How short is too short for wedding vows?

Around 15 seconds is the floor, and it works if the line is genuinely yours. Below that, guests tend to read it as nerves rather than intent.

Are short vows less meaningful?

No. Length and meaning are unrelated. One specific, true sentence outperforms two minutes of general warmth, and most officiants will tell you the same.

Can we use traditional vows and add one personal line?

Yes, and it is one of the most reliable formats there is. The traditional wording carries the ceremony, and your one added sentence is what people remember.

Should both partners write short vows?

Agree on a rough length beforehand. If one set runs 20 seconds and the other runs three minutes, both sets land worse than they deserve to.

Vows/6 min read/View as Markdown

Short Wedding Vows: 20 Complete Sets Under 60 Seconds

Proof that brevity is a choice, not a shortcut.

Short vows are not lesser vows. A tight 40 seconds that says one true thing beats three minutes of accumulating adjectives, and every officiant who has sat through a few hundred ceremonies will quietly agree.

They are also the right call in specific situations: a large formal ceremony, a partner who does not want to cry in front of 120 people, a religious service where the personal section is a small window, or simple nerves.

Below are 20 complete sets. Each one is sayable in under a minute.

What short vows have to contain

One specific detail, one real promise, one clean close. Drop any of the three and it stops sounding like vows and starts sounding like a toast.

Sincere and simple

Set 1

"I choose you today, and I will choose you on the ordinary days, which is where most of a marriage actually happens. I promise to be honest, to be present, and to keep showing up. That is all I have, and it is yours."

Set 2

"You are the person I want to tell things to first. I promise to keep it that way. I promise to listen properly, apologise quickly, and never let you wonder where you stand with me."

Set 3

"I do not know what is coming. I know who I want next to me for it. I promise you my honesty, my patience when I can find it, and my willingness to go and find it when I cannot."

Set 4

"Before you, I thought love was something that happened to people. You made it a thing I do. I promise to keep doing it, every day, on purpose."

Set 5

"I promise to protect the quiet between us. I promise to fight fair. I promise to be somebody you are glad to come home to."

Warm with one light line

Set 6

"I promise to love you, to support you, and to keep pretending the plants are doing fine. On everything that matters, I will tell you the truth."

Set 7

"I promise to always take your side in public and argue with you properly in private. I promise to mean it every time I say I am sorry."

Set 8

"You are my favourite person and my worst influence. I promise to keep it that way, and to be the one holding your hand for all of it."

Set 9

"I promise to laugh at your jokes, learn your family's names, and love you on the days you are not especially lovable. Particularly then."

Traditional in feel, personal in wording

Set 10

"I take you as you are, and I promise to keep taking you as you become. In everything that is easy and everything that is not, I am yours."

Set 11

"I give you my hand, my word, and the rest of my days. I ask for nothing except that you keep telling me the truth."

Set 12

"From this day, what is mine is yours: my time, my patience, my home, and every good thing I manage to make."

Set 13

"I promise to honour you, to be faithful to you, and to build a life with you that we both recognise as ours."

Very short (under 20 seconds)

Set 14

"I love you. I choose you. I am not going anywhere."

Set 15

"You have my whole heart for my whole life."

Set 16

"I promise you honesty, patience, and every day I have."

Set 17

"Today, tomorrow, and on all the days that are nothing special: you."

Set 18

"I will be your safe place. Always."

Set 19

"I found you. I am keeping you. That is the whole vow."

Set 20

"Everything I am, for as long as I am. I promise."

How to cut a long draft down

1. Find the one line
Read your draft and mark the single sentence you would keep if you could only keep one. Everything else is now competing for space around it.
2. Delete every adjective pair
"Kind and generous", "strong and patient". Pick one word or replace the pair with an example. This usually removes a third of the draft on its own.
3. Cut the preamble
Vows almost never need a first sentence. Start at what is now your second sentence and see if anything is missing. Usually nothing is.
4. Keep three promises, not six
Six promises is a list. Three is a vow. The three you keep should be the ones you are slightly nervous about.
5. Read it aloud with a timer
Nerves speed you up on the day by about 15 percent. If it reads at 55 seconds calmly, you will deliver it in about 50.

The mistakes that sink it

✕Cutting the specific detail and keeping the generic promises. It should be the other way around.
✕Going short because you ran out of time, then sounding like it. Short vows need more editing than long ones, not less.
✕Matching your partner's length to the second. Close is fine. Identical is odd.
✕Speeding up because it feels short while you are saying it. It does not feel short to anybody listening.

Reading about it is the easy part

The Vow Writer asks you six questions about your actual relationship, then drafts vows in your own words. Free preview, no signup.

Write my vows

Questions people actually ask

How short is too short for wedding vows?: Around 15 seconds is the floor, and it works if the line is genuinely yours. Below that, guests tend to read it as nerves rather than intent.
Are short vows less meaningful?: No. Length and meaning are unrelated. One specific, true sentence outperforms two minutes of general warmth, and most officiants will tell you the same.
Can we use traditional vows and add one personal line?: Yes, and it is one of the most reliable formats there is. The traditional wording carries the ceremony, and your one added sentence is what people remember.
Should both partners write short vows?: Agree on a rough length beforehand. If one set runs 20 seconds and the other runs three minutes, both sets land worse than they deserve to.

Go deeper

Wedding Vows: the full guide