Vows, readings and music for your wedding

While a civil marriage or civil partnership ceremony has a fairly standard format, there are plenty of  opportunities to personalise your ceremony with vows, promises, readings and music.

Marriage ceremonies

During your marriage ceremony, you must say a legal declaration and contracting vows, which you can choose from the options below. 

Legal marriage declarations

You can choose to say either the traditional, modern or simplified declaration from the list below.

• Traditional - I do solemnly declare, that I know not of any lawful impediment why I (your full legal name) may not be joined in matrimony to (your partner's full legal name).
• Modern - I declare that I know of no legal reason why I (your full legal name) may not be joined in marriage to (your partner's full legal name).
• Simplified - The Registrar asks: "Are you (your full legal name) free, lawfully, to marry (your partner's full legal name)?" You reply "I am."

Contracting marriage vows

You can choose to say either the traditional, modern or simplified contracting marriage vows from the list below.

• TraditionaI - I call upon these persons, here present, to witness that I (your full legal name) do take thee (your partner's full legal name) to be my lawful wedded wife/husband.
• Modern - I (your full legal name), take you (your partner's full legal name) to be my wedded wife/husband.
• Simplified - I (your full legal name) take thee (your partner's full legal name) to be my wedded wife/husband.

Personal marriage promises

After saying the legal declaration and vows, you can make personal promises to each other when exchanging rings or gifts. You can either write your own personal promises, or you may wish to choose one of the promises below:

• I promise that I will respect you as an individual, support you through difficult times, rejoice with you through happy times, be loyal to you always and, above all, love you as my wife/husband and friend.
• I promise to care for you above all others, to give you my love and friendship, support and comfort, and to respect and cherish you throughout our lives together.
• I give you this ring as a token of my love and friendship.
• I give you this ring as a token of our love and marriage, as a symbol of all that we share and in recognition of our life together.
• I promise to love and respect you. Helping our love grow, always being there to listen, comfort and support you, whatever our lives may bring.
• I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage, and as a symbol of our love. I promise to care for you, to respect and cherish you, throughout our lives together.
• I give you this ring as a sign of our love, trust and marriage. I promise to care for you above all others, to give you my love, friendship and support, and to respect and cherish you throughout our life together.
• I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and affection, wear it with happiness and pride – now and always.

If you have chosen to write your own promises, please remember that they must not contain any religious content and will need to be pre-approved by the registrar.

Civil Partnership ceremonies

Legal civil partnership declaration

During the civil partnership ceremony, you can choose to read, repeat or acknowledge the legal declaration below:

• I declare that I know of no legal reason why we may not register as each other’s civil partner. I understand that on signing this document we will be forming a civil partnership with each other. 

Personal civil partnership promises

After the legal declaration you can make personal promises to each other when exchanging rings or gifts. You can either write your own personal promises, or you may wish to choose one of the promises below:

• I will seek to build a strong, loving relationship based on kindness, understanding and trust that are already part of us both.
• I promise to love you in good times and bad, to cherish and care for you, to live with you in love and harmony, whatever the future may bring.
• I promise to share my life with you as an
  
  equal partner, and to ensure that our love and friendship continue to grow.
• I promise to love you above all others, to cherish and respect you throughout our lives together.

If you have chosen to write your own promises, please remember that they must not contain any religious content and will need to be pre-approved by the registrar.

Readings and poems

A selection of readings and poems that you could use in your wedding or civil partnership ceremony.

You are welcome to include any reading of your choice but they must be non-religious and must be pre-approved by the registrar.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Louis de Bernieres)

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.

And when it subsides you have to make a decision.

You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together

that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.

Because this is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness,

it is not excitement,

it is not the promulgation of eternal passion.

That is just being "in love", which any fool can do.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,

and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground,

and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches,

they find that they are one tree and not two.

Foxtrot from a Play (WH Auden) 

The soldier loves his rifle 

The scholar loves his books 

The farmer loves his horses 

The filmstar loves her looks 

There's love the whole world over 

Wherever you may be 

Some lose their rest for gay Mae West

But you're my cup of tea.

Some talk of Alexander

And some of Fred Astaire 

Some like their heroes hairy

Some like them debonair

Some prefer a curate

And some an ADC

Some like 'em tough and treat 'em rough

But you're my cup of tea.

Some are mad on Airedales

And some on Pekinese

On tabby cats or parrots

Or guinea pigs or geese

There are patients in asylums

Who think that they're a tree

I had an aunt who loved a plant

But you're my cup of tea.

Some have sagging waistlines

And some a bulbous nose

Some a floating kidney

And some have hammertoes

Some have tennis elbow

And some have housemaid's knee

And some I know have got BO

But you're my cup of tea.

The blackbird loves the earthworm

The adder loves the sun

The polar bear an iceberg

The elephant a bun

The trout enjoys the river

The whale enjoys the sea

And dogs love most an old lamppost

But you're my cup of tea.

From a Native American Indian ceremony

May the sun bring you new energy by day; 

May the moon softly restore you by night.

May the rain wash away your worries 

And the breeze blow new strength into your being, 

And all the days of your life may you walk 

Gently through the world and know its beauty. 

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. 

Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. 

Now there will be no more loneliness, 

Now you are two persons, but there is one life before you. 

Go now to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life together, 

And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Knights and Ladies (AA Milne)

There was in my old picture book

A page at which I liked to look,

Where knights and squires came riding down

The cobbles of some steep old town,

And ladies from beneath the eaves

Fluttered their bravest handkerchiefs

Or, smiling proudly, tossed down gages...

But that was in the Middle Ages

It doesn't happen now; but still

Whenever I looked up the hill

Where, dark against the green and blue

The firs came marching, two by two,

I wondered if perhaps I might

See suddenly a shining knight.

Winding his way from blue to green -

Exactly as it would have been

Those many, many years ago...

Perhaps I might.

And now I know!

Love is Giving (Anon)

Love is giving, not taking,

mending, not breaking,

trusting, believing,

never deceiving,

patiently bearing,

and faithfully sharing

each joy, every sorrow,

today and tomorrow.

Love is king, understanding,

but never demanding.

Love is constant, prevailing,

Its strength never failing.

A promise once spoken for all time unbroken,

Love's time is forever.

My Promise (Anon)

There are a thousand things

I would like to be for you

but one of the most important

is just being the someone

you can talk to.

There are so many things

I would like

to do for you

and so many things I would like

to say and give and share.

But for today

I just want you to know

that I promise

I'll always be there

and I'll always care.

My True Love (Sir Philip Sidney)

My true love hath my heart, and I have his, 

By just exchange one for another given. 

I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss; 

There never was a better bargain driven. 

My true love hath my heart and I have his. 

His heart in me keeps him and me in one, 

My heart in him, his thoughts and senses guides; 

He loves my heart, for once it was his own; 

I cherish his, because in me it bides. 

My true love hath my heart and I have his.

Native American Love Poem (The Ahwahneechee tribe who lived in Yosemite National Park)

When evening falls, I will look up and there you will be. 

I will take your hand and you'll take mine 

And we'll turn together to look at the road 

We travelled to reach 

This, the hour of our happiness. 

It stretches behind us as the future lies 

Ahead, a long and winding road 

Whose every turning means discovery. 

Old hopes, new laughter and shared tears. 

The adventure has just begun.

Romance (Robert Louis Stevenson)

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight

Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.

I will make a palace fit for you and me.

Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,

Where white flows the river and bright flows the broom.

And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white

In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,

The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!

That only I remember, that only you admire,

Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

Sonnet 75 (William Shakespeare)

So are you to my thoughts as food to life, 

Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground; 

And for the peace of you I hold such strife

As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found:

Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon

Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;

Now counting best to be with you alone,

Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure 

Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,

And by and by clean starved for a look;

Possessing or pursuing no delight

Save that is had or must from you be took,

Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,

Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

Music

You may wish to personalise your ceremony with music, which can be played at the following times during your ceremony:

• Arrival of guests
• Entrance into the ceremony room
• Signing of the legal schedule
• Depart from the ceremony room

You can choose any music you like but for civil ceremonies you cannot include hymns or any music with religious content. 

If your ceremony is taking place in a register office ceremony room, you must bring your music with you on the day, either on a CD or on a portable device, which can be connected to a Bluetooth speaker. 

If your ceremony is taking place in an approved venue, please check with the venue what facilities they have to play music for you.