Reading your own vows... What is the "process"??

Or I guess my question is, if FH and I write our own vows... Do we say them to each other, and then afterwards the officiant gives us something else (along with the "I do"s) that we have to repeat after him?

The whole ceremony thing has me more nervous than anything else in the wedding!

My mom and my step dad wrote their own vows. They just red them to eachother on a small sheet of paper and then the officiant pronounced them man and wife.

I print out my couples' vows in a pretty journal and after I do the "asking" (Do you bride, take groom to be your partner in love and life; will you honor and cherish him as long as you both shall live?) they read their vows to each other. I think it's sweet, but if it's going to make you terrified, then your officiant should be able to write vows that would be asked to you so all you have to say is, "yes!"

Oh you will be just fine. What you do is tell your officiant that you will be saying your own vows and what happends is they say there part in the beginning and then when it gets to your actual vows the officiant will say "The bride and groom have chosen to say their own vows" and then the man usually starts with his first. Usually you will print them out on a small card or sheet of paper (unless you are bold enough to memorize it). I've seen it done alot of times and usualy it's very touching. Just tell your officiant in advance and he/she will direct you as to what to do.

@Edith W.- i'm with you. The ceremony has me MOST NERVOUS. I'm stressing about having a beautiful wedding on a SMALL budget, but I've never been good in front of crowds of people. I almost failed speech in school. Even though these people are my family, I'm still freaked out by the idea of standing in front of them. My FH on the other hand, is amazing with crowds, so i'm hoping that seeing him relaxed and calm will help me. Good question about the vows though. I think we are wanting to do our own too..but weren't sure how to incorporate them in properly.

We're doing our own "vows" and then having the officiant do a "repeat after me" thing, which is short. Something like, do you take her to be your wife and confidant for the rest of your days...I do.

We wrote our own vows and we did NOT want to have to try to memorize them. We also didn't want to read them since we wanted to make it as easy as possible on ourselves at that big moment. We are having our officiant say them and we are repeating them, but only we will have the microphone so our guests will only hear us saying them. They will see our officiant talking, but won't hear him.

You would both give your copy of your vows to the officiant to hold while you read them out.

Generally it goes

"Do you BRIDE, take GROOM to be your husband?"

you say "I do"

DO you GROOM, take BRIDE to be your wife?"

groom says "I do"

Then the officant will say, "BRIDE & GROOM have chosen to take their love for each other and write their own vows, Groom, take BRIDES hands and tell her your vows" (or something of the sort)

Thanks so much everyone!

I think I'm most nervous because I know hearing his vows and saying my own will make me cry like a baby. But I think it would make things even more memorable. Now I just have to convince FH! Haha

I am thinking about doing my own wedding vows too but I know I will be crying like a baby while I'm reading it and he will be while he's listening haha I know sappy. I'm wondering if I can get my maid of honor to read it for me. Otherwise it may take 30 mins for me to get through them lol