Wedding Vows and Ceremonial Customs

Weddings are an essential part of life — the joining together of two people in love to form a new family. Consequently, planning a wedding and understanding its various elements is important for us all. Here are examples and descriptions of wedding vows and ceremonial customs, along with information on incorporating and understanding these traditions as you plan or attend a wedding.

Traditional Wedding Ceremony Elements and More

• African-American Lectionary: Weddings — about traditional African-American wedding ceremonies and rituals

• Best Destination Wedding — help for planning a great destination wedding

• Bridal Shower Etc — how to plan a bridal shower

• Catholic Wedding Help — an extensive guide on Catholic weddings from a knowledgeable Catholic

• Exchange of Rings — some lines to say when exchanging wedding rings

• Finding Something Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue — handy article on fulfilling this wedding tradition

• Honeymoons — a discussion of the origin of the honeymoon from Websters Dictionary

• Judaism 101 — all about Jewish marriages, including an explanation of the wedding ceremony

• Martha Stewart Weddings — an extensive guide to wedding planning and traditions from Martha Stewart

• Popular Ethnic & Religious Wedding Traditions — all manner of different wedding customs from different cultures and religions

• Popular Wedding Traditions — the origin of several popular wedding traditions

• Protestant Wedding Ceremony — Brides.com basic outline of a Protestant wedding

• Renewal of Wedding Vows — several examples of vows that can be used in a renewal ceremony

• Theme Wedding and Reception Ideas — turn to this page for fun theme wedding ideas

• Unity Candle — several different ways to incorporate the unity candle into a wedding ceremony

• Wedding Cake History — learn the origin of this tradition

• Wedding and Engagement Rings — all about the history and symbolism of wedding and engagement rings

• Wedding Liturgy Guidelines — advice on writing wedding liturgies that Roman Catholics should find especially helpful

• Wedding Notebook and Planner — printable pages to help with wedding planning

• Wedding Songs — many suggestions for music in a wedding ceremony and reception

• Wedding Speech Digest — helps for writing a wedding speech

Writing Your Own Vows

• Best Beginning — simple guide to the composition of original and personal wedding vows

• Inside our Vows — answers questions about writing personalized vows and has several examples

• Original Wedding Vows — twelve key steps for writing your own vows

• Personalized Wedding Vows — instructions on more personalized vows with examples

• Sample Marriage Vows — several suggested vows for Christian wedding ceremonies

• Twenty Tips for Writing Your Own Wedding Vows — a handy list of tips to help write personalized vows

• Writing Wedding Vows — learn to write your own wedding vows with this easy guide

Famous Quotes for Wedding Ceremonies

• Ceremony Readings — some non-traditional wedding readings from a professional wedding officiant

• Love Quotes Encyclopedia — excellent collection of famous love quotes

• Popular Wedding Readings and Passages — a large collection of wedding readings from a variety of sources

• Romantic Quotes for Weddings — numerous romantic quotes appropriate for wedding invitations

• Twelve Best Movie Quotes for a Wedding Speech — wedding speech writers may find this list of movie quotes helpful

• Wedding Love Quotes — some great quotes for weddings and wedding invitations

• Wedding Quotations — great literary quotes that can be used in weddings

Common Bible Readings at Weddings

• Bible Gateway — a great place to look up biblical passages to be read in a wedding

• Bible Verses for Your Wedding — a brief guide to choosing Bible verses along with verse suggestions

• Music and Readings for your Wedding Day — a list of favorite Scripture passages that are often read at weddings along with suggestions for hymns and more

• Wedding References — guide with links to Bible verses on love, marriage, and family

• Wedding-Related Bible Weddings — popular wedding Scriptures in two different English Bible versions