Renewing your vows is a special occasion that celebrates your enduring love and respect for your spouse. And part of the extra-special appeal of a vow renewal is the history behind the years you’ve already been together while adding unique touches to the words you’ll be sharing.
If you’ve been feeling as though a sample ceremony script can provide the help you need, check out the following and get ready to enjoy your special day! The script is ideal for anyone celebrating a 2nd to 25th wedding anniversary.
We’ve also included some quick and easy tips to improve (and personalize) your vow writing as well as lessen some of that stress.
Quick & Easy Tip For Writing Your Vows (For Renewal!)
Include Your History
Anything and everything that has happened matters in some way. Include it! Whether this is a personal story, milestone or defining moment, even some challenges that you may have gone through together – include what feels like some of the most important highlights of the relationship.
Keep it Simple
if you’re not a writer by nature, don’t try to be. Keep your thoughts and feelings on the minimal side and stay true to yourself. Try freewriting to jump-start your thought process if you feel stuck on how to express what you really mean.
Grab a Journal (or Your Notes App on Your Smartphone)
When you have a thought or a certain feeling, write it down immediately. Writing it down as soon as you think of it will make sure you don’t forget it later and you’ll be thanking your past self twice over. Eventually, you’ll have a good amount of unique ideas to bring to the vow renewal writing.
Don’t Forget Your Years Together
It’s easier than you may think to nix this integral fact but couples do it all the time. Make sure you add in how many years you’ve been married to your vows! Through in a nod or two to vows you’ve made in the past – especially the first time around.
Remind Each Other About The Future
Vow renewals aren’t only about the past. In fact, they’re more so about the future you two still have together. Make sure you’ve been making promises that move your relationship into new memories.
Sample Script For Vow Renewal
Welcome & Opening
Good relationships never stop evolving.
Like a fine wine, they just get better with age! [Groom] and [Bride], you have now been married [# of years] years and have now come to this beautiful setting, so that you could renew your vows and commitment of love to each other.
Not one marriage is perfect. As you continue in this union, you already know that it will take a lot of love and work to maintain your relationship.
Many couples tend to think of marriage as a 50/50 proposition. Actually, the best relationships are 90/10. If you both will give 90 percent and take only 10 percent, you will have a formula likely to bring both of you happiness for the rest of your lives.
As you continue on your journey together, I ask you to remember this advice:
- Let your love be stronger than your anger.
- Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend than to break.
- Believe the best of your beloved rather than the worst.
- Confide in your partner and ask for help when you need it.
- Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting relationship.
- Give your spouse the same courtesies and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.
- Say “I love you” every day.
*Add a reading or song here if desired.
Vows
[Groom’s name] and [Bride’s name], I remind you that marriage is a special gift; a lifelong dedication to love and a daily challenge to love each other more fully and more freely.
With this understanding, do you [Groom’s name], continue to take [Bride’s name] as your beloved wife?
Will you continue to be a tender, faithful husband?
Will you continue to love and cherish her, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse, and keep yourself only unto her?
With this understanding, do you [Bride’s name], continue to take [Groom’s name] as your beloved husband?
Will you continue to be a tender, faithful wife?
Will you continue to love and cherish him, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse, and keep yourself only unto him?
*Add a reading or song here if desired.
Rings
From earliest times, the ring has been a symbol of wedded love. An unbroken and never-ending circle symbolizes a continuous commitment to love.
And so, [Groom’s name] and [Bride’s name] will have rings as the outward symbols of your ongoing commitment to each other.
Now, [Groom’s name], hold [Bride’s name]’s hand, touch her ring as a way of symbolically giving it to her again, and say to her these words.
From this day on, I recommit myself to you, and this ring is a symbol of my pledge.
[Bride’s name], hold [Groom’s name]’s hand, touch his ring, symbolically giving it to him again, and say to him these words.
From this day on, I recommit myself to you, and this ring is a symbol of my pledge.
Let these rings serve as the symbol of your continued love and commitment to each other and may they also serve as a sign of your continued happiness and joy.
Closing
May the sun bring you new energy by day.
May the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries.
And may you live the days of your lives in peace, love, and happiness.
Pronouncement
[Groom’s name] and [Bride’s name], having witnessed your vows of affirmation with all who are assembled here, and by the authority of love itself, I do affirm that you have expressed your desire to continue as husband and wife.
Kiss
You may seal your vows, and confirm your continued commitment and love for each other, with a kiss.
Presentation
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present to you, once again as husband and wife: [Groom’s name] and [Bride’s name].
