Not everyone needs to give a TED Talk at their wedding. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can say is also the simplest. Short vows cut through the noise and go straight to the heart. They're perfect if public speaking isn't your thing, if you want your ceremony to feel more intimate, or if you just believe that the best things don't need a lot of words. Here's the thing: she doesn't need a speech. She needs a promise.
“I choose you. Not just today, but every day after. You're my best friend and my greatest adventure, and I'll spend my life proving that to you.”
“You're my home. I promise to be yours too—to stand beside you, grow with you, and love you through everything that comes our way.”
“I take you as you are, and I give myself to you completely. I'll love you, honor you, and choose you forever. That's it. That's the whole thing.”
Make any of these yours: generate personalized vows with AI in about a minute.
Short wedding vows for him and for her follow one law: one love, one promise, one close. "You are my favorite person. I choose you, today and every day after." That's a complete short vow — eleven words of setup, a lifetime of meaning. Short vows wedding ceremony moments benefit most from delivery: pause after the first sentence, look up on the last one. If you want traditional scaffolding in a small package: "I take you as you are, and choose you as you are, all the days of my life."
Every style page below includes full sample wedding vows you can read, borrow, and personalize — not just snippets. Here's a taste of what you'll find, plus where the complete wedding vows examples live.
"I, [Name], take you, [Name], to be my wedded [husband/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 do us part."
See the full wording and variations: traditional vows for him · traditional vows for her.
"I promise to love you not only on our best days, but on the hard ones too. You are my favorite conversation, my safest place, and my greatest adventure. I choose you — today, tomorrow, and always."
More: romantic vows for him · romantic vows for her.
"I promise you this: I will laugh with you, stand by you, and love you — every single day. You are my person, and I am yours. Forever."
More: short vows for him · short vows for her.
Want vows written from your actual love story instead of a sample? Generate personalized wedding vows with AI — takes about a minute.
Looking for vows from a specific side of the aisle? Start from a complete hub, then narrow by tone:
Choosing wedding vows starts with understanding what kind of ceremony you're having and what feels authentic to you as a couple. Here's a framework.
Need help getting started? Our AI Wedding Vow Generator creates personalized vows. Read our complete guide to writing wedding vows.
Pair your vows with our ceremony script generator, or prepare a best man speech or father of the bride speech.
Simple wedding vows prove that plain words carry the most weight. A generic wedding vows base you can say as-is: "I take you as you are, and I choose you as you are, all the days of my life." Simple vows for a wedding ceremony work best when both partners match register — if one reads scripture, the other shouldn't do stand-up. Contemporary wedding vows in the simple register trade poetry for precision: "I promise to be your partner in everything — the big adventures and the ordinary Tuesdays." Basic wedding ceremony vows for nervous speakers can be as short as three lines; the bride and groom wedding vows exchange needs no symmetrical length — say what's true, stop when it's said.
Ready-made options: simple vows for him · simple vows for her · standard traditional wording.
Beach wedding ceremony vows lean sensory — reference the horizon, the tide, the sand between your shoes: "Like the tide, my love will return to you every single day." Courthouse wedding vows fit a two-minute civil ceremony — keep them short and skip props entirely; many couples simply repeat the standard civil wording and save personal vows for the reception. Private wedding vows (spoken just to each other, no audience) are the fastest-growing format — no performance pressure means the words can be completely unguarded. Court wedding vows and elopement vows share one rule: nobody's watching, so say the real thing.
Planning the moment around the words? Our AI vow generator drafts from your actual story — free to try, no sign-up wall before you see your vows.