Your wedding vow wording is the absolute heart of your wedding ceremony, the entire reason you’re standing before one another on your big day. So you’ve got to get the words right. That cause you a lot of wedding stress, because — after all — how do you put how you feel about your fiance, and what it means to promise your love and life to him, into words? What are the actual things you’re going to promise each other?

Cherish is a lovely word. It’s just not one we use every day. When was the last time you said, “I am going to cherish you!” to your groom?

Love…it’s a keeper.

Honor…of course you will.

What else are you going to promise in your wedding vows? I have some wonderful words for you right here…

Admire

Amuse

Appreciate

Blend (as in, blend our hopes and dreams)

Champion (as in, champion your causes and your goals)

Charm

Cheer

Comfort

Create (as in, create a wonderful home together)

Dedicate (as in dedicate myself to you and all your wishes, goals and dreams)

Defend (s in defend you from anything that could steal one iota of your happiness)

Embrace (as in, embrace you and embrace your family)

Encourage

Enjoy (Is there any sweeter compliment than ‘I enjoy you so much!”)

Exalt

Fascinate

Like (This too is the greatest of compliments: “I not only love you, I also like you so much!”)

Partner (The verb form, partnering on projects and goals)

Protect

Provide (Not just the money form or material things, but provide all the safety, comfort and warmth you’ll ever want in your lifetime)

Respect

Revere

Support (It’s a happy marriage when you have each other’s support in everything you do)

Thank (as in, thank you every day for the blessings of sharing your life with mine)

Uplift

In addition to these keywords, speak from the heart:

• “I promise to spend every day making you feel as special as you have made me feel all these years.”

Include the family:

• “I promise to love and support (spouse’s child’s name) with all my heart, just as I do for you.”
• “It’s another great gift of having you by my side that I get to share our life embraced by your family, and I vow to embrace them and support their goals just as I do for my own family.”

It’s okay to be funny, promising to warm up your feet before bed, not to put corn in the shepherd’s pie, cut the grilled cheese sandwiches in triangles and other super-cute little things that show you not only know but care about the little things each other likes.

Your vows will be captured on video forever, and remembered by you forever – even if not word-for-word. So print up your vows and make them a pretty keepsake you’ll revisit on future anniversaries, and maybe you’ll renew your vows someday, adding extra promises and extra laughs to your partnership.

Get more weding vows inspiration in my book:

Your Special Wedding Vows Kindle Edition

Your Special Wedding Vows Nook Edition