Wedding Vows

As a Celebrant of Weddings and Civil Unions in Catania and Sicily, it often happens that my spouses ask me help when they write their wedding vows.

Writing your wedding vows is a deeply personal and meaningful experience, but sometimes it is hard to focus your feelings on the paper.

For this reason I wrote this step-by-step guide to help you to create vows that will last a lifetime, and at the end of it you will find 26 ideas for getting inspiration for your wedding vows.

1. Start with your relationship

• What does love mean to you? What are the values you share with your partner?
• What are the most significant moments of your relationship? Recall funny anecdotes, challenges you've overcome together, and moments of pure happiness.
• What qualities do you admire most in your partner? What attracted you to them and continues to do so?

2. Choose the Right Tone

• Formal or informal? This depends on your style and the type of ceremony you've chosen.
• Romantic, funny, or profound? Mix and match styles based on your personality and the message you want to convey.
• Personal or inspired? You can draw inspiration from poems, songs, or quotes, but make sure the words are authentic and reflect your way of expressing feelings.

3. Structure Your Vows

• Introduction: Begin by introducing yourself and your partner, and emphasize the importance of this moment.
• Promises: Clearly express your commitments to your partner. You can talk about fidelity, support, personal growth, sharing experiences, and future plans.
• Conclusion: Thank your partner for everything that binds you and reaffirm your eternal love.

4. Use Simple and Direct Language

• Avoid clichés and generic phrases. Be sincere!
• Use words that have deep meaning for you.
• Don't be afraid to be emotional. Tears are a sign of authenticity.

5. Practice Out Loud

• Read your vows several times. Make sure the rhythm is smooth and the pronunciation is clear.
• Practice in front of a mirror. This way you'll feel more confident and can look your partner in the eye as you say them.

6. Additional Tips

• Aim to keep your vows under five minutes. The best vows normallly are not more longer than a page (or half page) of a word file written with Arial Font at Size 14/16.
• Start writing well in advance.
• Don't be afraid to rewrite and modify the text.
• Enjoy this special moment!

Do you need more inspiration? Here there are 26 examples from real wedding for your vows!

1. "I, X take you, Y, to be my husband. When you need a friend, I will be your best friend. When you need help, I will be there for you. When you need care, I will support you. When you want to try something new, I will encourage you. And when you do the same for me, I will appreciate you. But if you don't… I will forgive you. Every day. For the rest of my life."
2. "Before you, I never truly believed in "one true love." I know now that what we have transcends and is a much deeper soul connection. In you I found a partner in life, a lover, a friend, a safe place, someone I can be my ugliest and most vulnerable with. In you I found someone who supports me, who inspires me, who respects and honors me. Thank you for never making me feel like I'm too much and for looking at me with loving eyes even when we all know I'm being extra. Thank you for embracing all the parts that make me, me. Most importantly thank you for being a devoted family man, I could not have picked a better man for our kids to look up to. It was never just me, it was always the boys and me. Thank you for not shying away from the challenges of fatherhood, for loving our sons and helping me raise them. Thank you for being the man who is setting the bar high for the love she allows in her life one day. You are such a present dad and I could not be more grateful."
3. "You know I started writing this months ago, but goodness how they have changed in the past 12 days. What a week we have had. The first of many hard decisions we will have to make together, the first of many challenges we will face. With you, I know I will never have to do anything on my own. This past week has been a true testament to the man you are and the husband you will be. A "drop everything because I need you," "work past midnight to catch up" kind of husband. An "it's never too late to do the right thing" kind of husband. A "what can I do to help you" kind of husband. I knew you were "the one" when I realized that you truly are a better person than me. I admire you and look up to you for all the good you bring to this great big world. You are so blessed with the rare heart of a servant and your thoughtfulness touches everyone's life you are a part of. Your core is one of a kind and I am the richest girl to get to marry you."
4. "Of all the people you've met and places you've visited you ended up here—with me. It is a very powerful and humbling fact. Through the years we have faced obstacles, some harder than others, that have helped us build the strong foundation of our relationship. It has shown me your unwavering love, constant support, and silent strength. Thank you for loving my fun, crazy, loud, family, as much as I do. I promise to encourage you to follow your dreams. I promise to continue to challenge you to be the best version of yourself. I promise to make you laugh, when you're taking life too seriously. I promise to love you unconditionally. I promise to put you first and never lose our spark. Our journey as a family has only just begun and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us. You are the person I choose to spend forever with, as my true soulmate. I chose you the first time we met each other, I choose you today, and I will continue choosing you forever. I love you."
5. "I vow to always be your protector, and confidante, responsible for making sure your every need is met, every want is reached, and every dream realized. It's said that he who finds a wife, finds a good thing and obtains favor from God. From this life we have built to get to this moment, this great moment in our life, looking into your beautiful eyes, I vow to always be your good thing, with love in my heart, always by your side, to my last breath. I love you."
6. "I call you 'My Love' because you are my everything. You are my light, and you've shown me more love than I've ever known."
7. "I feel overwhelmingly lucky and proud to be standing beside you today. Thank you for accepting me for all that I am. Thank you for knowing that I've fought everyone that tried to put me in a dress since I could walk and allowing me to express myself the way I see fit. Thank you for loving me in a suit. Thank you for always supporting and loving me, unconditionally, I know I haven't always made that easy. I know you're going to make an amazing mother to our children someday. I vow to love you without reservation or conditions. I vow to always do my best to give more than I take, and not keep score. When I am with you, I am the best version of myself because I am utterly and unapologetically myself. I vow to continuously work on myself, and to be the wife you want and deserve."
8. "I was drawn to you from the day we met. Your warm and inviting eyes and your magnetic smile softened my mind immediately. I remember wanting to have, and sometimes make, reasons to talk to you. To see you beam that amazing smile back at me, immediately putting me at ease and brightening my day. I love that we started out as friends. That is my favorite part. You truly saw me. You understand me, accept me, in a way no one else has, in a way that I believe no one else can. You are my best friend. I'm so grateful for our special brand of weirdness. To me, it means more than just being silly. It signifies a special, profound, unfettered love for each other. It's loving each other at our most intimate, vulnerable times. It colors our tapestry with yet unnamed, exotic colors, known only to the two of us."
9. "I believe in you, the person you will grow to be and the couple we will be together. With my whole heart, I take you as my wife, acknowledging and accepting your faults and strengths, as you do mine. I promise to be faithful and supportive and to always make our family's love and happiness my priority. I vow to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share in the silence when they are not. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. I will dream with you, celebrate with you and walk beside you through whatever our lives may bring. I give you my hand and my heart. As a sanctuary of warmth and peace. I pledge my love, devotion, faith and honor as I join my life to yours. You are my person—my love and my life, today and always. I thank the most high that I am yours and you're mine."
10. "You are my lover and my teacher, you are my model and my accomplice, and you are my true counterpart. I will love you, hold you and honor you, I will respect you, encourage you and cherish you, in health and sickness, through sorrow and success, for all the days of my life."
11. "As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to hold from this day forward."
12. "You have the purest heart and a warm, loving soul. In every person you meet, you not only find, but brighten their inner light. With you I feel like half of an unstoppable whole, and I can't wait to take on this life with you as my best friend and lifelong partner. I am not only looking forward, but am anxious to continue on our many adventures and excursions together…. Exploring the best national parks on this continent, traversing the globe, playing golf and pickup field hockey, long-boarding along the beach, attending ice hockey games and concerts that range from heavy metal to Lady Gaga, and most importantly, building a home and a family with you in close proximity to a large body of water."
13. "I, X, take you, Y, to be my wife, my best friend and partner. I will work to create a bond of honesty, respect, acceptance, and gratitude; one that withstands the tides of time and changes and grows along with us. I vow to cherish and accept you for all that you are and will become, taking pride in who we are both together and individually. I promise to challenge you and to accept challenges from you. I promise to love you in good times and in bad. I promise to treasure you. I promise to love you when life seems easy and when it seems hard, when our love is simple, and when it is an effort. I promise to hold you in the highest regard. These things I give to you now and throughout the seasons of our lives."
14. "I swear to you that I will continue to dedicate all the days of my life to filling our days with beauty and laughter. I will celebrate your spirit and all of your accomplishments, work to inspire you, and be here to remind you of your beauty and strength. You are my partner, my confidant, my other half, and I will love you for the rest of my life."
15. "We started our journey over 3 years ago and if you told me then that we'd be standing here today celebrating our wedding oceanside in front of all of these people here today, I honestly never would have believed it. It is truly a dream come true."
16. "We promise to always listen to hear instead of listening to respond. We promise to always lead with patience, kindness and perspective. We promise to always encourage and support each other's creative pursuits. We promise to cultivate a home where ideas can flourish, imagination is encouraged and diversity is celebrated."
17. "I promise to always remember that you are indeed human. That you may sometimes make questionable decisions, decisions I don't agree with, like throwing a beach party that I didn't authorize on the one free day we had before our wedding—a day when we should be doing wedding admin together and things like, I don't know, writing our vows! But what I love about you is I know that you do these things because you care so deeply about those who are close to you and are genuinely one of the most thoughtful and considerate people I have ever known. You remind me of my mother in this way (that and your mutual unbridled passion for shopping and my parents' dog). Today, I promise to show that same care and consideration for you for the rest of my life. Right now, it's the easiest thing in the world to do because I honestly love you so much and want nothing but your happiness, but even when things are difficult and it gets hard to do and our love gets more comfortable, complacent and timeworn, I will always show that same care and consideration for you."
18. "I knew from the very moment I laid eyes on you that you were my forever. Someway, somehow, I was determined to make you mine. And from this day forward my heart is entirely yours. As we continue to grow in our lives together, I promise to give you all of my words when needed, and to share in the silence when they are not, to pick you up if you are down, to love you unconditionally, to lay my bare skin on you when needed most, to care for you and our families for as long as we live, to adventure with you always, to say I love you before falling asleep each night, to be the best mom I can be as we grow a family together, and to always know in the deepest part of my soul, that when challenges arise we will always find our way back to one another. You are my everything and this is my promise to you."
19. "Of all the people you've met on your journey and of all the places you've been, somehow and someway, you ended up here—with me. It is the most powerful and humbling fact that I can accept. I used to think that we met by chance but now I know without a doubt that the universe put you in front of me because we were meant to spend our lives together. You have filled my life with joy and have given me a sense of peace that I have never known. You are my best friend, my biggest supporter, and the best backup singer a girl could ask for. Although today marks the start to the rest of our lives, I know it will not be enough time with you. I will not take our time together for granted. And because words cannot do it, I promise to show you, for the rest of my life, how much I love you. I promise to encourage you to follow your dreams. I promise to make you laugh when you are taking yourself too seriously. I promise to hold your hand through the good times and through the bad times. I promise to be loyal and faithful and to put you before all else. I promise to never stop making up songs for you. Although, I know you wish I would. And I promise that when we are old and gray, we will look back on our lives together and we have no regrets. From this day forward, you will never walk alone."
20. "If I only had you for the rest of my life, I'd consider it a life worthy of living. There's not one ounce of me that wants to do life without you. And our existence together is my personal definition of perfect. I choose you."
21. "When I can't sleep, I turn over and gaze at you - seemingly glowing in the moonlight or the morning sun. Through the stress and sleep deprivation, I cannot help but feel a smile creep across my face. That you are there, lying at my side, makes me feel like I might just be enough. When I think about what I want for our life together, I want to be an absolute refuge for you, I want you to feel so irrevocably and unconditionally loved with me, to build a foundation so strong that nothing else ever feels too scary. Before I met you I felt there was strength in numbness. Knowing and loving you has shown me that feeling is the only way to happiness. I am a better person with you and because of you."
22. "With our losses, we've committed to being there. With our gains, we've committed to being there. Bell Hooks wrote–"to love somebody is not just a strong feeling–it's a decision, it's a judgment, it's a promise." I promise to do the work. The work of treating you with care, and kindness. I promise to love you.
23. "I believe a soulmate is someone who has keys to your locks. You have the key to make me calm when I'm anxious. Motivated, when I am uninspired. Passionate, when I am downcast. You unlock every aspect of me that is good. I vow to support your growth, celebrating your wins, while getting you to celebrate your accomplishments. I vow to make my special carbonara at least once a month and only for you. I vow to love you for the rest of my life."
24. "From the first day we met, I've thought of you. Laying there that first night, I wondered what was your story? But after all this time together, it has become our love story. We've rowed through rivers, dived the skies, and ventured to beautiful lands. But these experiences only tell one part of our story. It is every day that we continue telling it. Waking up to coffee, feeding the little ones, or sitting on the couch waiting to feed our bellies. These are moments that we grow together, like two vines twirling together, blooming flowers of happiness. I vow to continue to grow with you, to think about our story, always. From beginning, middle and to no end. Forever."
25. "From our first date to our second first date, five years ago this weekend, you have had my heart. Sometimes I have a hard time expressing that fully to you. We both know that on occasion I get in my own way and botch it all up. So here today let me make it very clear. I love it that you bring spontaneity to my sometimes too-planned-out life. I love your dancing, your funny faces, and your ability to go from zero to 100 in seconds. I love your kind heart, emotional soul, and soft spot for your grandparents, and literally every small dog you see. And most of all I love you, all of you, the very most. And now for the promises. I promise to love you with all of my heart. Even the parts that have yet to be unsealed. I promise to continue to work on our communication. It is our foundation and the key to our success. I promise to encourage and support you in all that you do. Your willingness to take the leap into your business has been one of the most inspiring journeys I have ever witnessed. I promise to love your family like my own. They are an extension of your heart and I will do everything in my power to protect them! I promise to be open to adventure and adversity. Both of these have helped us grow stronger together, travel to great heights, and we are just getting started. I promise to be by your side through sickness and in health, poverty and in wealth, forever and always."
26. "I love you because you make me proud. Because you are adventurous, not as adventurous as me but pretty close! You are the dream I never dreamed of coming true. I love you because you believe in my dreams and support my crazy ideas. My life with you has been nothing but a beautiful adventure together! It is so easy to love someone as unique, special, strong, creative, and joyful as you are. With my heart filled with joy and gratitude, I have the privilege to stand here before our family and friends to vow my love to you I promise to love you for who you are, and for who you are yet to become. I promise to nurture your dreams and help you reach them. I promise to share my whole heart with you and to remember to show you how deeply I care for you, no matter the challenges that may come our way. I promise to hire a professional, even if I really want to try to do it (and probably make it worse) myself. And last but not least when I say, "I do," I don't mean the laundry!"

Would you like to choose me as your celebrant to make unique not only your wedding vows but your ceremony too?

Then call Giovanni Romolo Flaccomio, GRF Celebrant, Celebrant of Civil Weddings and Symbolic Rites in Catania and Sicily, on +39 346 436 5000 or write an email to grfcelebrant@gmail.com and request a free consultation for your wedding.

Make your dreams come true.