If you and your spouse-to-be have decided to write your own vows and you’re experiencing a case of writer’s block, then you’ve come to the right place. While you may be staring at a blank piece of paper, your mind is not blank. You probably have tons of things you want to say, but you’re just not sure how to get it out of your head and onto the paper.

 The Why of Writing Your Own Vows 

Brides and grooms that choose to write their own wedding vows choose this route for different reasons. Some couples are opting for a romantic ceremony over a religious one, so they’re steering clear of the traditional vows. Other couples want to express their love for each other in their own words. While sentiments and emotions may be easy to feel, it’s typically much harder to get your feelings down on paper. Use this information to walk through the steps of writing your own wedding vows with a simple and straightforward guide to help you organize your thoughts and feelings into words that you can express at your wedding ceremony. 

Steps to Writing Your Vows 

Choose to write how and where you feel comfortable, so pull out a piece of paper or sit down in front of your computer. As you read these steps, use your paper to take notes of the things that pop into your mind, so that you can come back later and turn these thoughts into vows.

Approach writing your vows like you would any major project. First, you want to create an outline of the information that your vows should contain. This helps you to get organized upfront, so then you can follow along and fill in the important details. Here is a sample outline for writing your own wedding vows. You can use the outline as is or modify and personalize it to fit your personality. Also, leave some room under each section of the outline to add the details.

I.                    Intro - I Knew I Was in Love with You When…

II.                 The Reasons I Love You

III.               I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life With You Because…

IV.              What Marriage Means to Me 

Use each heading to think about how you feel and how it associates with each section of your vows. After you have completed your note-taking process for each section, go back and write out the information into sentences. Turn the sentences into paragraphs, then edit and revise until you have the vows you want. If you’re still stuck, use the vow writing prompts in the next section to help move you along. 

Vow Writing Prompts 

Fill in the blanks of these vow-writing prompts to help you write out your wedding vows.