About wedding vows
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Your wedding day is something that you will want to be as special and unique as you and your spouse-to-be are. Choosing your wedding vows with care will help make it a day that you will remember and cherish forever. Traditional or not, your wedding vows will help you focus on what you mean to each other, and on your new life together.
Significance
Wedding vows as we know them are a somewhat modern addition to the ceremony. In the past, the wedding was more of a contract signing and giving of the bride to the groom, almost as if she were a piece of property. Now, in the United States anyhow, there is no forced marriage. Each person has the choice about who they marry. Women are not treated as something to be sold or exchanged, but as being equal to men. That means that the way we do weddings, and what is acceptable as vows, has also changed.
Wedding vows are offered from the bride to the groom, and from the groom to the bride, in front of witnesses. The vows can be repeated after the wedding officiant, or spoken directly between the couple. With witnesses present, the vows are said to indicate the couple's intentions and desires for their marriage.
Types
When choosing what type of wedding vows to use, most couples try to make sure the vows are fitting to the theme of the wedding. If the wedding is traditional and the couple wants to keep that theme, the traditional wedding vows might be used.
Even if the wedding is traditional, many couples choose to alter the vows to fit their relationship. They may even write their own.
Traditional vows call for the bride and groom to repeat after the officiant, unless they prefer to memorize and say them without help. An example of traditional vows is: "I, (name), take you, (name), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part."
When a couple writes their own wedding vows, they may include a poem, quotation or anything else that is meaningful to them. Using their own feelings, emotions and ideas about what they each want in marriage, want to be as husband and wife and intend to follow through on for each other, the bride and groom may each write their vows to each other, or they may collaborate and write them together.
The purpose of the wedding vows is the same, no matter what type is used. When the vows are exchanged, the declaration of love for each other, devotion and the intention of making a life together as husband and wife for as long as both live are witnessed by others. The celebration of marriage, with the exchange of wedding vows, begins a new life for the new family.
Size
The length of the wedding vows depends on what the bride and groom choose. The traditional wedding vows, though short and simple, offer sentiment and a declaration of intentions, without being very lengthy.
Wedding vows that are written by the bride and groom may be longer, shorter or the same length. There is no rule for length, but the overall desire with wedding vows is to make it as meaningful to the couple as possible.
Benefits
Traditional wedding vows have the benefit of being pretty much universal. They offer ease of use and include all the most important aspects of marriage.
If you choose another form of wedding vows, you may be able to make it more personal. With including something more meaningful to both of you, you can personalize your vows and create a beautiful vow exchange.
The benefits of writing your own wedding vows include having the ability to speak from your own heart to the one you love.
You could even combine using the traditional wedding vows with writing something for each other. With the best of both, your wedding is sure to be even more memorable to you, and to all your witnesses.
Potential
Exchanging wedding vows is a wonderful way to declare to each other how you feel, what you want and how you want your life to be. They are romantic, honest, loving and full of the faith you need in each other to enter into this new relationship.
When you begin your marriage by exchanging vows that come from your heart, whether traditional or personally written, you are taking the first step to your new life together.
Source: www.ehow.com
Tags: wedding vows, each other, bride groom, life together, traditional wedding
