Non-Religious Wedding Vows: Examples and Tips
It’s common these days for couples to resort to non-religious wedding vows at their wedding ceremony. Marriage is like taking a leap of faith, although that doesn’t mean it always has to revolve around religion. This day should be about reaffirming that special bond between the bride and the groom, regardless of their beliefs. You can always go with the traditional wedding scripts, but why not spice things up?
Marriage vows should reflect the eternal love promises between you and your husband-to-be. After all, this special ceremony marks the beginning of your life together. If you’re taking the non-traditional route, we have some simple yet beautiful wedding vow ideas for you. It doesn’t matter if you pick secular, atheist, or non-denominational vows. These lovely non-religious wedding ceremony readings are bound to make every guest in the room happy cry!
Here are some tips on how to write non-religious vows and examples that express such personal promises. So grab a pen, and let’s get to work!
RELATED: How To Write Wedding Vows Step by Step
How To Write Non-religious Wedding Vows
Many modern couples don’t share the same beliefs or even have no religion. In these cases, they may want to go for a non-religious wedding ceremony. However, it might be hard to come across the basic guidelines to write a secular or non-denominational wedding script. That’s why we’ve gathered some simple tips and tricks to work on your non-religious wedding ceremony readings. Welcome to non-religious wedding vows 101. Good luck!
Tip #1—Emphasize Your Beliefs
Your irreligion doesn’t mean that you have no other spiritual beliefs. You certainly hold strong family and community ethics to guide you in life. Perhaps you even share some of these precious qualities with your one true love. Maybe they are what drew you guys together in the first place!
Brainstorm with your significant other and incorporate these wonderful traits into your alternative wedding vows. Identify which of them will be the most important to reinforce throughout your marriage. Enlisting these ideas will be constructive when writing your non-religious wedding vows. They’ll undoubtedly show what your relationship is all about.
Tip #2—Reveal Your Faith in Your Significant Other
You don’t need to believe in a higher power to show a little faith. Your secular ceremony is the perfect event to flaunt your blind confidence in the love of your life. Use your wedding script to describe the qualities that make you rely on the person you’re marrying.
Both traditional and non-traditional unions depend on a little faith to be long-lasting. Confirm your unconditional trust in your partner during your non-religious wedding. Detail out every single reason that makes you think you’ve found your other half. Make sure you say all this loud and clear in your marriage vows.
Tip #3—Celebrate the Tough Times Too
It’s not offbeat for couples to experience bad times once in a while. Living challenging experiences has made your relationship sturdier and steadier. You don’t need religion and belief to make it through rough patches. As four gentlemen from Liverpool once said: “All you need is love.” It turns out this famous one-liner is quite right!
Religious wedding readings often state: “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” You don’t have to use the same words in your non-religious wedding vows. However, you can borrow ideas from this philosophy even when you’re a declared agnostic.
Tip #4—Showcase Your Personality
Personal promises sound a little more meaningful when you put some extra thought into them. Your soulmate will love a reminder of what makes you a fantastic couple. Include some of your shared interests. Enlisting the things that make your relationship unique is a great way to go.
Your wedding is the most important day of your life. You don’t want to be reading bland and generic vows when celebrating your marriage. That’s why you have to make your secular wedding ceremony script stand out. Keep it short and creative. Look for personalized wedding vows samples online for more inspiration.
Tip #5—Acknowledge Your Family and Friends
One of the wedding ideas that never fails is including some simple words about your family and close friends. The groom and the bride should always strive to make their guests feel appreciated. Yes, even if it is through cheesy wedding vows. After all, these people have always got your back through good and evil.
This infallible tip is excellent for renewal vows or when celebrating a second marriage. Acknowledge the help of your children, siblings, and parents into keeping your relationship healthy and giving you advice. Display your endless gratitude by mentioning their names in your non-religious wedding vows.
Tip #6—Pick a Meaningful Non-Religious Reading
We know you want to impress your husband or wife-to-be while making your eternal love promises. Consider choosing non-religious wedding ceremony readings to knock everyone’s socks off. You don’t have to resort to the traditional Bible verses. Some authors capture the essence of intimate relationships within their famous lines.
If you’re looking for beautiful wedding vow ideas for bookworms, flip through your favorite titles as a couple. We’re sure you’ll be able to find a quote or a poem to use for your untraditional wedding vows. This useful trick comes in handy when working on atheist and non-denominational marriage scripts.
Tip #7—Write Your Non-Religious Vows With an Expert
Interfaith vows might be a little tricky, especially if you know very little about your significant other’s beliefs. Even for a non-religious marriage, you might still struggle to find the right words to say. Worry no more! Here’s a rather practical alternative if you don’t want to end up with dull and old-fashioned wedding vows.
When in doubt, work in partnership with an expert to edit your non-religious wedding vows! An experienced writer will help you gather what’s in your heart and put it effortlessly on paper. You’ll end up with a modern and personalized script in no time.
Non-Religious Wedding Vow Examples
You no longer have to use religion and belief as a base for your wedding promises. You can talk about anything that makes your relationship unique. Here are some examples you can use to get inspiration for your non-religious wedding ceremony readings. You’ll find some lovely bride vows to her groom, and heartwarming male wedding vows non-religious folks will love. Anything to keep you away from writing generic wedding vows!
Simple Non-Religious Wedding Vows
There might be a good reason why you picked a non-religious wedding ceremony. Perhaps you find these rites of passage a little intense. No worries. You don’t have to mention virtue and mortality in your wedding vows if you don’t want to. Your promises can still be deep without adding so much solemnity to them.
When coming up with simple vows, keep them short and relatable. A few heartfelt words will suffice to let your soulmate know how much you care. These tips will keep your writing experience quick and easy. Here are some short wedding vows examples for you:
“…, I promise to be faithful, supportive, and loyal and to give my companionship and love throughout all the changes of our life. I vow to bring you happiness, and I will treasure you as my companion. I will celebrate the joys of life with you. I promise to support your dreams, and walk beside you offering courage and strength through all endeavors. From this day forward, I will be proud to be your wife/ husband and your best friend. “
“…, I take you as my wife/ husband, with your faults and your strengths, as I offer myself to you with my faults and my strengths. I will help you when you need help, and turn to you when I need help. I choose you as the person with whom I will spend my life.”
“I…, take you… , to be my wedded wife/ husband/ spouse. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ‘till death do us part’. And thereto I pledge you my faithfulness.”
Traditional Non-Religious Wedding Vows
Avoiding religious wedding vows doesn’t mean you have to step too far from the traditional path. If you’re not hot for an unconventional wedding script, we’ve got you covered. Perhaps your family is somewhat conservative, and you don’t want to give grandma a heart attack. That’s perfectly understandable, and we’re here to help you out.
Keep calm, and write on! Here are some perfect wedding vow examples to highlight your values and respect tradition. We hope you’ll get the inspiration you need. You’ll be able to embrace your non-religious beliefs and play it safe while still getting great wedding vows!
“I take you to be my partner for life. I promise above all else to live in truth with you. And to communicate fully and fearlessly. I give you my hand and my heart. As a sanctuary of warmth and peace, and pledge my love, devotion, faith, and honor as I join my life to yours.”
“With this ring, I give you my promise that from this day forward you shall not walk alone. May my heart be your shelter and my arms be your home.”
“Today, I want to make promises to you that I will always keep.
I promise to never stop holding your hand.
I promise to make sure I’m not just hungry when I get upset.
I promise to share my food with you.
I promise to never go to bed angry.
I promise to stand by your side while you face the world.
I promise to listen to you when you speak.
I promise to join your laughter with my own. And when you can’t look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark.
I promise to grow alongside you, but also to never grow up.
I promise to love, respect, protect, and trust you.
I promise to give you the best of myself, because I know that together we will build a life far better than either of us could imagine alone.
I choose you. I’ll choose you over and over and over again, and I’ll keep choosing you.”
Secular Wedding Vows
Many wonder what is a secular wedding. For those who’re not big on religion, it might be the best alternative. It’s a lot more flexible and lets you pick your theme and location on your own terms. A secular wedding ceremony allows for a refreshing approach to the traditional rites.
Lots of couples put their heart and soul into praising only each other. No need for them to worship any power higher than love. That’s why more and more brides and grooms are opting to hold a non-religious wedding. Here are some secular wedding scrips you can use at yours:
“I promise to love you, to protect and care for you, and to be patient and understanding, to support you, and to always be faithful to you. I will be your friend and companion, and I will share my life with you, through good times and bad times, as long as we both shall live.”
“The day I met you, I became a true believer that you do not find true love, but true love finds you. Everything in me recognizes your heart as my home and your arms, my shelter. You are my better half and my best friend. I will love you, honor you, respect and cherish you in sickness and health, through sorrows and success, for all the days of my life. I am forever yours.”
Atheist Wedding Vows
We all know non-spiritual people get married too. Then why is finding appropriate atheist wedding vows so uncommon? If you practice atheism or agnosticism, chances are you’re struggling to stumble upon marriage vows that fit your beliefs. Well, search no more! We’ve gathered some great examples for you to get inspiration from.
We promise we’ll leave out any mentions of God and faith. After all, that’s not what marriage is all about. We sure want to hear more about an eternity of love and commitment. After reading these great samples, you’ll find writing your non-religious wedding vows a lot easier.
“We stand before our friends and family today so you may witness our promise. We hereby pledge in front of everyone that we will join together with each other into a happy and loving family, sharing good times and hard times, by uniting our hearts for eternity.”
“I promise to take you as my [husband/wife],
To trust you and to be trustworthy,
And to support you in your worldly endeavors,
To continue to share my thoughts and feelings, my hopes and desires,
And to love and cherish you for the rest of my life.”
Just like interracial marriages, inter-denominational weddings are on the rise in our society. In this case, couples prefer to stick to spiritual wedding vows that don’t necessarily affiliate to either denomination. This way, everyone feels included and gets to display their faith while remaining neutral.
Interfaith vows are an excellent idea to stay true to your spirituality. More and more modern wedding vow internet sites are following this inclusive trend to write their samples. Thanks to this, many brides and grooms will no longer have to be uncomfortable on their wedding day. Here are some perfect examples of non-denominational vows.
“I choose you, __, to be my wife/husband, as my friend and love. On this day I affirm the relationship we have enjoyed, looking to the future and to keep and strengthen it. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. Together, we will dream, and live as one while respecting one another, we will stumble but restore each other, we will share all things. I will cherish, comfort, and encourage you, be open with you, and stay with you as long as I shall live.”
“With this ring,
I give you my promise that from this day forward,
you shall not walk alone.
May my heart be your shelter
And my arms be your home.”
Final Thoughts!
Coming up with meaningful and powerful non-religious wedding vows just got a little bit easier. Whether you’re a first-timer or working on your vow renewal, these modern wedding vows samples will undoubtedly help.
The key ingredient to heartwarming words that will leave your soulmate speechless is love. Keep things short and simple. Write from the bottom of your heart, and you’ll never find yourself at a loss for words again.
