Writing Wedding Vows

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE…

 The act of love and the art of romance has inspired writers, poets and musicians for generations. From the poetry of the Ancient Romans and Greeks to modern day movies, our fascination with love is part of what makes us human. The creator of our favourite memories, and the foundation of our fondest dreams, love has a special way of bringing out the best in us. A compelling capsule of treasured time, wedding celebrations allow us to come together and be as one. Before you get started with your wedding planning, it is important to take time to think about what you want your wedding to represent. Different people have different ideas of what they want their ceremony to be. For some, they choose short and symbolic, for others it is about celebrating strength and unity. 

LOOK TO POETRY FOR INSPIRATION

The rhythmical creation of beauty in words, poetry is a powerful language. A great poem can add a touch of humour, a gentle romantic touch, a spiritual tone or a sense of solemn respect.

Chances are, there are passages from literature and poetry, and lines from movies and songs, that have spoken to you at some stage of your life. Choose something that resonates with your relationship or fits with your wedding style. Did you go to see a movie on your first date? What song was playing when you had your first kiss? You will find inspiration where you least expect it, so dig deep into the things you both love and you will find something rare, relevant and so romantic!

From beloved classic literature and popular contemporary novels, to humorous children's readings and heartfelt poetry, we have gathered some of the most inspiring passages for you to pen your promise and declare your love!

To Be One With Each Other - George Eliot

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labour, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories.

This Day I Married My Best Friend - Author Unknown

This day I married my best friend... the one I laugh with as we share life's wondrous zest, as we find new enjoyments and experience all that's best… the one I live for because the world seems brighter as our happy times are better and our burdens feel much lighter… the one I love with every fibre of my soul.

He’s Not Perfect - Bob Marley

He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don’t analyse. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.

Marriage is... Author Unknown

Marriage is a dynamic process of discovery. Marriage is a journey, not an arrival. In marriage, being the right person is as important as finding the right person. Marriage is starting to love, over and over again. Marriage is a life's work. Marriage is an art... and like any creative process, it requires active thought and effort. We have to learn how to share on many different levels. We need to practice talking from the heart, and understanding attitudes as well as words. Giving generously and receiving graciously are talents that are available to anyone. But all these skills need to be developed, if the marriage picture that we paint is to be anything approaching the masterpiece intended.

How do I love thee? - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight. For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with a passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life, and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

Indian Wedding Blessing

Now we feel no rain, for each of us will be a shelter to the other. Now we feel no cold, for each of us will be warmth to the other. Now there is no loneliness, for each of us will be a companion to the other. We are two bodies, but there is one life before us and one home. When evening falls, I'll look up and there you will be. I'll take your hand; you'll take mine and we'll turn together to look at the road we travelled to reach this: the hour of our happiness. It stretches behind us, even as the future lies ahead. A long and winding road, whose every turning means discovery. Old hopes, new laughter, shared fears. The adventure has just begun.

Two Lives

Two lives, two people, so very different, yet so similar. Together we stand as one, sharing our future as it comes. The past is that, past. Buds are yet to blossom, with care and trust, the best is yet to be revealed. Honesty and kindness, are the fruits of love. Lord bless this day and always to enrich us so our love will never end.

The Art of Marriage - Author Unknown

A good marriage must be created. In the marriage, the little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say "I Love you" at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together and facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is not only marrying the right person - It is being the right partner.

What is Love?

Love is just not looking at each other and saying "You're wonderful". There are times when we are anything but wonderful. Love is looking out in the same direction. It is linking our strength to pull a common load. It is pushing together towards the far horizons, hand in hand. Love is knowing that when our strength falters, we can borrow the strength of someone who cares. Love is a strange awareness that our sorrows will be shared and made lighter by sharing; that joys will be enriched and multiplied by the joy of another. Love is knowing someone else cares that we are not alone in life.

My Best Friend

Today… I look into the eyes of my best friend. The one with whom I can share anything with. My deepest hopes and heart-filled dreams, inner fears and sheltered insecurities. My most warming joys and overwhelming triumphs. All future journeys that I have left to encounter, this and more I know I can share with you. Today... I take pride in my best friend with admiration, I look upon you and smile for all that you are and all that you do that makes me so proud. Every part of you that I have come to adore. And for all those parts I have not yet learned, I will live each day from now on cherishing you with honour. Today... I share my soul to my best friend. My most prized possession which no other has been given. I give it with great confidence and trust because with you I am at peace and I know with you it is safe. You give to me a warmth that I keep with me always. And what else can I give to someone who has given me so much. For you have opened my eyes to see a love, which before you I was blind to.

For Marriage - John O'Donoghue

As spring unfolds the dream of the earth,
May you bring each other’s hearts to birth.
As the ocean finds calm in view of land,
May you love the gaze of each other’s mind.
As the wind arises free and wild,
May nothing negative control your lives.
As kindly as moonlight might search the dark,
So gentle may you be when light grows scarce.
As surprised as the silence that music opens,
May your words for each other be touched with reverence.
As warmly as the air draws in the light,

May you welcome each other’s every gift.
As elegant as dream absorbing the night,
May sleep find you clear of anger and hurt.
As twilight harvests all the day’s colour,
May love bring you home to each other.
I want to love every part of you.

Sonnet 116 - William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Love by Roy Croft

I love you, not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.
I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself,
But for what you are making of me.
I love you for the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
And passing over all the foolish, weak things
That you can't help dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out into the light
All the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.
I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern but a temple; out of the works of my every day
Not a reproach but a song.
I love you because you have done more than any creed
Could have done to make me good,
And more than any fate to make me happy.

You have done it without a touch,
Without a word, without a sign.
You have done it by being yourself.
But today is the day it all starts.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love," which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

From Beginning to End - Robert Fulghum

The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, "You know all those things we've promised and hoped and dreamed—well, I meant it all, every word." Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another—acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this—is my husband, this—is my wife.

The Notebook

It’s not gonna be easy.
It’s going to be really hard;
we’re gonna have to work at this every day,
but I want to do that because I want you.
I want all of you, forever, every day.
You and me… every day.
I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I’ve ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.’

Sex and the City

His hello was the end of her endings.
Her laugh was their first step down the aisle.
His hand would be hers to hold forever.
His forever was as simple as her smile.
He said she was what was missing.
She said instantly she knew.
She was a question to be answered.
And his answer was "I do."

There Will Be Time - Mumford and Sons

But in the cold light I live to love and adore you
It’s all that I am, it’s all that I have
In the cold light I live, I only live for you
It’s all that I am, it’s all that I have

Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne

If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart... I’ll always be with you.

The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passer-by would think that my rose looked just like you—the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.