Your Wedding Ceremony

Some couples wish to celebrate an aspect of their uniqueness such as their heritage, family, traditions or beliefs within their ceremony and incorporate different elements to reflect them.  

Other couples wish to have a traditional wedding and will incorporate having a parchment signing which represents the signing of the register and which they can keep as a memento.

Spiritual or religious elements such as prayers or handfasting or symbolic elements like sand ceremonies and unity candle ceremonies which symbolise the blending or uniting of two families can personalise your ceremony.

A lovely way to thank special people in your lives is presenting a bouquet of flowers to Mums and/or Grandparents.

All your guests can be included by a ring warming ceremony or remember missing loved ones with a memory tree or candle ceremony.

The important thing is that your ceremony will be unique and meaningful to you and exactly how you envisage it.

The vows that you make are at the heart of your wedding ceremony. Simple words full of meaning and importance, for they are personal to you and reflect the vision and intention that will define and shape your future lives together.

As a wedding celebrant I work closely with my couples to help them create wedding vows which are personal and significant to them.

Writing your own wedding vows is an incredible and meaningful way to personalise your wedding ceremony and a chance to tell your story and give your guests a peek into what it is that makes your relationship unique. It also enables you to share deep and meaningful words with the one person you love most in the world.

It can be a daunting prospect and challenging because it is so intimate as you are baring your heart to your partner and doing so in front of family and friends. Finding the right words and fitting them into a structure that flows effortlessly isn’t easy but these tips will hopefully help you to write the perfect wedding vows.

You may wish to keep your wedding vows secret from one another until your wedding but you need to discuss together about content, the length and the style.  Balance and harmony is key to getting it right and to creating a beautiful wedding ceremony.

So some questions to ask one another:-

How long should the wedding vows be?

Will we share jokes or keep it more serious or generic?

Shall we incorporate traditional elements of vows into our own?

Take your time to write your wedding vows.  Think about your relationship – what it means to you, what you love most about your partner and what do you value most in your relationship. What are you looking forward to as you move forward in your lives together and what promises do you want to make?

Don’t put writing the vows off until the last minute and try to have them written at least a month before the ceremony. This gives you plenty of time to go over them and tweak them if needed and to reflect on their meaning and to learn them so that there is a lovely flow.

Don’t be afraid to use a traditional vow structure as a template as many couples have found this the best way to begin.

Here are the 6 parts of the wedding vow structure with some examples for you.

*The Context

In the presence of God

With my family and friends as my witnesses

In the sight of the sea and the sky

Blessed in the presence of angels

In this special place

*The Declaration

I………..choose you………to be my husband/wife

I………….commit myself to you………in love and marriage

Today, I………..marry you…………my best friend

*Promises about Behaviour and Relationships

In our marriage, I will love, honour and cherish you

I promise to live with you, to respect you and honour you,

I will be faithful to you. I will stand by your side and sleep

in your arms. I will listen to you with compassion and

understanding and speak to you with encouragement.

I promise to respect you, inspire you and love you.

*Changing Circumstances

For richer for poorer, in sickness and in health

When love is easy and when love is hard

During the good times and bad times

Through calms and storms

*Timescale

Until death do us part/forever/for the rest of my life.

For the whole of our lives together/until love dies.

Throughout the adventure of our lives/until the end of time.

*Closing Intention

This is my solemn promise and on this promise, I base our marriage.

This is my intention, completely and forever.

Remember to say I love you!

Choosing a wedding celebrant for your ceremony gives you the freedom to write your own wedding vows exactly as you both wish. Writing them may take a long time and a lot of thought but when they are ready and they capture how you feel and what you want to say, then the feeling is amazing.

Reading your vows to the one you love in front of all your family is the part of the wedding ceremony that many couples feel the most daunting but being well prepared will lessen this.

Weddings start from £450

Renewals start from £150