Spiritual #11
Repeat: ____ I love you. You are my best friend.
Today I give myself to you in marriage.
I promise to encourage and inspire you, to laugh with you,
and to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle.
I promise to love you in good times and in bad,
when life seems easy and when it seems difficult,
when our love is simple, and when it is an effort.
I promise to cherish you, and to always hold you in highest regard
These things I give to you today, and all the days of our life.
Spiritual #12
Read to Partner: ~ These my love, are my promises to you: That I will love you freely, as the sky loves the bird, and as the sunset loves the early evening. ~ That I will love you grandly, with my tender fine emotions, with my loving words and all my actions. ~ That I will love you purely, with my honor, with my knowing, with all the best intentions of my being. ~ That I will love you joyfully, with my body, with my laughter, with my foolishness and playing. ~ That I will love you truly, with my finest kindest and deepest care. ~ That I will love you always, now, from this day forward, seamless, endless and forever.
Spiritual #13 – By Alan Johnson
Read to Partner: I love you. I pledge to grow in my Love for you.
I pledge to nurture our Love for it is loving you that nurtures my soul.
I pledge to share our Love together as One.
I love you because you are the only one for me.
To know you is to know Love and through you, know True Love.
I love you because you are the One who completes me.
I can not know union without you for it is by joining you that I learn – about Love’s union and where it comes from.
I love you because it is my soul mission in Life to learn our Love.
I do not so much seek to heal you, but to embrace our Love – that fills our Life as a way of healing each other.
I see your Love for me in your eyes and I see what freedom is, – what True Love is.
I promise to support your growth and share the fullness of myself.
I promise to honor you by being open to all the expressions of your inner self.
I promise to allow our Love we share become our Prayer we live.
Above all, I promise to be true to you and true to myself – so that we may grow in our Love that joins us as one.
If the Eagle is the symbol of freedom born out of True Love, – then I am one wing and you are equally the other.
Let us fly together in harmony and may gentle winds carry us all the way to Heaven.
Spiritual #14 – The Promise of Our Marriage-Written by Alice Swartz, 1999
Read to Partner: My beloved, romance may fade, but true love endures.
I choose to truly love you, with kindness, faithfulness, and respect,
– through every circumstance that life may bring.
Because you are the treasure of my heart, it will be my joy to support,
– encourage, comfort, and defend you as we together face the coming days
– of sorrow and joy, sickness and health, poverty and wealth.
When I have been wronged, I will forgive.
When I do wrong, I will confess with contrition.
When conflict dims our days, I will exercise the patience of true love
– and seek the light of wise counsel.
Most of all, I will rejoice and thank the Lord for completing me with the gift of you.
And through His infinite grace, I know that no matter what may come,
– I will remain by your side with enduring devotion and fidelity
– for as long as He allows us to share this earthly life.
This is my solemn vow because, in you, I have found the one my soul loves.
May the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit guide us
– and bless us each day from this moment forward.
Spiritual #15 – Hawaiian Theme
_____, please take your lei and place it around _____ ‘s neck.
_____, let the beautiful & fragrant flowers that you have placed on _____ remind you of the beautiful and fragile nature of your relationship with ______.
Do you _____, take _____, to be your ________, to live together according to God’s Word? Will you love and cherish ________, assisting ________ in all _______ labors? Will you be true to _______both in sickness and health, when things are going well and when there are problems? And will you be faithful to ________ as long as you both shall live? If so, you may answer, I will. _____, cherish _____ always
Spiritual #16 – Irish
Repeat: “I, _____, now take you, _____, to be my _________. In the presence of God and before these witnesses I promise to be a loving, faithful and loyal _________ to you, for as long as we both shall live.”
Spiritual #17 – Eskimo Theme
Eskimo Love Song (Vow)
~ Author Unknown ~
You are my _________
My feet shall run because of you
My feet dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love because of you.
Today I make you my ___________
Spiritual #18
I promise to love you above all others and to value
your friendship as a precious gift.
I look forward to raising our family and building
our relationship under the care and guidance of God.
I promise to stand beside you in sickness or health, in times of
prosper and decline, in peace and in turmoil, as long as we both
shall live.
Muslim
“I, _________, offer you in myself in marriage in
accordance with the instructions of the Holy Quar‘an
and the Holy Prophet, peace and blessing be upon Him.
I pledge, in honesty and with sincerity, to be for you an
obedient and faithful ______.”
“I pledge, in honesty and sincerity, to be for you
a faithful and helpful _________.”
Celtic by Morgan Llewellyn
” You cannot possess me for I belong to myself
But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give.
You cannot command me, for I am a free person
But I shall serve you in those ways you require
and the honeycomb will taste sweeter coming from my hand.
” I pledge to you that yours will be the name I cry aloud in the night
and the eyes into which I smile in the morning.
I pledge to you the first bite of my meal and the first drink from my cup.
I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care.
I shall be a shield for your back and you for mine.
I shall not slander you, nor you me.
I shall honor you above all others, and when we quarrel we shall do so in private and tell no strangers our grievances.
This is my wedding vow to you.
This is the marriage of equals.
Writing Your Own Vows:
Writing your own vows to express your feelings and dreams for your new life together is not as difficult as you may think. Keep these tips in mind: Think about what you want to get out of your marriage; describe what is special about your friendship; describe what you like about each other; express what you want from the future; and simply express your thoughts on peace, love, and hope. Write your vows on an index card for the ceremony. Read them out loud to see if they sound nice, and then revise them to fit your personal style and needs.
Spiritual 19 written by Erika and Jarred for their April 15, 2016 ceremony here in Savannah.
By the Bride:
In front of our friends and family gathered here I promise to love you, share hopes, thoughts, and dreams as we build our lives together. You make me laugh, you make me think, and above all, you make me happy.
I promise to encourage and inspire you, to stand by you and stand up for you.
I promise to laugh with you, cry with you, and grow with you. I will hold your hand with every one of our days together.
I promise to be your navigator, best friend, and wife; honor, love, and cherish you through all life’s adventures.
I promise to learn how to check the air in my tires and change the oil in my car-even though you have already shown me countless times.
Wherever we go, we’ll go together.
1 universe, 9 planets, and 196 countries and I had the privilege of meeting you.
I like you and I love you!
-Erika
By the Groom:
When thinking about this wedding vow, and where to begin; I asked myself what promises I wanted to make to you, with our families and friends in assembly, together, with us. But, there are many promises I simply cannot make: I cannot promise to be rich in worldly things. I cannot promise to be faultless. I cannot promise to know what to do when we are faced with adversity. I cannot promise to always be quick-witted and intelligent at times, and I cannot promise to always be a good listener.
But with all those promises I cannot make, I can make these promises: I can promise to provide richness in love, faith, and family. I can promise to admit my mistakes and vow to be honest with you. I can promise to hold tight and never let go; in blue skies and in the storms. I can promise to think sensibly and for the both of us, and I can promise work hard and fight for us.
I want you to see with this, the perfection in the imperfections. Here is why you are my perfection. From what I lack, you provide. In my fault, you fix and forgive. In my delay, you advance. In my incoherence, you are intelligent, and in my forgetfulness, you remember. All of this and more are what makes me fall in love with you each and every day.
Whatever challenge we face; we face together- thick and thin.
I cannot forget it’s the little things, too: I promise to share my fries when you’ve finished all of yours, and are still hungry. I will try and not get annoyed when you whisper questions and comments during movies- yes he can see dead people, no, Andy Dufresne never killed his wife, and the warden is a crook. I will send you texts and silly gifts, not always. Not on schedule- just whenever I want, really.
Together, we will build a home filled with learning, laughter and light. I will laugh with you in times of joy, and comfort you in times of sorrow. I’ll share in your dreams and support you to achieve your goals. I will speak to you with encouragement and appreciate the little things.
With all of this; there is one simple fact that shows me that you will do all these and more for me as we spend the rest of our lives together- and that is, that you already do- since day 1.
You are my best friend, my mentor, my co-author, the Ron to my Harry, and now my Wife and partner.
I will love you forever and always.
-Jarred
Spiritual 20 from David and Nicole’s wedding
I have fallen for your beauty inside and out, and I have fallen for your flaws.
Your stubbornness—your warped sense of humor—the way you retreat, suddenly, into silent spells.
The parts of you that irritate the daylights out of me, are the parts I’ve come to adore the most….mostly.
I long to open up your broken bits and kiss the frayed edges of your sore, ripped seams. I long to trail my fingers over your scabs and see the splotchy shadows that stain your soul.
Your so-called faults are like proud rubies dancing in a blood orange sunrise, moving me to tears with their haunting beauty.
Your cracks and imperfections are achingly delicious—stuffed with juicy, vibrant life.
Because really—-what are flaws but the very things that complete a masterpiece? The final sweeps of a brush that make something into breathtaking art, rather than junk.
And, I think you are a masterpiece.
I love you more fiercely with every second that slips through our shaky hands.
Bleed on me. Cry on me. Lean on me.
Let’s get real and raw, stripped down and tender—we never cared much for empty, small talk anyway. (well….at least you don’t ☺)
As we cut through our fears with the sweaty ropes of endlessly passionate kisses, I want you to know something.
I’m going to make a promise to you, one that I will keep tucked in my heart’s front pocket, until we die:
I promise I will never try to fix you.
It’s not my job. It’s not my place to tell you how the imperfect castle of your brilliant spirit should be designed.
That is your job.
Besides, who the hell am I to mess with the mysterious magic of your mouthwatering soul?
I am far from flawless, I am bruised and bloodied from life, sometimes quite unstable, often crying at the most inconvenient times….for an undesirable amount of time.
And those parts of me—the ones I find grotesque and unbearable —are the very pieces that make you smile when we wake at sunrise, lying ‘cheek to cheek,’ peering at each other through groggy, sleep-stained eyes.
Take me as I am perfect in all my brokenness.
And I’ll take you, as you are.
You don’t have to fix me, and I won’t try to fix you. We will grow and heal together.
THAT is my commitment to you today and everyday!
Let’s settle into the splintered shards of our sparkling brokenness and make art out of it. Make meaning out of it. Make love out of it.
Let’s be restless and awkward and magical and spontaneous as hell.
Let’s walk, perfect hand in perfect hand, just the way we are.
Into an perfect sunset.
Let’s face this brutally beautiful world together.
To be exactly
Who we are.