The Traditional Wedding Vows

In case you didn’t know, the “traditional” wedding vows – in English, at least – are found in the Book of Common Prayer.

In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the marriage vows read as follows:

I M. take thee N. to my wedded wife, to have and to hold,
from this day forward, for better for worſe, for richer for poorer, in ſickneſs and in health, to love and to cheriſh, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

I N. take thee M. to my wedded huſband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worſe, for richer for poorer, in ſickneſs and in health, to love, cheriſh, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.

When we got married in August 2012, my wife, Rachel, and I decided to write our own vows, at least loosely based upon the traditional vows. (Give us a break, we weren’t yet Anglicans!)

So, here are the vows I wrote, and still endeavor to keep as Rachel’s husband!

My Wedding Vows

I, Joshua Patrick Steele, pledge myself to you, Rachel Elizabeth, as your husband.

I solemnly vow:

to love you as I have been loved by Love himself,

to take joy daily in your beauty and worth as God’s precious daughter,

to cling to you faithfully with mind, soul, and body,

in light and in darkness,

in summer and in winter,

in springtime and in harvest,

in plenty and in famine,

through Sheol to Eden,

in sickly decay and in healthy vigor,

in unspeakable joy and in bitter sorrow,

in the tempests of chaos and in the calms of perfect peace.

And, by your side, to pursue relentlessly God’s grace and shalom

until Death parts us

or Death itself is vanquished by our coming King,

in whose presence I hereto pledge you my faithfulness.

For more personal posts of mine, go here.