Writing my own Vows and Traditional Vows

Our officiant gave us a packet of choices - 4 options for Opening Words, 3 options for Opening Prayer, 5 options for Vows, etc. We could choose from these or write portions ourselves. We choose to use her options.

Did your officiant provide you with anything like this? Then you could use the traditional parts and add in the parts you write yourself. At least it would be a jumping off point instead of starting from scratch!

Are you sure you have to write the whole script?

Try this: http://apracticalwedding.com/2013/06/how-to-write-your-wedding-ceremony/

Note that the "I do" part and the vows can be, and often are, separate. We are using the traditional "I do" statements, then saying vows we wrote. Your officiant can say something like "And now Valerie and FH have chosen to share their own vows" and then you say what you've written.

I wrote my own and he's writing his own. I'm happy to share if you'd like

Date twin! Our officiant is doing the traditional "I do" vows and then saying "Hannah and Ramon have also written their own vows which they will now share."

Ask your officiant. Go to my pinterest page (http://pinterest.com/celiamilton) for tips and examples from loads of couples.

Keep it short and sweet. You can answer, "I do" and then say several other sentences after that.

The "I do" part isn't your vow part. So you can say "I do" and then have the officiant say what @Hannah said, and then read your vows to each other.

Thanks for your thoughts.

As far as the "I do" part...that's what we were reading everywhere too. That it wasn't actually the vows. So we were all set to do that. And then write our own vows. When we sent our officiant the script and told her we were still working on our vows, she said that the portion we already had WAS our vows.

So I think we'll just go with what we have and add the thought about that we have also written our own vows that we'll share now.

Thanks for your help everyone!

The "I do" is in response to the Question of Intent:

Nancy asks the groom,

“_____, do you come here freely and gladly to take this woman to be your wedded wife, to live together in the Holy Estate of Matrimony; do you promise to love her and honor her, and forsaking all others keep you only unto her, until death do you part?”

Groom answers, “I do.”

Nancy then asks the bride,

“_____, do you come here freely and gladly to take this man to be your wedded husband, to live together in the Holy Estate of Matrimony; do you promise to love him and honor him, and forsaking all others keep you only unto him, until death do you part?”

Bride answers, “I do.”

It is not the traditional vows:

Nancy asks the groom to repeat:

“I, _____, take thee, _____, as my beloved wife, 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.”

Nancy asks the bride to repeat:

“I, _____, take thee, _____, as my beloved 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.”