and until death do us part.

Tips for Writing Wedding Vows

If you’re having trouble with steps 1-10, don’t worry. Keep the following tips for writing your wedding vows in mind while going through the steps above:

  • Personalized wedding napkins that read So This Is Love with hashtagStart early. Begin crafting your  vows early so you’ll have plenty of time to find inspiration, to procrastinate and to enjoy thinking up all the reasons you are saying, “I, Do!”
  • Talk vows over with your fiancé. You’ll want to keep the final product a secret and surprise for your wedding day. Although, it can help you feel more comfortable getting started if you and your partner agree on a certain style, format or tone for your vows. Will the two of you incorporate some of the same promises as traditional wedding vows? Are you going to stick to romantic promises or incorporate a more light-hearted tone? Some couples even decide to share their vows with each other before the wedding day. The best part is that the two of you get to decide what you prefer!
  • Surround yourself with memories. Whether it’s old photographs, your first love note or special keepsakes, these items will remind you of all the moments the two of you have shared with one another. One moment may remind you of another which, may lead to that one time and the next thing you know it, you’ll have too many ideas.
  • Make a list. When you first sit down to write your vows, don’t be stressed about writing complete sentences. Start jotting down everything that comes to mind.
  • If you get stuck, answer a few questions about your relationship. 

    • Why did you decide to get married?
    • What did you think when you first saw him/her?
    • When did you realize you were in love?
    • What do you have now that you didn’t have before you met?
    • How has she/he changed your view of the world?
    • What do you miss when you’re apart from each other?
    • What hard times have you gone through together?
    • What makes your relationship tick?
  • Get inspired. You can look through different wedding vow examples including the ones featured below. You’ll be able to find plenty of inspiration. You can also pull inspiration from your favorite poets, authors, o romantic movies, as long as you don’t let someone else’s words overpower your own.  Once you’ve found a few ideas you love, determine what it is about those vows that you are drawn to and try to incorporate that into your own.
  • Avoid anything too personal or embarrassing. You’ll want your guests to be able to follow along with what you’re saying and be a part of this special moment. Limit the inside jokes and any words you second guess as you re-read what you’ve written. You can also have a friend read through your vows and make sure you didn’t miss anything.
  • Take a break. Sometimes your best writing happens when you come back to it the next day. If you need a break, then take one. This is the reason you started early in the first place.

Wedding Vows for Her

Your vows are the perfect chance to let your guests in on the true love the two of you share. Use our collection of thoughtful wedding vows for her as inspiration or use them word-for-word on your big day. Aside from your big day, you can also use these words in your wedding thank you card wording

  • I promise to love you, honor you, and cherish you as my husband.
  • I am proud to be your loving wife, ecstatic to discover what is next in our lives, and thrilled that our every day will be together on this adventure.
  • I promise to laugh with you and to laugh at myself.
  • You are the love of my life and I am proud to marry you. I promise to support your dreams and to be there for you for all eternity.
  • I vow to be a loving and devoted wife, without judgement, without scorn, but always with an open heart and mind.
  • We are best friends, with unending happiness, always having the best time, let’s solve life’s mysteries together one embrace at a time.
  • I truly love all I know of you and long to learn more as we grow old together, falling for you a little more each day, being part of your life and connected in every way forever.
  • You are my forever, my best friend, my dream come true, my shoulder to lean on, my husband. You are my everything.
  • I vow to listen, to speak lovingly, to give generously all of myself, to care, to heal, to rejoice, and to pray with you forever and always.
  • I love you to the moon and back. And so much more than that.


Wedding Vows for Him

On your wedding day, you are celebrating your best friend and lifelong partner and you’ll want the words you select to embrace that. Create wedding vows that stay true to the both of you and find inspiration with the wedding vows for him below. 

  • Wedding menus with wedding hashtagI vow to make my life forever yours and build my dreams around you.
  • I promise to be the man that I see now in your eyes, today, tomorrow, and for always.
  • You are the first person I want to see in the morning and the last at night. I look forward to loving the smallest moments, like your eyes while you toss your hair. Spin a coin into a fountain and make a wish for us. You are my wish come true.
  • I vow to always protect you from harm, to stand with you against your troubles, and look to you when I need protection.
  • I know you. I know you as my love who has always been and will always be. I name you my wife and cannot wait to continue our eternal loving journey.
  • In your eyes, I have found my home. In your heart, I have found my love. In your soul, I have found my mate. With you, I am whole, full, alive. You make me laugh. You let me cry. You are my breath, my every heartbeat.
  • You know me better than anyone else in this world and somehow still you manage to love me. You are my best friend and one true love. There is still a part of me today that cannot believe that I’m the one who gets to marry you.
  • I see these vows not as promises but as privileges: I get to laugh with you and cry with you; care for you and share with you. I get to run with you and walk with you; build with you and live with you.
  • I pledge to listen to your advice, and occasionally take it. I pledge to never keep score… even if I’m totally winning. I pledge to always admire your huge, strong, kind and determined heart. I pledge that I will love you.
  • I am so happy to be able to tell you – I do, I will, and I always will – whatever I have is yours.

Romantic Wedding Vows

Is there really anything more romantic than devoting yourself to another person for the rest of your life? Use your vows to speak words of love that’ll even touch your guests’ hearts. Use our collection of romantic wedding vows for inspiration or use them word-for-word.

  • I promise to love and care for you, and I will try in every way to be worthy of your love. I will always be honest with you, kind, patient and forgiving. I promise to try to be on time. But most of all, I promise to be a true and loyal friend to you. I love you.
  • I have to catch my breath to believe this is real, that I am marrying my true love, my heart’s desire, and my best friend.
  • As I promise always to be true I promise myself to you.
  • No words can possibly express the vow that I give to you now – it is an ineffable part of myself that I place in your care as we join together.
  • Our love will bind us together through all time and this I promise, to always be true.
  • I knew I loved you from the moment we met, and I have been helplessly lost in your eyes ever since.
  • I promise to grow with you and build with you a better life each day as we learn from each other to be patient, kind, giving, and to always cherish each day together.
  • My commitment to you is one if give willingly, absolutely, and without hesitation. I am yours utterly and have been since the moment we met. We were married before this day and will always be.
  • I promise you my unconditional love, tenderness, and undying devotion, to not ask you to be more than you are, and to love you for being you.
  • I promise to be here to wipe away tears of sadness, to elicit tears of joy, and to cry out to everyone who will listen how much I love you.

Funny Wedding Vows

Weddings are all about happiness and the celebration of love but, wedding planning, writing vows and even the ceremony itself can be stressful. Add a little humor to your ceremony with a couple of funny wedding vows that are fitting for the two of you. Use light-hearted jokes, anecdotes, and entertaining stories to your full advantage, and consider adding these to your wedding celebration decor.

  • Teal wedding napkins with wedding hashtagI vow to never steal the covers unless, you’re hogging them.
  • I vow to turn on the heater when you’re freezing cold, even if I’m burning up.
  • I promise to take out the garbage, even in the pouring rain or freezing cold.
  • I promise to get up and get our remote from across the room, even if it was not I who placed the remote so very far away.
  • I promise to always respect your choice of music in the car when you are driving. If you are not driving however…
  • I promise to root for ______ even though I could truly care less who wins.
  • You are the one I want to binge watch Netflix with forever.
  • I promise to love you as much as the Chicago Cubs and not hold your black and white striped dress against you.
  • Let’s be the only people to get each other’s jokes.
  • I vow to be your spell checker, grammar friend, and tell you when things need hyphens. I promise to be your partner in exercise, even if I am much faster than you, and most of all, I promise to try things, even though I am sure I will not like them, just because you say, “try this!”
  • I promise to share the covers, leave the light on, make sure the toilet paper is stocked, not use all the hot water, and do as many dishes as I can stomach, as long as we both shall live so help me God.

Wedding Vows Example

Allie, you are the one I want to spend the rest of my life with, my best friend.
 
I love your kind heart and ability to understand me like no one else can. You are kind and caring, and one smile from you brightens my whole day. But most importantly, you are the love of my life and you make me happier than I could ever imagine and more loved than I ever thought possible… 
 
I promise to love and care for you, and I will try in every way to be worthy of your love. I will always be honest with you, kind, patient and forgiving. I promise to try to be on time. I promise to never steal the covers unless, you’re hogging them. But most of all, I promise to be a true and loyal friend to you. 
 
I will grow old with you—and never stop growing with you. Through hard times and good times, through sickness and health, I’ll always be at your side…I will love you for all the days of my life. 

Take your wedding vows a step further than the traditional promises—to have and to hold from this day forward—and share your magical story with your family and friends on your wedding day. As the truest form of love is the unconditional kind, you can show off this type of love by writing vows that speak from the heart and reflect your journey with your partner. Use our wedding vow examples and templates to create vows that will be remembered and repeated 50 years from now. You can also apply your vows throughout different elements of your wedding planning including your wedding thank you cards and wedding invitations, whether you’re sending simple wedding invitations, modern wedding invites, floral invitations, or vintage invites.