Don Lipper - The Everything Wedding Vows Book: How to personalize the most important promise youll ever make

THE
EVERYTHING
series Dear Reader,
Growing up, we never thought wed need to write our own mar riage vows. We each assumed we would either marry someone from our own belief system (Episcopalian and Star Trek), or whoever we fell in love with would be so craz y about us that theyd forget their own silly ideas and get with the program. Needless to say, Plan A fell through pretty quickly. We are two independent minds who needed to bend a bit. We finally did reach a compromise with the help of our clergyperson and our own bouts of soul-searching, but it wasnt always easy to embrace new ideas and let the old dreams die. We hope that you will find in this book the ideas and inspiration you need to write the kinds of vows that represent your own unique relationship and love for each other, and that will help sustain you through the occasional rough patches ahead.

Happy Writing! The EVERYTHING Series These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten. You can read from cover to cover or just pick out information from our four useful boxes. Alerts: Urgent warnings Essentials: Quick handy tips Facts: Important snippets of information Questions: Answers to common questions When youre done reading, you can finally
say you know EVERYTHING! PUBLISHER Karen Cooper DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITIONS AND INNOVATION Paula Munier MANAGING EDITOR,everything series Lisa Laing COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Katie McDonough ASSOCIATE DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Elizabeth Kassab EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Hillary Thompson Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com THE
EVERYTHINGWEDDING
VOWS BOOK
3rd EDITION How to personalize the most
important promise youll ever make
Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn
Copyright 2009 by F+W Media, Inc.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be
reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher;
exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews. An Everything Series Book.
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trademarks of F+W Media, Inc. Published by Adams Media, an F+W Media Company
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com ISBN 10: 1-59869-861-3
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-861-9
eISBN: 978-1-59869-861-9 Printed in Canada.

J I H G F E D C B A Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the publisher.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.Visit the entire Everythingseries at www.everything.comContentsTop Ten Sources of Inspiration for Writing Your Own Wedding Vows 1. This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.Visit the entire Everythingseries at www.everything.comContentsTop Ten Sources of Inspiration for Writing Your Own Wedding Vows 1.

The right music can be the perfect tool to get your head into the right writing place. While screenwriter Richard Curtis was working on Love Actually, he listened to Mariah Carey singing All I Want for Christmas Is You so often that he finally included it in the movie. 2. A witty romantic book with the requisite happy ending like Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre can get the vow-writing juices flowing. 3. Plan a unique day with your fianc.

Spending the day together will help you focus on why youre getting married. 4. Ask your parents and prospective in-laws about their courtships and marriages. 5. Do some volunteer work. 6. 6.

Go someplace new. Go to that trade show in a part of the country youve never visited before and take an extra day to go sightseeing, or take a three-day (solo) cruise to go whale watching down Baja California. 7. Take a young person to an amusement park or an old person out to lunch. Youll walk away seeing the world through entirely different eyes. 8.

Reread old diary entries to see how your ideas about romance and what constitutes the perfect mate have evolved. 9. Meditate. Scientists have discovered that when people stop actively thinking about something, they are more prone to having the Eureka! moment they have been searching for. 10. Every family has a self-appointed historian.

Ask yours about some of the more interesting tales of romance and couple-hood in your family tree. Introduction First of all, why not write your own vows? Pessimists say that we often want to find a custom fit in an off-the-rack world. But when it comes to your wedding, shouldnt your vows be as unique as your love? Lets face it, every part of the modern wedding is a personal decision, and one size does not fit all. Every wedding is different, so why shouldnt the vows be as well? There are many reasons why the traditional service might not fit your needs, but you dont need an excuse. Creating your own wedding vows has become part of the mainstream. In some circles it is almost expected.

In the last fifty years, more and more couples have opted for unique weddings that include wholly created or modified traditional vows. Whichever approach you prefer, this book has got you covered. If you just want to tweak the traditional vows, theyre right here. If you want to look at traditional vows from other cultures for inspiration, theyre here too. If the prospect of writing your vows makes you sweat, dont worry. Weve got you covered.

Writing your own wedding vows is easyif you know how. There are a lot of myths about how hard it is to write. Sportswriter Red Smith famously said, Writing is easy. I just sit down at the typewriter, cut open a vein, and bleed. Such imagery can strike terror in the calmest of minds. With a wedding date breathing down your neck, writing vows looks like a bullet youd be smart to dodge.

But theres a secret you dont know. Writing your vows will be fun. Wedding planning requires a great deal of time, energy, and stress. Can you really add writing your own vows to this ever-expanding list of to-dos without exploding? Yes, you can. Writing your vows is kitten-play and this book will show you how to enjoy the process. Writing your vows isnt a homework assignment.