Simple wedding vows, whether you write the vows or recite someone else's creation, are a quick and sweet way to declare your love for your spouse during your wedding ceremony. Because they're simple, they'll be easy to remember, even when you're a bundle of nerves on your big day.
Examples of Simple Wedding Vows
Select vows that reflect your personality and wedding style. They'll be short wedding vows, so you'll have plenty of time to customize the rest of the ceremony with readings, music, and more.
Classic Short Wedding Vows
An example of the classic simple wedding vows are along the lines of:
"Do you take (name) to be your wife?"
"I do."
"Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto her?"
"I do."
"Do you take (name) to be your husband?"
"I do."
"Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto him?"
"I do."
With the exchanging of rings that typically follows, consider this simple example:
"I (name) take thee, (name), to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, to love and cherish, from this day forward until death do us part. With this ring, I thee wed."
Simple, Short Christan Vows
I (your name), take you (partner's name) as my partner and love. I vow to walk beside you in Christ's name as we build a loving and faithful Christian family.
Simple Romantic Wedding Vows
I knew shortly after we met that we would partner not just for a time, but for life. You take my breath away every time I see you, and I still get butterflies in your presence. I promise to love you in this life and beyond as we walk side-by-side as life partners. I love you now and forever.
Short, Touching Vows
(Name), every day I wake up grateful that you are in my life and that we are life partners. I know your heart, and you know mine. Today, let those hearts join as one as we move forward as a married couple.
Simple Funny Vows
[Reading from cell phone]: (Name), you are the mac to my cheese and the milk to my cookies. Marrying you feels like the best software update ever - the kind that doesn't crash your computer and even might make it work better. To show you the depth of my commitment, I promise to put down my cell phone while we talk and only glance at the screen occasionally. Except for right now, because my vows are on my cell phone. But after today, we'll do that cell phone thing. I promise.
Short, Spiritual Marriage Promises
The Divine in you reflects the Divine in me. I promise to reflect with gratitude for our partnership every day of our marriage, knowing that Spirit has brought us together in a loving and joyful celebration of our Divine nature.
Unique Simple Vows
You are my mirror and I am yours. As we enter officially into our life partnership, I promise to remember that through the reflection we see of ourselves in each other, we receive the opportunity to heal and grow together as marriage partners.
Joyful Vows
This morning, I woke up excited because today is the day I marry my best friend. I promise to continue our relationship joyfully with laughter, compassion, humor, and love throughout our life together.
Vows of Gratitude
(Name), I promise to choose you as my partner, not just today, but every day. I promise to move forward as equals, reflecting daily with gratitude on all of the things you bring to my life. I gratefully choose you, now and always.
Contemporary Vows
I (your name) accept you (partner's name) exactly as you are. I promise to accept you for who you choose to be today and always. I commit to making our marriage a journey of growth and discovery as we support one another in loving partnership.
Writing Your Own Vows
Simple doesn't have to mean vows that are not original, so if you want to use your own words to profess your love for your spouse on your wedding day, you can make the speech as simple or flowery as you like. You may feel uncomfortable pulling out the notecards in order to remember what you wanted to say during the ceremony, however, so come up with words to express how you feel in a way that you'll remember at the altar.
- Keep it short and sweet. Express your sentiments in two or three sentences.
- Speak from the heart. The more personal meaning you put into those two or three sentences, the more likely you are to remember them.
- Write your thoughts about your relationship without editing. Then, see if you can pare it down and turn it into vows that are a few sentences long.
- Start or end your vows with "I love you."
- Think of the two main things that are most important to you in your relationship. Then, turn those two things into your vows. You don't need to include everything you've ever thought or everything that is important to you.
Your Vows Should Express Your Feelings
Wedding vows - even simple ones - express so much, whether you go with the pre-scripted traditional vows or create your own completely. Even tweaking the vows that seem to be used in every wedding scene on television and in movies will tug on the heartstrings of everyone present. Just be sure that if you veer too far off the traditional course, you've got a method for remembering what you want to say. What seems simple when you're writing it may flee from your mind when nerves take over on the big day.
