Struggling with vow writing

H and I wrote our vows together. I know people traditionally write them separate and they are a surprise at the ceremony but H and I wanted to write them together. This is what we came up with:

I, Sarah/Nick, take you, Nick/Sarah, to be my Husband/Wife, my constant friend and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God and our family and friends, I promise to respect, honor and cherish you. I promise to love you when we are together and when we are apart; when our lives are at peace and when they are in turmoil; when I am proud of you and when I am disappointed in you. I will support your goals and dreams and help you to fulfill them. From the depth of my being, I will seek to be open and honest with you. I promise these things for as long as we both shall live.

I split mine up into about half what I love, half promises (still all very short). My favorite part (and apparently what stood out to the guests the most) was:

You've taught me so much, including the lesson I needed to learn the most: self acceptance

You showed me that not only was it okay to be me, but that some people will like me for me

And not only will some people like me for me, but some will even love me for me

But....as my officiant and Celia often say, please remember that these are promises. Too many people spend too much time talking about what they love.

Here are some of my promises:

I promise to provide you with a loving embrace and a safe haven when times are good or bad, sick or healthy.

I promise to laugh first, worry second.

I promise to provide you an alibi when we shut the doors on the reception and let all the guests fight to the death over the bar.

LOL Janeen! I love that last line! We're struggling with ours as well, but we definitely want to add some humor in there.

Keep it short, keep it simple, promise something, but don't make it so long that the impact of what you're saying is lost.

visit my pinterest page;https://www.pinterest.com/Celiamilton/wedding-vows-and-readings/ there are a lot of vows from several officiants. There are also at least two mad lib style vow generators.

Eight lines tops;

First 4; what you love and admire

2d 4: what you promise to do to make your marriage work

Look at the rest of your ceremony, and don't repeat anything. Over and over we hear, here and elsewhere that people hate long ceremonies. After about 15 minutes of ceremony before the vows, the attention span is on the wane.

People will thank you if there is a bit of humor. It's boring listening to all that otherwise lol.

FH and I are writing our own, as well. These are some great tips

@Valarie - It was fun to write them together. H and I are both competitive so it took that edge off to write them together. We memorized ours so being that they were the same, we would recite them together as we were working on memorizing and help each other when we stumbled. I am glad we did it that way

@Sarah & Janeen, very well said vows. & Thanks Celia, I'm finding that mine come out either too short or too long. Trying to find 8 lines seems like a happy medium.

Those are great janeen; i'd love to post them on the pinterest site if you'd like.

Sure! Mine were longer than 8 lines, but you can use those pieces if you'd like to!

Thanks! It's there, and I think they're perfect!

Celia, thanks so much for the link to your Pinterest! It will be so helpful when I stop procrastinating and start writing my vows.