Writing Your Own Wedding Vows With Style And Personality 

Now that you are engaged and you have scheduled the date for probably the most important event in your life  and all the details of the ceremony have been meticulously gone over and confirmed. You start to sit back and relax thinking everything is covered when your intended partner  suddenly says . "Why don't we write our own vows?"

This sounds like a simple enough task and you  write down a few lines that you believe would sound good in front of God and all the witnesses, but as you read it aloud you realize the words you just wrote are not you. Your mind's thoughts of creativity begin to tailspin. You must come up with something better than this dribble you just wrote, but how?

In reality writing your own wedding vows can be a daunting taskt. Especially if you are not a very creative person in the first place. But fear not  there are a few simple tricks that may spark the writer within you and have you looking like a champ in your bride's eye.

First of all you need to do some hme work so grab aa pen and paper and answer thew following basic questions aeven if you don't think the answer will end up in your wedding vows, still take the time to write it down. It may help you in the long run. If you encounter writer's block, first try taking a short break. If you're still having trouble, try speaking the answers into a tape recorder, letting the thoughts flow freely.

• What is the single greatest thing about the person you are going to marry?
  
• When did you know that you were in love/ know that this person was the one you wanted to marry?
  
• What does marriage mean to you? Why do you want to be a married person?
  
• What will change about your relationship once you are married? What will stay the same?
  
• What is your most favorite memory of your partner?
  
• When you were little, did you dream of your wedding day or your future spouse? How does that vision match up (or not) with your sweetheart?

Now start brainstorming and make a list divided into . three sections about five to seven lines apart from one another. These will be your categories. Name these categories like so:

• Things we like to do together or have done together
• Plans for the present
• Goals for the future

Let's start with the first category "Things we like to do together or have done together."

On the five to seven lines of space you allotted for this section list things that you both have done in the past while dating that you both enjoyed and had good times while doing them. You could generalize them by listing things such as:

• We like camping and the outdoors,
• We like cooking
• We both love watching movies in a theater,

Try to think of things you either have done or like to do together and list them each on a separate line.

In the next section, "Plans for the present" add things like:
I will always be there to comfort you whenever you have a problem,
I promise to provide for your every need,
Our days together from this day forward will always be happy.

List five to seven things that you want to make as goals for making your lives together happy from this point on.

Finally, in the last section, "Goals for the future" add things such as:

• Move into a bigger house,
• Build a home, not a house, together,
• Have many beautiful children

Try to think of goals that are actually obtainable even if they may take a long time to accomplish. The idea is to portray that you think of your future together and how you want it to be both happy and successful.

When finished with these three sections of the list begin to piece them together in a two paragraph description of how you would like for your marriage to turn out. Try to begin with a happy statement of how you met while doing something you both love doing. Then lead into how you will strive to make her life and yours better from this point on. Finally end with a couple of long term goals you would like for you both to work towards.

One of the biggest keys to having your vows come out as a personal dedication and something personal and important to you is to add your own style and personality into the wording of your thoughts and goals. By making a list as described above you can easily piece together a perfectly good set of wedding vows that will be remembered by all for years to come.