Reviews (8)

A comprehensive guide to writing your own wedding vows.
This book offers a lot despite its size.There is plenty of advice on how to write your own wedding vows.The book gives you a lot to think about that helps you write your own personalised vows.This book contains many poems and thoughts so you can choose the words that express how you feel for your loved one.The book caters for everyone and it does so very sensibly without offending anyone.The book is one of the best books I've read and has so much to offer.I highly recommend it.For the price alone its a good value.Makes an ideal gift.If you dont want to buy several books you should consider this book.

very very helpful
I am a newly ordained minister.With this book I was able to help the couple that i wedded, by putting together vows, and a perfect ceremony.It was easy to read.It had all kinds of helpful advice and it helped me build beautiful vows for this couple.This book will be my refrence to putting together other weddings. It is a great book for a person who is only going to use it once or many times.
great book
I like the format, Ilile the way it flows great job , easy to understand and to follow. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Etiquette    2. Family & Relationships    3. Family/Marriage    4. Marriage    5. Marriage service    6. Reference    7. Weddings    8. Usage guides   

Editorial Review

When planning for the big day, it's very easy to get caught up in beaded white dresses, boutonnieres, and how many platters of mini crab cakes to order, but the most important part of the wedding is the most-often overlooked--the ceremony itself. A wedding ceremony can vary hugely depending on the religious (or not) beliefs of the couple, their cultural backgrounds, and their personal preferences. Read more

Reviews (17)

A must for religious weddings
If you are planning a religious ceremony for your wedding, this book is a must for your collection. It was helpful when writing the ceremony program. Although we chose not to write our own vows, it helped me with ideas for what I wanted to say at the rehearsal dinner. It includes ideas for all different religions and how each ceremony usually takes place. It gives ideas on how to include personal touches for your wedding. I found this book very helpful and am happy to pass it on to my newly engaged cousin.

Not Helpful for Us
This book is full of information, but none of it hit home for us.We came away with only one idea that we are actually going to use and found many of the sayings and toasts to be very cheesy.

Helpful
I'm not the kind of person who has planned her wedding since she was six years old.My family is not religious, we do not have our own traditions, and I really had no idea what I wanted to do for my ceremony.
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Subjects:  1. Marriage customs and rites    2. Reference    3. Wedding etiquette    4. Weddings    5. Reference / Weddings   

Reviews (20)

Excellent guide for writing your own personal, meaningful ceremony
Ms. Kingma gives engaged couples excellent advice and options over the traditional ceremonies. She includes examples for divorced couples, couples with children, couples who want to honor other family members and friends, even couples who have been through abuse and addictions to find love. Also given are wedding traditions and readings from around the world that brides and grooms can incorporate into their personally tailored ceremony.
More than words can say ... Kingma is king of vows!
I plan to elope and have never wanted to say the standard religious vows from my Roman Catholic childhood. Kingma is a master of words. Capturing love is not easy. Saying the most with the least is the magic. Bring illumination into your personal ceremony with Daphne's wisdom. Better yet, consider having her as your marriage officiant.

Okay, depending on what you want
Most of this book was irrelevant for what I wanted. I was looking for a source for religiously-oriented vows, prayers, and blessings which I could use to create an ecumenical wedding service.This book DOES have a section of such things --and I did find it useful for comparison purposes-- but the main emphasis is on contemporary vows, addresses, etc., most of which seemed just too fluffy for me. If you do want very emotionally-laden, "unique to you" and non-traditional wedding, go for this. If you seriously want to compare weddings from different Judeo-Christian traditions, I highly recommend _Weddings: A Complete Guide to All Religious and Interfaith Marriage Services_ instead. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Marriage customs and rites    2. Marriage service    3. Reference    4. United States    5. Weddings   

Reviews (2)

Well worth the $3...and then some
Together for Life really helps you to pull your Catholic wedding ceremony together. It's well laid out and provides easy instructions on how to plan your liturgy and which verses to choose. I wish it would offer a little more information on optional parts of the ceremony (i.e. candle lighting, Mary offering) but that is the only minor issue I could find. Good to get multiple copies - one for bride and one for groom.

Great help for planning a Catholic Wedding
I have borrowed this book from friends to look at and now have one from my church as I plan my wedding. The one I have I can't keep so I decided to get my own copy! I love the information and readings in it and the"comments for couples" are great to read with your future spouseto discuss things. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Catholic Church    2. Christianity - Christian Life - General    3. Christianity - Christian Life - Marriage    4. Inspirational - Catholic    5. Liturgy    6. Marriage    7. Marriage service    8. Religion    9. Religion - Classic Works    10. Texts    11. Religion & Beliefs   

Reviews (9)

Dated like her picture on the cover - Avoid
I bought this at a garage sale for $2.00.Our neighbor's daughter was getting married but the book was not very good.The ideas are very dated.If you want to plan a 1970s style wedding and want to spend a lot of money for a picture of Martha when she was young and not grossly overweight than this is your book.

Martha Stewart Weddings
I was very disappointed with this particular book. I was looking forward to a book with many wedding ideas, however, this book is less of ideas and more on weddings meanings and tradition. The ideas it does share are very out-of-date.

French readers will love it.
Gaby deLourdes-Renoir reviews(a Top-10 Amazon.com reviewer) made us love Martha Steward books. "Wedding" is full of extraordinary pictures. You just dream you were there! Will your daughter ever know suchbeautiful moments? Martha Steward helps you to think "yes" as ananswer. Just because she explains you how to cut into small pieces a huge"wedding-cake" (the wedding party you will have to organize).Chapters are divided into specific subjects that can easily be handled byone specific responsible in your family. In the "lightning"chapter, you will discover through artistic (and useful) pictures how tocreate a cheap impressive range of lights in the garden with yellow paperbags and ordinary candles. All chapters include bright ideas for beautifulpeople (like you and me...). I love books that make me feel "I can doit". Especially when they show me beautiful people a a help in theidentification process. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Family/Marriage    2. Marriage service    3. Planning    4. Reference    5. United States    6. Wedding etiquette    7. Weddings    8. Reference / Weddings   

Reviews (11)

Succinct & Meaningful
Although my husband and I had been confident about our ability to express our most intimate thoughts as vows, we lacked a structure in which to fit them so that both we and our guests felt secure.With 10 days to go before our wedding, our life with 5 pre-teens/ teens was leaving us little time to prepare these most precious words.Discovering Promises to Keep on the web was a godsend.Unfortunately unavailable in Canada, the book was sent at lightning speed from the U.S.We felt immediately at ease:the book's accessible ideas, size, layout, and even font size gave us peace and the direction we needed.Our own ideas now made sense within a framework.The rituals we crafted were unique to us and our setting (a remote lake).Our vows and rituals reached out to our guests (our "community" from whom we asked support) who not only felt included and comfortable, but who felt blessed to have been part of our ceremony.A couple who do marriage counselling (and advise other counsellors) had never experienced such a meaningful exchange of vows or rituals involving guests.They and others felt compelled to tell us repeatedly how different and wonderful our ceremony was.Even our kids thought it was great!Note: We did not find an exaggerated emphasis in the book on same-sex unions.Although there are references to these alternative lifestyles, we were easily able to accept or look past them based on the quality of the idea rather than their orientation.Along with our vows, we will keep the book to refer back to in years to come.

We LOVED this book!
My fiance and I practically wore this book out in the weeks before the ceremony! We were determined to make the ceremony itself the center of the day and this book really helped us clarify our thoughts on what we wanted to promise each other. I looked at a lot of books, but this one was the only one that gave us the help we needed. Can't recommend it highly enough!

New Age Spiritualist Point of View
I was disappointed in this book, as I did not understand from the reviews that this book had such a New Age kind of slant.It talks of inviting "Spirit", not The Holy Spirit or God or Father or even The Spirit.It spends a lot of time on relationships that "other's might not approve of" - lesbian/gay relationships or previous spouses or children.This would be helpful to those who need it, but it's another part of the book (very slim) to skim if not.It does have a few pages of slightly interesting stuff for what you want your minister/officient to say; and it does ask a few pages of somewhat interesting questions to help write your vows.But none of it is very original or different, other than it's PC correct point of view, and the book itself wasn't but a few chapters long.If you like Kahlil Gibran, and want your wedding ceremony and vows to reflect this kind of view - you will probably like this book.If you want something that has a more Judeo/Christian base - you will want to look elsewhere.Out of all the wedding books to choose from - and the limited amount of money to spend - I felt this book to be very slim physically and substantively. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Handbooks, manuals, etc    2. Marriage customs and rites    3. Marriage service    4. Planning    5. Reference    6. Reference / Weddings    7. Weddings    8. Vows    9. Wedding etiquette   

Reviews (6)

not all that great
too much junk
For the couple who can plan a wedding without a planner
I'm getting married in about ten weeks, and I just bought this book yesterday.I went to a bookstore (sorry, Amazon) and looked through dozens of 'wedding vow books', and found them all schmaltzy and trite."Words for Your Wedding" is what most of the others are not -- simple, inexpensive, and completely lacking in advertisements being passed off as advice.The authors identify the most common parts of the service, and then give you alternative wordings from various Christian denominations (there is a short section on Jewish weddings in the back).This book clearly isn't for everyone, but I would absolutely recommend it for couples who are focusing on their marriage rather than their wedding.

Words for your Wedding
We have used this book for some years now to assist the couples we marry in sorting their vows. Of the several books we have for this purpose, as Officiants of Christian marriages, this book has been the most helpful - for us & the couples as they choose their special words. Rather than choosing all the words a particular denomination uses, the couples have taken words from the different ones to say what best expresses them. We recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Christianity - General    2. Marriage customs and rites    3. Marriage service    4. Reference    5. Texts    6. Weddings    7. Christian liturgy, prayerbooks & hymnals    8. Reference / Weddings   

Editorial Review

If you're planning a wedding, accept it now--there's a ton of details mucking up the happy path to the altar. There is so much on your mind that it's easy to freeze up and forget everything, or go crazy and paper the house with cryptic post-it notes. "After all," say authors Marcy Blum and Laura Fisher Kaiser, "a wedding is a complex affair to orchestrate, and keeping track of all those details, phone calls, expenses, and decisions is a job and a half." Organization is key.Read more

Reviews (16)

Almost requires the other book
I thought Wedding Kit For Dummies would be Weddings for Dummies plus the CD, it's not.It actually references stuff that's in the other book as if I'm going to buy both.
HONOST
The book I purchased was no in the condition which it stated and this seller was very honest about it. The seller gave me the option to have a full refund since the book did not come with the CD. I'd buy from this person again.

BUYER BEWARE
The CD doesn't include the software that it says it does.You have to hunt in the book to find the information that the software included is TRIAL versions only (you can get full versions for a "nominal" fee).It says it includes excel and excel documents which are simply NOT present on the CD.DO NOT BUY! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Customs & Traditions    2. Family & Relationships    3. Family Relationships    4. Family/Marriage    5. Manners And Customs    6. Marriage    7. Marriage service    8. Planning    9. Reference    10. Wedding etiquette    11. Weddings    12. Reference / Weddings    13. Self-Help & Practical Interests   

Reviews (5)

Unique!
Are you looking for a special blessing for a wedding?Chances are good you will find something that is perfect right here in this book. In the book, WEDDING BLESSINGS by June Cotner, you'll find page after page of unique blessings to add a special touch to your occasion. I've included numerous derivatives of what I've found in this book in many of the weddings I have performed.
Excellent!
This book is great!! There are so many beautiful poems and quotes in here. There are a few very well known and many that are very different. Very highly recommended!!

A Gem of a Book
Wedding Blessings is a lovely book to give or own. I bought it looking for readings to use for my wedding and found much more. A beautiful volume of verse that will soften even the hardest of hearts and move you emotionally. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Prayers    2. Reference    3. Sociology    4. Vows    5. Weddings    6. Reference / Weddings   

Reviews (15)

Traditional Vows
This book offers many "traditional vows". And choices from all types of faiths (most are Christian).Readings are also traditional. I would have liked to have seen more choices in all faiths.

Not Just Because My Vows are in this Book....
Diane Warner did a wonderful job compiling all different and personal wedding vows to help couples planning their weddings. The reader will find a varied and very diverse listing of vows and promises that will bring beautiful memories to any wedding. This book even includes vows for combining families and bringing children into the marriage from previous relationships. If this is your first wedding or your 7th, no doubt you will find something you can borrow from this book.

Compare first
I compared a few wedding vow books and although I thank all the authors for their efforts, the one I found the most useful, comprehensive, progressive in thinking, and with a generous mix of both spiritual and secular vows is "With These Words...I Thee Wed". Guess that's why it's been around the longest. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Family & Relationships    2. Family/Marriage    3. Love / Sex / Marriage    4. Marriage    5. Marriage service    6. Weddings   

Reviews (13)

Don't Waste Your Money!!Buy 2 Knot books Instead!!
When I read the first few pages of this book on Amazon, it peaked my interested enough to buy it.But upon receipt when I had the chance to read through it more thoroughly I found that there was NOTHING interesting or even remotely useful in this book.It has all the traditional vow stuff (even though in the introduction it touts the whole untraditional-wedding horn) and then wierd things like Druid weddings.All the vows included in this book sound similar to one another.Nothing stuck out as being especially interesting.
Good starting point, but you'll need other references
This book is a good starting point for ideas for an alternative wedding, but you'll end up needing other references to flesh out your planning.I bought this and read it only once; I wish I had just checked it out of the library instead.
Helpful, but Chock full of Errors
While the general idea of this book was invaluable - I used it to help plan my own "alternative" wedding - the number of obvious errors in the book became a bit tedious after a while. Read more

Subjects:  1. Marriage customs and rites    2. Marriage service    3. Reference    4. Weddings   

Subjects:  1. Christianity - Ritual & Practice    2. Funeral service    3. General    4. Handbooks, manuals, etc    5. Marriage service    6. Occasional services    7. Preaching    8. Religion    9. Religion - Worship - Preaching    10. Religion / Preaching   

Reviews (2)

Wedding Ministry
This book has a good look at the contemporary wedding services for the new Pastor.
Helpful material!
Jim Henry's "Wedding Manual" was most helpful to me personally. I recently officiated over my first wedding and needed ideas of how to do what "those preachers" did for weddings. Read more

Subjects:  1. Christianity - Church Administration - General    2. Christianity - General    3. Handbooks, manuals, etc    4. Marriage service    5. Religion - Ministry & Pastoral Resources    6. Weddings   

Reviews (6)

The only Vows I'll use!
I started reading The CWG series years ago and I can not tell you how it has helped me to change and become an all around better person.While I was reading the 1st book in the series I was a little hesitant, but as a read and Neale and God were talking, and God answered Neales questions I was AMAZED!I have asked God so many of the same questions, and they have all been answered the exact same way!And now the more people I talk to about the CWG series the more I hear the same from them, it is amazing!These books are based on Gods love for all of us, and the wedding vows are perfect they simply state we are equals and we shall treat eachother as such, just as God does and always will.We promise to accept one another as we are and to always Love eachother Unconditionally-Forever! Perfect, simple and to the point.If you haven't already read the vows do so, you'll be happy you did.

Not conversing with God in this book
If you have stumbled on this book as I did and are a Christian looking for spiritual content for your wedding, RUN! This book is not about conversing with God but instead about conversations with gods of each man's purpose.I didn't know better when I picked this book off the shelf and was confused and disturbed by the content.I am not of this world but of the heavenly realm, and this sickeningly worldly, new-age dribble left me quite queasy.It's one thing to name a book The Wedding Vows of the New Age Movement.But they aren't conversing with God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit in this one.Let me warn those of you who want to know Jesus the Author of Truth so you do not fall prey to this deceptive teaching.

The Wedding Vows from Conversations With God
The Wedding Vows from Conversations With God is a beautiful little book, both in appearance and content.The two red roses on the cover and repeated throughout the book symbolize the Ceremony of Roses, an integral part of the wedding ceremony.Neale Donald Walsch and Nancy Fleming-Walsch have shared their thoughts on love and marriage as well as the vows they wrote for their wedding.Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternate Spirituality    2. Christianity    3. Family & Relationships    4. Family/Marriage    5. Marriage    6. Religious aspects    7. Spirituality - General    8. Vows    9. Weddings    10. Mind, body, spirit: disciplines & techniques    11. Occultism & quasi-religious beliefs    12. Spirituality   

Reviews (2)

We were lucky to find this book...
My husband and I were married last year.His family is Jewish and mine is Methodist.We were having a hard time finding a ceremony that would honor both cultures without having either (a) no mention of Christ or (b) "Christ" uttered every third word.Our minister recommended this book.
Good Sourcebook
As a Minister, I find this book, CHRISTIAN WEDDINGS by Andy Lankford, to be a wonderful little sourcebook. I am a non-denominational Christian and as such, I receive requests to officiate all different types of Christian ceremonies. This book gives examples of variations from numerous different denominations.
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Subjects:  1. Christianity - Education - General    2. Christianity - Ritual & Practice    3. Marriage service    4. Religion    5. Religion - Worship - Liturgy    6. Weddings    7. Christian liturgy, prayerbooks & hymnals    8. Christian religious instruction    9. Christian rites & ceremonies   

Reviews (2)

Wedding Vows 101.
There is a great deal of information available for anyone who is planning their own wedding. As a wedding Officiant, I can tell you, people often invest thousands of dollars in their weddings, but typically spend very little time planning their vows, or leave it entirely up to someone like me to write the vows for them, and that's fine. That's part of what people pay us to do. But the truth is, a minister doesn't know the bride and groom as well as they know themselves. Sometimes you get lucky. You run across a couple who will open their hearts and tell their stories in minute detail, giving you plenty to work with, but that is seldom the case.
How you say "I Do" - a great help in planning your wedding!
This book is a MUST-BUY if you're a Christian couple planning your wedding!H. Norman Wright has written many books on marriage, but this one is unique.Read more

Subjects:  1. Christianity - Christian Life - General    2. Christianity - Christian Life - Marriage    3. Family & Relationships    4. Family/Marriage    5. Marriage    6. Religion - Marriage & Family    7. Weddings    8. Family & Health   

Reviews (4)

It has tons of Readings for your wedding day!
From Shakespeare to Sleepless in Seattle, this is one of the best weddding vow books I have read.It offers many reading to choose from. Creating a day that will be unique to the couple getting married, and choosing their own vows.

A mixed resource
Lots of quotations in this book -- many too short or of dubious distinction to include in a wedding ceremony (do you really want to quote a TV or movie character in your wedding?? I don't).The material unique to this volume seemed as if it would be much more useful as humorous or thoughtful snippets to use in the wedding program or toasts. The poetry and short readings are largely selections that you can find elsewhere (many of them the usual suspects), so the real contribution of this book is in the more popular cultural references mentioned above, if your sensibility tends that way. From Romantic to Raucous...
After I read a lot of these type of books in preparation for my own wedding, I selected this one because of its wide range of time periods, subjects, and types of quotes and selections. Words for the Wedding is perfect if you're interested in a good read with lots of fun, inspiring, or romantic shorter selections for incorporating into other places such as programs, favors, personal vows and toasts. I will admit though, that I did not like many of the longer pieces as much as the shorter ones. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Family & Relationships    2. Love    3. Marriage    4. Marriage service    5. Quotations, maxims, etc    6. Reference    7. Wedding etiquette    8. Weddings    9. Family & Relationships / Marriage   

Reviews (1)

Better than most.
It's difficult to recommend one book of wedding vows over the dozens of others, as, for the most part, they contain primarily, the same material. It's sort of an "If you've read one, you've read them all" scenario. However, Diane Warner has certainly established herself as one of the most prolific writers in the wedding genre, and I believe also, one of the best.
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Subjects:  1. Cooking / Wine    2. Entertaining - Party Planning    3. General    4. Marriage    5. Marriage service    6. New Age    7. Reference    8. Weddings   

Reviews (11)

This book is a gem.
I bought this book originally when it was first published, intending to give it as a gift but started reading it and I've had it ever since.Wise choice.I enjoyed this book.This book will please those who want something unique.Something different.Something personalised that expresses their love for each,forever.I found this book easy to read.Having a copy of a basic wedding vowels to compare to I found so many beautiful ways to say it differently.I was very impressed with this book.If you can find a copy grab it.This book is a gem.

Good start...
I found this book to be a good start in writing own vows... or some sentences from the book can be combined to create a new vow. Probably this is what we are going to do with my fiance. I didn't finda ny particular vow that applys to any of us, however I found a couple very beatiful ones that made me cry :)

Good information, but poor organization makes it hard to use
This book is specifically for couples wanting to write their wedding vows, whether by borrowing the words of others or using their own.There are separate chapters for secular versus religious vows, and there are also shorter chapters addressing special topics/situations such as uniting as individuals and special settings.Finally, the author offers a questionnaire to guide you in writing your own vows from scratch.Read more

Subjects:  1. Family/Marriage    2. Marriage customs and rites    3. Marriage service    4. Reference    5. Weddings   

Subjects:  1. Catholic Church    2. Christianity - Christian Life - Marriage    3. Christianity - Ritual & Practice    4. Inspirational - Catholic    5. Marriage    6. Marriage service    7. Miscellanea    8. Religion    9. Religion - Classic Works    10. Religious aspects    11. Sociology - Marriage & Family    12. Christian sacraments    13. Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church