Your Wedding Vows

So your wedding is approaching and you want to express yourself in a unique and meaningful way to your partner in front of all your guests but how do you achieve the right balance of emotion in a measured amount of words but still have the ability to speak through your tears of joy? You may feel that exchanging personal vows is not for you at all and you prefer to save your words to each other until after the ceremony which some couples do, if you with the tribe of the many who do however, these guidelines are for you.

Contact me your Noosa Marriage Celebrant to get my tips and tricks for writing your vows!

According to the Marriage Act of 1961 in Australia, the Official Vows that must be spoken to ensure you are married on the day. These are as follows:

I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, …… do take you …….to be my lawful wedded husband/wife/partner in marriage.

It is more than acceptable and usually preferable to add onto these what are generally termed “Personal Vows”. Luckily today we have the luxury of choice and the opportunity to combine a little of the historical with something modern. Sometimes the 25 plus sets of beautiful pre-written vows that I have in my vow collection just don’t quite say what you need them to say and these are abandoned in favour of something completely unique that you have written and truly personal in that they reflect your relationship, put into words what you mean to each other, often with deep emotion, sometimes tinged with fun and a little cheeky humour, but always with a promise of what your future as a married couple will bring.

Any of the sets of vows can be mixed and matched or re-constructed to include your own words within them. Here are a couple of my favourites:

"You are my best friend and I love you with all my heart and stand here before all of our friends and family, sharing the happiest day of my life. I want nothing more than to share my future with you – my triumphs and my challenges, my joys and my sorrows. Together, I know we can accomplish the life we both dream of living."

" Today I will marry you, my friend, the one I will live with, dream with, and love forever. From this day forward I will cherish you. I will look with joy down the path of our tomorrows, knowing we will walk it together side by side, hand in hand, and heart to heart."

Among the various options; are to work on them as a couple and read the same set to each other, to write them independently but discuss what each other is going to say, and lastly which is my favourite; to work on them independently and keep them secret from each other until the ceremony by emailing me separately! This makes for a lovely surprise and something else to look forward to on the day

I have hints and starters that I will email you for those that wish to write their own in their entirety. A rough guideline would be a few sentences of promises to each other with the average length being anywhere between 50 and 250 words and the gist really can be anything you that you will feel comfortable reading to each other as well as your guests enjoying listening to, incorporating a laugh or 2 to lighten the mood if you feel so inclined! A good tactic is to start with a few words that make you think of your partner, progress to putting those words into sentences and finally combine them all together! I offer assistance at any stage you may require but usually find the words come pretty easily once you start thinking about them.

I will always check your vows to ensure you are roughly on the same wavelength with one another and one partner has not written one sentence while the other has written an entire sheet of A4!

I rarely make any changes, except with glaring grammar corrections and spelling of course, about which I am a little fanatical! They must be a true expression of you and the words you wish to convey to your beloved on your special day.

I will print them on cards for you to read to each other and return them to you as a keepsake with your ceremony copy at the end or if you prefer you can repeat after me as you will with the Official Vows. Yet another option is to speak from your heart on the day  pure and simply and spontaneously without anything prewritten at all; the rawness of the emotion of the moment manifesting itself in often some indescribably beautiful utterings!!

So there we have it, the vows! Whichever you decide upon, please do not leave it until the day before or even worse the morning of your wedding (you may gasp.....but it has happened!) to send me your masterpieces! I need at least a few days before your wedding to check, print and prepare them!

 
My grateful thanks to the following lovely photographers for allowing me to use their ceremony images:

Calli B  Photography
Leoni Bolt Photography
Inspired Eye Photographics
Edge Photography GC
Adriana Watson Photography