Writing your own wedding vows sounds simple right up until you sit down to actually do it. How do you compress an entire relationship — and everything you hope for its future — into two minutes of spoken word, without it sounding like either a greeting card or a legal document?
Below are examples across traditional, funny, and personalized styles, plus a simple structure to help you write your own from scratch.
The Basic Structure
Most great personalized vows follow a similar shape, whether they’re funny, formal, or somewhere in between:
- A statement of commitment — the “I promise” or “I vow” moment.
- What you love about them — specific, not generic.
- A few concrete promises — things you’ll actually do, not just feel.
- A closing line — something short and clear to end on.
Aim for 1-2 minutes (roughly 200-300 words) unless you’re at a very small, informal ceremony where longer is welcome.
Traditional Vow Examples
- “I, [Name], take you, [Name], to be my [husband/wife/spouse], to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.”
- “I promise to be your partner in all things — not the person who has all the answers, but the one who will be by your side, searching for them with you.”
- “I promise to love you without reservation, comfort you in times of distress, encourage you to achieve all your goals, laugh with you and cry with you, and cherish you for as long as we both shall live.”
- “Today I give myself to you in marriage. I promise to encourage and inspire you, to laugh with you, and to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle. I promise to love you in good times and in bad, when life feels easy and when it feels hard, when our love is simple and when it is challenged.”
Personalized Vow Examples
- “I promise to always save you the last bite of whatever I’m eating, to laugh at your jokes even when I’ve heard them a hundred times, and to never stop being amazed that I get to do life with you.”
- “I vow to be honest with you, even when it’s hard. To choose patience over frustration. To keep choosing you, every single day, for the rest of our lives.”
- “I promise to build a life with you that’s full of small joys — Sunday mornings, inside jokes, and a home that always feels like it’s ours. I love you, and I can’t wait to marry you.”
- “You make ordinary days feel like something worth celebrating. I promise to keep noticing that. I promise to keep choosing you, in the easy seasons and the hard ones, for as long as I live.”
- “I promise to support your dreams even when they scare me a little, to be your loudest cheerleader and your softest place to land, and to never take for granted how lucky I am to love you.”
- “I promise to grow with you, not apart from you. To argue fair, forgive fast, and never go to bed angry if I can help it. I promise to keep falling in love with you, again and again, for the rest of my life.”
Funny Wedding Vow Examples
- “I promise to always let you have the last slice, unless it’s the good kind of pizza, in which case we’ll negotiate.”
- “I vow to laugh at your jokes, tolerate your taste in music, and never, ever say ‘I told you so’ — out loud, at least.”
- “I promise to always be honest with you, especially about how many tabs I have open, how much that thing actually cost, and whether I’ve fed the dog yet.”
- “I promise to split the blankets fairly, admit when I’m wrong (eventually), and always be the one who remembers where we parked.”
- “I vow to love you even when you steal all the covers, sing off-key in the car, and take forever to pick a restaurant. Especially then, actually.”
- “I promise to be your teammate in everything — including, and especially, arguing with customer service on your behalf.”
Vows With a Little of Both (Funny and Heartfelt)
- “I promise to laugh with you more than I roll my eyes at you — though let’s be honest, there’ll be some of both. I promise to be your safe place, your biggest fan, and the person who always has your back, no matter what.”
- “I vow to love you on your best days and your worst ones, to make you laugh when you need it most, and to never let a single day go by without telling you how lucky I am.”
- “I promise to be patient when you’re stubborn, honest when you ask (even when you don’t want to hear it), and endlessly grateful that out of everyone, I get to build a life with you.”
Short and Simple Vow Examples
- “I choose you. Today, and every day after. I promise to love you, honor you, and stand beside you for the rest of our lives.”
- “I promise to be yours — in the easy moments and the hard ones, today and always.”
- “You are my best friend and my favorite person. I promise to keep choosing you, every single day, for the rest of my life.”
Tips for Writing Your Own
- Start with a list, not a draft. Write down specific memories, qualities, and promises before trying to shape them into sentences.
- Read it out loud while writing. Vows are meant to be spoken, and some lines that look good on paper feel stiff out loud.
- Match your partner’s tone. If one of you writes something much more formal or much funnier than the other, it can feel mismatched in the moment — a quick heads-up to each other about tone (without sharing the actual vows) helps.
- Keep a printed copy as backup, even if you plan to speak mostly from memory — wedding-day nerves are real.
- Don’t aim for perfect — aim for true. The vows people remember are rarely the most polished; they’re the most honest.
Make Sure They’re Not Lost to Memory
Vows are some of the only words spoken at a wedding that are never repeated exactly the same way again — and in the emotion of the moment, it’s easy for both the couple and the guests to only half-remember them afterward. If you want a record that lasts, Folksee makes it simple to capture and share video from your ceremony alongside messages from your guests, so the vows you worked so hard to write don’t just live in memory — they’re there to rewatch on your first anniversary, and every one after that.
