Need to write your own wedding vows and don't know where to start? Looking for wedding vow examples and inspiration? read on for real wedding vows taken from some of my kickass couples.
Writing your wedding vows is something that can feel incredibly daunting or ridiculously exciting, and everything in between. The vows are, really, the only non-optional part of a wedding ceremony.
The rest of your ceremony - no matter how fun, romantic, or personal it may be - is built around that moment where you declare your love and commitment to each other.
how to write your wedding vows
There are different ways to say these vows: you can ‘repeat after me’; respond ‘I do’ to some personalised statements; or write your own vows to read directly to each other. This final option - if you’re willing and able - is always the best way to ensure maximum meaning and impact, because it makes it a moment between just the two of you without your celebrant needing to get involved (we’ll always be on hand with tissues, though!)
I provide a vow writing guide to all my couples, and help them to write meaningful, personal vows which are a true reflection of them and their relationship. Obviously you always need an element of seriousness with at least one of the vows, but if your relationship is built on banter and piss-taking then it makes sense to bring a little sprinkle of that into your vows, too.
My couples are also encouraged to keep their vows secret until the ceremony itself, with me acting as a go-between to give advice and feedback until we’ve reached the perfect version (and to make sure they’re not too dissimilar in terms of length and vibe).
I also bring along a copy of the vows on the day, too, designed to match your wedding colours / flowers and formatted for maximum readability with a simple font and line breaks in places that make sense. Once an English teacher, always an English teacher.
I encourage you to make your vows more than just a list of promises. In my guide, I encourage you to take the opportunity in your ceremony to say some lovely things to your partner: why you love them, what they’ve brought to your life, what you’re looking forward to in your future together. And again, as an ex English teacher I provide a template, examples, sentence starters, and even a little notes / activity page to get your creative juices flowing. But the promises are at the heart of it all.
so, to what you're really here for: example wedding vows
In this blog post, I have collated example vows from some of my couples over the years*. I’ve split them into categories: the silly; the serious; the 'sorries', the savage, the specific; and the soppy. Of course, you are not encouraged to just pick and mix and steal these verbatim - and to be honest, many of them are so personal or niche that it wouldn’t make sense to do so anyway. But I am hoping they will provide some inspiration and ideas for you to create your own.
*I say ‘over the years’. I delved back into about 20 sets of vows from 2023, and that gave me more than enough absolute gold - if I had continued any further back, this blog would have been 50,000 words long!
The silly
Have some fun with it! Embrace the silliness that makes you 'you'... it makes for great photos!
Sadly for you, I also promise to continue to be the same usual miserable git I always have been… but with you, I will try to get better every day.
I promise to be your rock, your free therapist, and the angel or devil on your shoulder.
This I can promise: I promise that I will shout out which animals are in a field as we drive past; to try and entice all cats and dogs for a fuss; and to continue to laugh at farts.
I promise to never laugh when your tiny bladder forces you to need to stop for a wee at the services 5 minutes from home.
I promise to continue not putting out the recycling, I promise to continue being an awful passenger, and I promise to keep falling asleep at 8pm every Friday.
I promise that I’ll do my best to make every day fun until we are two little roly-poly nanas laughing in our upright armchairs.
I’m afraid I can't promise I will never mumble again. In the same way that you can’t promise that you will stop continuously stubbing your toes, or sneeze quieter than 100 decibels.
I will promise to nearly always notice when you’ve had your hair cut, and comment on how nice you look in yet another outfit you’ve had delivered from ASOS.
I promise to accept my rightful place behind Pippin in the order of those closest to your heart, and to try to remember that he is a cat and I shouldn't get jealous of a cat.
And lastly, I promise to be your faithful and loving husband until the end of our days. Which hopefully, with the rate of continuing research into anti-aging drugs, could be far into the future, maybe even on another planet or a fun space station in a leafy part of the galaxy.
And most of all, I promise I will be a much nicer person to be around now the wedding planning is over!
The serious
Even if you have the most banter-filled relationship ever, you probably need at least one heartfelt and serious vow in there.
I promise to sit with you through challenging times and to celebrate your successes with you.
I vow to be your constant companion, to be there for you in times of joy and sorrow. I’ll speak when words are needed, and share the silence when they are not.
I promise to love you unconditionally, with every fibre of my being, embracing both your strengths and weaknesses.
I will be your unwavering supporter on the hardest of days, and your biggest cheerleader when life goes your way.
I promise to stand with you through the sunny days and the stormy days (although please don't break any more limbs).
I vow to pour into our cup as much as I pour into my own, so I can stay healthy for our family.
I promise to always love and care for you and the people who are important to you.
I promise to always be present in our marriage, and provide you with the love, support and a safe space to be yourself whatever that looks like, no matter how you are feeling.
I promise to love you without reservation or conditions.
I promise above all else to live in truth with you, and to always communicate honestly and fearlessly.
I promise to bring compassion and care every day, from morning ’til night. I vow to love you as you love me, through hardship and pain, joy and adventure.
I promise to continue to protect you from everything I can, to support you in everything you do, to never take life too seriously, and to always take that trip.
The sorries
A great chance to acknowledge your own flaws and ensure your partner knows exactly what they’re signing up for! (Tobi definitely looks as though he's having a moment of realisation here...!)
I cannot promise not to litter a thousand unfinished craft projects throughout the house, or to not need a wee 40 minutes into a car journey (even though, yes, I did go before we left!)
I can’t promise that I won’t flood the bathroom floor every time I have a shower, but I promise to always have towels to hand.
However, I can’t promise I will let you win at Pool, or that I wont rage-hit the tennis balls out of the court when you keep winning.
I can’t promise that I won’t continue to use my teacher voice when you do something wrong.
I can't promise that I will never be annoying, interrupt you constantly or make you redecorate the house multiple times.
I can’t promise I will stop saying sorry every 5 minutes, but I can promise I will always apologise for it when you tell me to stop.
I can’t promise I’ll always take the screws out of my work trousers before they go in the washing but, I will try.
I can’t promise that I’ll stop making shit jokes, but I’ll promise you’ll at least find them a little bit funny, even if you won’t admit it.
I also can’t promise to never make you park the car for me, or to change all of Lola’s dirty nappies.
The savage
I trust you to know each other well enough to know how far you can go with this!
The last thing we want is a mid-ceremony domestic… (that's not what was happening here, by the way. I just love the look on Rosalie's face!)
I vow to always be the funniest out of the two of us, and always make you laugh.
I promise to try and find your jokes funny.
I vow to be there for you when life gets hard, which as an Everton fan will be quite a lot so this is a big promise.
I promise to love you unconditionally just the way you are. A promise of forever shared with you. Please don’t ever forget that… Like you forgot to bring my wedding shoes for my dress fitting and had to go to Aldi to buy me similar ones. Or every time you forget to bring me my phone charger when I’ve asked you… Or the million times I’ve asked you for something specific from the shop and you return home empty handed.
I promise to champion and encourage your passions and interests, even if that means tolerating your ever-increasing bike collection.
I promise to make you cups of tea morning, noon, and night; and to not question that you seem incapable of making coffee.
I vow to deal with your parking fines, car insurance claims and any other statutory instruments, modern or archaic, that you manage to discover on our behalf.
I promise to keep the house clean and tidy, and not moan when you come back from an outdoor weekend and leave your bag unpacked in the living room for a week.
I promise to keep telling you where things are in the cupboards, even though they have been in the same place for 8 years.
I promise to love you at least half as much as you love the air fryer.
I promise to try not to hate you for a week when you do something wrong, but to only hate you for a day.
I promise you that I will always rub your back after a heavy night of “I’m not gonna drink too much.”
I can’t promise to continue to enable your 3d printer habit.
I promise I will always love you, no matter the challenges we face. Whether that be your snoring, your ability to scream in your sleep (which will more than likely lead to my demise), clogging the shower, or your ability to know exactly what I am thinking (whether good or bad).
I will always love sharing a bed with you, no matter how little sleep I get.
I’ll always embrace your clumsiness and your ability to downsize the glassware in our house.
I promise to keep trying to make you laugh and hope that, with time, you will even be able to take a joke.
And the ultimate savagery: if you’re ever sick again I will fight it with you. And if it doesn’t pan out, I promise to enjoy the insurance money.
The specific
A great way to bring in a bit of an in-joke, or reference something which is pretty specific to the two of you and how you live your lives.
(I think Siobhan was saying something about Hannah's questionable dance moves here... so obviously Hannah had to demonstrate them!)
I promise to stay out of the kitchen when you are cooking, and to be the spider-catcher of the house.
Even in the quirkiest of moments, like your irrational anger when vans drive too close to your parked car, I vow to join you at the window, watching those vans as they reverse, because your happiness is mine.
I promise to always turn the oven off when you forget, and to drag you to bed when you’re too tired.
I promise to keep cheese and cheese-based snacks well stocked in the fridge for you, despite your intolerance to dairy.
I promise never to sing Jolene at karaoke, and to not get upset when you make me a pool widow.
While I’m here on this earth, I promise that if I see a murder documentary on Netflix I think you’ll like, I’ll save it to favourites.
I promise to always buy the good coffee.
I promise to always pay attention to the little things in our relationship, whether it is paying the tea tax or giving you your 3 complimentary bits of chorizo when I’m cooking.
I vow to accept that Jake Quickenden will always be a part of our relationship. (X Factor star, apparently. I had to google it).
I will even try to put the marmite knife in the dishwasher and not leave it on the worktop.
I promise to stand beside rugby pitches in the freezing cold and cheer for you, whether as a player or coach, despite not always knowing what on Earth is going on.
I promise that you will be as important to me as rugby, as long as I am as important to you as Selling Sunset and The Handmaid’s Tale.
I promise to always carry a supply of snacks for when you get hangry.
I will avoid causing stress, by leaving enough time to get to the airport.
I also promise to start putting my fingernails in the bin.
The soppy
Go on. Make 'em cry.
I promise to walk by your side through life as your best friend, your number one, your wife, always. I vow to spend every day showing you how special and loved you are, especially on the days when you can’t see it yourself.
I promise to give you my whole heart for the rest of our lives as we grow into whatever the future holds in store for us.
I promise to return every gram of love two-fold.
I will love you faithfully, and continue to embrace both the similarities and the differences that make us who we are, while continuing to grow together as one.
In times of uncertainty, I will come through. When you feel low, I will aim high, and in life-changing moments, I will hold your hand.
I vow to keep bringing out the best in you, because you have always brought out the best in me.
I promise to be an unwavering tree for you to lean on, and to continue to grow with you.
I promise to always keep our love safe, to protect it, nurture it, and honour the bond we are making here today.
With every beat of my heart, I vow to stand by you, to support you, and to love you unconditionally.
I promise that when you need someone else to take over for a bit because everything just got that bit harder, I’m your gal.
And lastly, I promise to love you without question, ineffably and effortlessly. And I always will.
So there you have it. If that huge catalogue of examples doesn't spark some ideas within you then nothing will.
If you really struggle to put pen to paper, try recording some voice notes or just starting with bullet points or a mind map and working from there - whatever works best for your brain. I often have people who have a rough outline and some initial ideas but just need a hand tying it all together and finessing it all. That's what I'm here for!
Good luck writing your kickass wedding vows! You'll boss it.
I’m Louise Gather, and I am your go-to for kickass gatherings!
My specialty is writing and performing wedding ceremonies that are both heartfelt and hilarious – I can guarantee laughter, fun, and happy tears! I absolutely love my job, because every couple’s story and every wedding day is completely unique.