Traditional Marriage Vows

I promise to give you the best of myself
and to ask of you no more than you can give.
I promise to respect you as your own person
and to realize that your interests, desires and needs
are no less important than my own.
I promise to share with you my time and my attention
and to bring joy, strength, and imagination to our relationship.
I promise to keep myself open to you,
to let you see through the window of my world into my innermost
fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you,
to be willing to face changes in order to keep our relationship
alive and exciting.
I promise to love you in good times and bad,
with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how.
Completely and forever. - Dorothy R. Colgan

A wedding vow symbolizes love and commitment between two people who want to share and spend rest of their life together. It is an everlasting promise that ensures the bond between them into marriage that calls for understanding, trust and unconditional love for each other. Though self-made or original wedding vows are a great way of expressing your sentiments and emotions towards your beloved, many couples do opt for traditional marriage vows to show gratitude towards the century old traditional words spoken by millions during weddings.

A lovely marriage vow acts as the essence that increases the beauty of the wedding day. Each word that you recite should pour out your true feelings and love for your partner. Writing your own wedding vows and deviating from the classic ones can be daring, risky and exciting. But a flat or insipid marriage vow may crash down your partner's dreams and destroy the true fervor of the ceremony. Therefore, to avoid such situations and save time, people are embracing old traditional wedding vows that have been said from generations with enthusiasm and joy.

Wedding Vows
Depending on whether the couples opt for standard wedding vows, there's always an option of deviating from the usual words and adding your own embellishments, loving words and funny promises ('I promise to always make your favorite apple pie!' Or 'I will cook every Sunday!'). Following are some traditional marriage vows with their relevant optional vows.

''I, (Groom’s name), take you, (Bride’s 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 us do part, according to God's holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow.''

I (name), take you, (name), to be my lawfully wedded (husband/wife). In the presence of God, and family and friends, I promise to love you and care for you in joys and in sorrows, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live. I accept you with all your flaws and strengths as I offer myself to you with my weaknesses and strengths. I will assure to help, cherish, support and love you unconditionally throughout my life. I choose you as the person with whom I want to spend rest of my life.

''I, (Groom’s name), take thee, (Bride’s name), to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, (Groom) to love and to cherish, (Bride) to love, cherish, and obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.''

I, (name), take you, (name) to be my (husband/wife) from this day forward. In the presence of God, I promise you to be your true partner in sickness and in health, in joys and in sorrows. I will always support, honor and respect you until death do us part.

''I, (Groom's name), take you (Bride's name), to be my wife, to have and behold from this day on, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until death do us part.''

Today, in the presence of family and friends I, (name), take you, (name), to be my lawfully wedded (husband/wife), my true friend, my faithful partner, and my eternal love from this day forward until my last breath.

The above traditional marriage vows are often taken and combined either by the betrothed or by the officiant to form a service appropriate to the occasion. No matter what subtle differences are there in the wordings of the vows, it is your spirit and feeling behind each word you recite that matters the most.