Short · about a minute · 139 words
Wedding Vows for Someone Who Hates Public Speaking (1 Minute)
Ezra 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
Said by Ezra, to Pilar. The names are made up.
The vows
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.
You're the first person I want to tell things to. Good news, bad news, the heron on the Hendersons' fence. All of it.
I promise to keep telling you. I'll bring up the hard things at the kitchen table instead of saving them. I'll make the phone calls you hate making, since you're making me do this. I'll leave the porch light on when you work late.
I love you. I'm better at saying it at home, so I'll keep saying it there.
That's all I've got. I practiced it forty times in the car, and I meant it every time.
Why it works: Saying it plainly at the start takes the pressure off, and the room roots for him from then on. The sentences are short enough to say in one breath each. The practice runs in the car show up in the first paragraph and again in the last line, so the brief ending feels deliberate.
Make them yours
Borrow the shape, not the sentences. These open on one real moment, say one thing about the partner nobody else sees, make a handful of promises (mostly small ones), and come back to the opening detail at the end. Put your own moment, your own habit and your own promises in each slot. The guide to writing vows walks through each part.
Write yours, or check them
The vow writer starts from your own answers. The vows check times your draft and flags the lines every couple uses, without sending it anywhere.