how to write wedding vows
Six steps, one worksheet, and a writer at the end. The method below is the same structure the private workspace uses to build its three draft directions, so you can follow it by hand or let the tool carry the scaffolding.
The shape underneath
Scan the relationship for a single specific moment, the night you got lost, the morning you knew, and write it in two plain sentences. Specific beats poetic: a concrete memory is the one thing no template can fake.
List two or three qualities, but make them observable. Not you are kind, but you return the shopping cart every single time. Present tense keeps the vow about the person standing in front of you, not a highlight reel.
Split them between ordinary days and hard days. A promise for a random Tuesday and a promise for the worst week you can imagine cover more of a marriage than any grand declaration.
This is the pivot from feelings to commitment. One honest sentence, like I choose the long way home with you, does the work that three paragraphs of metaphor cannot.
The final sentence should be short enough to deliver while looking at your partner, not at the card. If it needs a breath in the middle, cut it in half.
Draft long, then trim. Read at ceremony speed with a timer; anything you stumble on gets simplified, and anything that exists only to sound impressive gets cut. Most strong vows lose a fifth of their first version.
Your answers autosave on this device only. Sending them to the writer is a local handoff; nothing here travels through a URL or a server until you choose to generate.
Prompts 1–2 seed the memory field; prompts 3–5 seed your promises.
Plan two or three short sessions rather than one long night. The memory and promises usually arrive in session one; the cutting and rehearsing need their own days.
Separately, but agree first on length, tone, and whether you will share drafts before the ceremony. Coordination prevents one partner reading ninety seconds while the other reads four minutes.
Whichever helps you speak clearly. Large-print cards read more steadily than a phone screen, and a printed vow card photographs better than a glowing rectangle.
You might, and guests will not mind. Practice the first line until it is automatic, keep the pace slow, and let a pause do the work of a breath.