Wedding vows are the most important part of a wedding ceremony and a marriage is not complete without exchange of vows. The exchange of vows is like solemn promises duly made between by the bride to the groom and the groom to the bride. It is believed that such an exchange of wedding vows have a lasting impact on the lives of a couple and there are several examples of breaking marriages standing back because Christians believe that marriage is honorable to God and that they have exchanged vows honoring God's words.
Wedding vows are promises made by the marrying couple in front of several witnesses. There are different types of wedding vows, religious, interfaith, traditional, more personalized etc.
Even in religious wedding vows, there are different types such as Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Greek etc. But the general trend in wedding vows is that the priest puts a series of questions to both groom and the bride. Facing one another, holding hands each other, both the groom and the bride do the wedding vows one after another. There will be witnesses to take note of the wedding vows and hold both of them as accountable.
Christian wedding vows are also again several types such as Roman Catholics follow one pattern; and the Protestants have a different set. But, in general, Christian wedding vows read like this, and remember that these vows have come down through several generations.
Priest asks the groom, "Do you (by his name), take (bride's name), to be your wife?" and to which the groom replies "Yes I do."
Priest now asks the bride, "Do you (by her name), take (groom's name), to be your husband?"
The bride replies, "Yes I do."
In some traditional Christian weddings the groom and bride take turns to read a wedding vow like this:
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my (wife/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, till death do us part.
Many couples try to simply memorize the wedding vows and read them out under pressure and nervousness. However, these days reading more personalized wedding vows has become a trend and the couples, who feel deeply for one another elects to read out their personalized wedding vows. Needless to say the wedding guests are enthralled listening to their vows.
