Let me tell you, one of the hardest things about planning my own wedding was trying to write the wedding ceremony. I was not a fan of the traditional vows (I obey no one but myself thankyouverymuch) and really wanted to find something that reflected our concept of what we wanted our relationship to be. If you're in the same boat but looking for alternative vows with a more classic lean – well, here ya go! Some wedding vows Shakespeare-style!
Let me tell you, one of the hardest things about planning my own wedding was trying to write the wedding ceremony. I was not a fan of the traditional vows (I obey no one but myself thankyouverymuch) and really wanted to find something that reflected our concept of what we wanted our relationship to be. If you're in the same boat but looking for alternative vows with a more classic lean – well, here ya go! Some wedding vows Shakespeare-style!
Image Courtesy of: Katie Osgood Photography
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
The Tempest
Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service.
Hamlet
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
The Merchent of Venice
One half of me is yours, the other half yours
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
What made me love thee? let that persuade thee
there's something extraordinary in thee. I cannot: but I love thee; none
but thee; and thou deservest it.
How many of you are looking to incorporate some alternative vow wordings or readings in to your wedding ceremony? You can find other alternative vows and readings here.
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