Wedding Vows
This is the heart and soul of your ceremony. This is what you are vowing to each other for the rest of your lives. Give it serious time, thought and attention.
Rev. Phil strongly encourages you to repeat your vows after him, short phrase by short phrase.
- To try to memorize them is to add stress to a day that has enough of that already.
- To write your own vows means you have to hold a card (not your fiance’s hands), you can’t look into each other’s eyesand if you have tears, like Rev. Phil did at his wedding, it’s hard to read.
- If you pick one of the vows below, you just repeat a short phrase – “in sickness and in health” – after Rev. Phil. It’s the easiest and least stressful.
Traditional Vows
75% of couples that Rev. Phil marries use these traditional vows. They say a lot in a few words.
Take you, (Name),
To be my (wife / husband);
To have and to hold,
From this day forward,
For better, for worse,
For richer, for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
To love and to cherish,
As long as we both shall live.
(alternate last line: ‘Till death do us part.)
Religious Vows
I, (name),
Take you, (name),
To be my (husband / wife),
And these things I promise you:
I will be faithful to you
and honest with you;
I will respect, trust,
help and care for you;
I will share my life with you;
I will forgive you
as we have been forgiven;
and I will try with you
to better understand
ourselves, the world, and God;
through the best and the worst
of what is to come
as long as we both shall live.
Contemporary Vows, Option 1
I come here today, (name),
to join my life to yours
before this company.
In their presence
I pledge to be true to you,
to respect you,
and to grow with you through the years.
No matter what we may encounter together,
I vow here that this love
will be my only love.
I will make my home in your heart
from this day forward.
Contemporary Vows, Option 2
As freely, (name),
as God has given me life,
I join my life with yours.
Wherever you go, I will go;
whatever you face, I will face.
For good or ill,
in happiness or sadness,
come riches or poverty,
I take you as my (husband / wife),
and will give myself to no other.
You Only Say “I Do”
If you are shy and want to say as little as possible, this could be for you.
(GROOM’S NAME), will you have (BRIDE’S NAME) to be your lawful wedded wife? Will you love her, comfort her, keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, be faithful to her so long as you both shall live? If so, answer “I do.”
(Groom says, “I do.”)
(BRIDE’S NAME), will you have (GROOM’S NAME) to be your lawful wedded husband? Will you love him, comfort him, keep him in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, be faithful to him so long as you both shall live? If so, answer “I do.”
(BRIDE says, “I do.”)
Mash-Up
You could do a mash up of the vows on this page. Take out a phrase or two and then add in a phrase or two from another vow that you like.
Be sure you keep the total length the same.
‘Meet’ Rev. Phil for a FREE unhurried consultation. He will take time to get to know you.
You will get an email with dates to Zoom.
If he is not available, he will refer you someone on his team who is.
If Style #3 might be for you, then he will get and share the beginning of your love story when you ‘meet’! No other officiant does that.
