Wedding ceremony

You have to find out from the marriage license office what needs to be said for it to be legal. Every state has different requirements.


Sometimes custom vows take the place of "I do's" and other times they are said back to back in any order.

We are not writing our ceremony but we are writing our own vows. With the outline we were shown from our officiant, we will be reciting the vows right before we get to the "I do" and are pronounced husband and wife.

We said our personal vows right before the traditional vows. Like Michelle said, there are specific words that the officiant needs to hear for the marriage to be legal. I would ask your officiant how they set up their ceremonies.

Not necessarily, but you need to double check if there's any verbal requirement with that in the state you're marrying in.

Both states I have married in, the swearing/ vow part, I, name, do take...was legally required to be said, after any other words you decide to say to each other. We did not exactly, and after we finished spent 5 minutes with JP and 2 witnesses, a 2 sentence and responses part making it legal.

We did both.

It's up to you, your officiant, and the requirements of your license.

For ours, there was what is called “Intentions” (the I Do part). In the beginning of the ceremony the pastor or officiant will say “do you affirm your desire and intention to enter this covenant?” to each the groom and then the bride.
We then did traditional vows after the readings we chose. We then exchanged rings. We did the Greek crowns (my family is Greek) which is silent and the couple walks around the altar three times with crowns (that is the Greek way vows were taken in the Orthodox Church). So really we did multiple vows in our ceremony 😂

Hope this helps!! ❤️