Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Wedding Vows
Wedding Vows with a Yorkshire Celebrant
I’m a wedding celebrant based between Leeds and Bradford, West Yorkshire. My wedding ceremonies are a beautiful, joyful and heartfelt celebration of you! Every Yorkshire wedding ceremony I curate is gloriously unique, tailored to tell your individual love story in the most bespoke and personalised way imaginable.
Every wedding couple I work with have different priorities for their wedding and a different outlook for their ceremony. Some ceremonies are intimate and romantic; some are wild and adventurous. But regardless of the style and content, all the couples I work with want to exchange their heartfelt declarations of love in a way that feels true to them. For many, this includes being able to write their own wedding vows. A ritual which isn’t always available with registrar or religious weddings.
Celebrant wedding at Hazel Gap Barn, Nottinghamshire
No matter the sentiment, the style or content, wedding vows written from the heart will always have impact - landing joyously in the hearts of your wedding guests.
But when it comes to writing your personal wedding vows, you might wonder where to begin?
In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the process of writing your wedding vows for your celebrant wedding and inspire you with images from some of my wonderful couples on their special day.
Personalising your Celebrant Ceremony
When it comes to your wedding vows there’s a real variation in the style and content of the vows you can expect to exchange on your wedding day. And this largely depends on where you get married and who will officiate your big day.
If you are religious and choose to have your ceremony officiated in a religious building, you can expect to recite traditional vows synonymous with your particular religion.
If you have a registrar officiate your ceremony, then again, you are restricted to the limited formal wording authorised by your registry office and registrar.
When you choose a celebrant to officiate your wedding ceremony you have the freedom to curate a ceremony which feels more personal and celebrates your love story in a completely unique way. A wonderful way to honour your commitment to one another is to include vows you’ve written yourself.
Vows in your Celebrant Ceremony
As your celebrant, I’ll always offer you the chance to write your own wedding vows. Typically, I encourage you to say your vows once you’ve exchanged wedding rings. This works well because you’ve already pledged your commitment to one another with your rings and the inclusion of your vows only adds even more feeling to the sentiment. Plus, at this point, you’re already standing together, hand-in-hand, in front of your family and friends. You can then seal your vows with your first kiss. Just gorgeous!
Photographer: Hannah Brook Photography. Venue: Hazlewood Castle, North Yorkshire.
Your personal wedding vows are key moment in your wedding ceremony evoking connection and deep emotion from all of your loved ones. It’s almost as if time stands still. I think it’s because saying vows to each other, which are written from the hear, enable you to express your true feelings in the most authentic way possible. What’s not to love!
How to start writing your wedding vows
Writing your wedding vows to one another is a joyful process. But the process of writing them, their content and style of your vows will, of course, differ for each of you.
Venue: The Lost and Found Club, Leeds. Photographer: Ollie Glover Nota
Maybe you don’t consider yourself overly romantic or soppy. Even as your wedding celebrant, I tend to steer away from overly sickly and corny sentiments. Actually though, wedding vows can be so much more than that. Even for the more reserved of us, writing your own wedding vows can be a surprisingly wonderful experience.
Here are some prompts to help you:
Remember that the purpose of your wedding vows is to pledge your love and commitment to one another. Keep it simple!
Think back to the beginning of your relationship. How you started out and where you’ve come from.
Consider how your partner inspires you and what you love about them.
Finish with some promises: how will you move forward in your shared life together.
Feel free to keep them light, fun and a little bit silly.
Celebrant wedding at Hazel Gap Barn, Nottinghamshire
Emotional Ceremonies Which Feel Personal
Everyone loves emotional exchanges of love. When your vows feel authentic and genuine, you can expect tears to flow - I’ll probably be clenching my jaw tightly as I make sure to maintain my own composure! Embrace the emotion. Remember, it’s the reason you are standing there, hand in hand with your loved one, and opening your hearts in front of your family and friends.
Venue: The Faversham, Leeds. Photographer: David Lindsley Photographer.
Writing When You’re Not a Writer
A Step by Step Guide:
Reflect on your relationship: Take some time to think about your relationship with your partner. What do you love about them? What qualities do they possess that make them special to you? What experiences have you shared that have brought you closer together? These reflections will provide the foundation for your vows.
Decide on the tone and style: Do you want your vows to be funny, heartfelt, traditional, or modern? Consider the tone and style that would best represent you as a couple.
Start with a rough draft: Begin by writing down your thoughts and feelings about your partner. Write as though you are speaking directly to them. Don't worry too much about making it perfect, just let your words flow.
Edit and refine: Once you have a rough draft, read it out loud and make any necessary edits. Refine your vows until they accurately express your feelings and intentions.
Practice delivering your vows: Practice delivering your vows out loud until you feel comfortable with the phrasing and pacing. This will help you feel more confident if you choose to recite them during the wedding ceremony.
Consider incorporating a promise or commitment: Wedding vows often include promises or commitments to each other. Consider including a statement of what you promise to do for your partner or how you will support them in your life together.
Keep it personal and authentic: Remember that your wedding vows should be personal and authentic. Don't try to imitate someone else's style or use words that don't feel true to you.
Photo Credit Hannah Brook Photography
How can I help with your Vows?
When I officiate your ceremony, I offer you all of my advice, support and guidance on all elements of the ceremony and this includes supporting you with your wedding vows. But of course, there’s no pressure to include them.
In the early stages of your planning journey, I’ll send your a questionnaire to fill out about you and your love story. In the questionnaire, I’ll ask if you want to write your own wedding vows and how you feel about it.
Your questionnaires will also take a deep dive into your relationship: First dates, falling in love, memorable moments etc. What you’ll find , is that without realising it, you’ll be laying down the foundations of your wedding vows too.
Once your questionnaire is completed, I will organise a planning meeting, ideally in person if possible. If you need advice on your vows, we may well organise an additional meeting devoted specifically to writing your vows.
I can guide you with the writing process and make it a fun and rewarding experience.
On the day, you might not feel confident to read your vows and that’s absolutely fine. Let me take the lead and I can read them for you. Alternatively, you may want to read a couple of sentences and then answer some promises instead.
Michelle Park as your Wedding Celebrant
As your wedding celebrant, I pride myself as being more than just a wedding officiant. I’ll support you, encourage you, inspire you and, on your wedding day, I’ll be your biggest cheerleader.
I offer all my couples a no-obligation discovery zoom call to kick start the process. Although I’m based in Leeds, I cover Yorkshire and beyond and will always travel for love.
For more information, please get in touch.
And if you’re still in doubt about just how wonderful working with me, as your wedding celebrant, can be - check out what one of my lovely couples said:
“There aren’t enough stars to give for how fabulous Michelle is! I would give her 100/5 if possible.
I found Michelle through Instagram when my (now husband!) and I decided we wanted to have a more personal, meaningful wedding ceremony than the same generic script used by registrars across the country. This was really important to us as we had been in a relationship for 13 years to the day when we got married (25/05/2025) and so it needed to be extra special!
From the moment we came across Michelle’s information we had a good vibe from her, then when we met for an initial call to see how we got on, we knew she was the person for us! Luckily, she had our date free and was happy to help us out.
Michelle took a real interest in getting to know about us and our story, be it through questionnaires tailored to us specifically, meeting with us in person to chat, or back and forth conversations through email. We really felt that Michelle cared and knew we were in safe hands!
When Michelle did the read through of our wedding script with us, we were absolutely blown away. We didn’t realise quite how “us” it would be and so many personal details that we had shared with her were included. To be able to keep this as a memory forever means a lot to us both.
On the day of our wedding Michelle arrived super early and was there for my husband to calm him down - she also did a great job of keeping everyone else calm whilst I was running late due to some unforeseen issues. Then when it came to the service, it was even BETTER than what we had remembered. Our guests absolutely loved it, with many saying it was, hands down, the best wedding ceremony they have ever attended and they couldn’t believe that we hadn’t know Michelle for years beforehand - that’s how well she got to know us!
Michelle also worked with my husband to make some edits to the ceremony which were kept as a surprise from me until the day. This included some wording around the ring exchange to something that meant something to the two of us, as well as helping to keep the biggest secret of all - that my husband was going to be taking my surname! My husband has since told me how supportive Michelle had been when he was stressing out about keeping such a big secret, reassuring him and helping him to figure out the best way to reveal the surprise. This all made it even more special and meaningful for us on the day.
Also, Michelle printed out our vows, readings for the readers, and gave us a copy of the script to keep (along with something else extra special which we will treasure forever!).
If you are looking for someone who will truly help to ensure your wedding day is one of the best days of your life, then I cannot think of anyone better. Wishing we had another excuse to continue working with Michelle now it’s all over....perhaps a vow renewal!?!!??!!
Seriously though, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU! What an absolute gem of a human being you are Michelle! Mr and Mrs Bennett <3”
