Wedding vows · examples
8 wedding vow examples
Full vows, each written for a specific couple, with a note on why they work. The names are made up. Borrow the shape, never the lines: vows only work when the details are yours.
- Short · under a minute · 109 wordsShort Wedding VowsA couple agreed to keep their vows under a minute, and she wants hers to be short without sounding like a card“Mateo, for four years you've made my coffee before I wake up and left it on the second stair, because the first one creaks. You think I don't know about the creak. I know about the creak.”
- Short · about a minute · 139 wordsWedding Vows for Someone Who Hates Public SpeakingEzra dreads speaking in front of a crowd, so his vows need to be short and plain enough to get through with a shaky voice, and still sound like him“Pilar, you know I hate this. Talking in front of people makes my voice go strange, and you've heard me practice these in the car for two weeks. So they're short and plain, and every word is true.”
- Warm · about a minute and a half · 195 wordsWedding Vows for Two GroomsTheo is marrying the calmest man he knows and wants vows that are warm and a little funny, built around the day they met“Amir, we met on the Hawthorne Bridge in the rain, when my bike chain came off and you stopped. Nobody stops. You fixed it in about a minute, then wiped your hands on the only map I had.”
- Warm · about a minute and a half · 208 wordsWedding Vows for a Long-Distance CoupleAfter four years living six time zones apart, Kenji wants vows that honor what the distance took without making the whole thing sound sad“Siobhan, for four years there was a second clock in my kitchen, set to Lisbon time. My friends thought it was a design choice. It wasn't. I just needed to know, at any moment, whether you were awake.”
- Heartfelt · about a minute and a half · 208 wordsWedding Vows for Later in LifeGloria and Desmond are both in their sixties and he was married for thirty-one years before his wife died, so her vows have to honor that once and then be about the two of them“Desmond, we met over a fence at the Linden Avenue community garden, plots fourteen and fifteen. You grew far too many tomatoes and kept leaving them on my bench with no note.”
- Funny · about 2 minutes · 238 wordsFunny Wedding Vows for HimA bride marrying an organized, quietly devoted man wants vows that get a laugh from his family and still say the serious thing she's never said out loud“Tobias, two years ago you bought a label maker, and I made fun of you for a week. Then I opened our freezer and found a container labeled "Soup, March, Good." The one behind it said "Soup, April, Fine." You'd been rating soup. Privately.”
- Heartfelt · about 2 minutes · 254 wordsWedding Vows for a Second Marriage With KidsBrendan is marrying a mom who raised two kids mostly on her own, and his vows have to honor the family she built and make the kids a promise without overstepping“Nadia, the first time I came over for dinner, I noticed the calendar on your fridge. Blue for Sofie, orange for Leo, red for you, and about forty things written into every week. I remember thinking there was no room on it for me.”
- Heartfelt · about 2 minutes · 257 wordsHeartfelt Wedding Vows for HerA groom who spent their first year together expecting to mess it up wants to tell his bride what her patience taught him, without it turning into a speech about himself“Lucía, I was thirty-one the summer you taught me to swim. Every Tuesday at six in the morning, at the Hollis Street pool, in the slow lane next to the kids with foam noodles. You never laughed at me.”
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