Okay, so I am crafting wedding vows... of sorts. The long and short of it is that I want there to be a string of questions the man who is giving the bride away (a family member) asks of the groom, before he completes the ceremony.
However, I'm a bit stuck, go figure... So, I want help.

The vows for the man (which are not vows like we are accustomed to) open up like so:

_____, son of _____(can't give names because of Betas who may be reading), as he who has the authority to place the life and love of this woman in your hands, do you swear to me that you will ...

And it ends with:

...till death may unbind you.


For the woman, the vows open up like so:

______, daughter of ______, as he who has the authority to place your life and love in this man’s hands, do you swear to me that you will...

And ends the way the man's does.

So, here are my basic thoughts. For the man, he will swear such things as protecting her, taking responsibility for her actions, and so forth. For the woman, she will swear such things as standing by him, being his councilor and support, and so forth.

I'm trying to figure out a natural progression for these questions, and how many questions I want to add. Which ones are most important? Those are all things I'm trying to figure out...

So, help?

*has never thought of writing character wedding vows before*

I think I would go about writing it as 'legalistic free-verse poetry'...Because wedding vows are poetry, no matter how they are said or who says them.

If I were writing marriage vows for a character I would start with something along the lines of never leaving your spouse, adding several examples and making sure to state the extremes that might occur, for a pledge of faithfulness--because that, I believe, is the most important. After that would come protection and support at all costs to self. Followed by the more daily typical things such as support of decisions and leadership.

I'd have to sit and think very carefully about how exactly I wanted such vows worded, however.

Hmm.
I know nothing of marriage vows.
A natural progression...makes me think of maybe each starting with the big picture sort of vows, and working down to more specific ones, that sort of zoom in on the implications of such a relationship...*doesn't know where this would go, really, or if it's any use at all, so just drops it there as a brainstorming device*

Also, both need to be prepared to die to themselves for the sake of their other half (though I believe the groom should lead the way in this, doing all he can to provide for his wife's well-being. If she has to sacrifice her dreams for his simply because he does whatever he wants, something is very wrong).

I'm afraid I can't really be of any more help, I hope these thoughts are in some way helpful.

Be still mine over-active mind.



I love the idea of a purposed structure to them, flowing from one subject to the next in logical progression. Also, there could be parallels between the man's vows and the wife's vows.

As for the progression... it would depend on your culture, honestly.
Depending on the culture you could place the "least important" at the beginning and work towards "most important", do the opposite, or even go the Hebraic poetry route and use a chiastic structure.

As for sections of the progression.... One option could be to go from(1) vows that relate to a man and wife's function in society, to (2) vows that relate to a man and wife's function apart I don't know... I'm kinda grasping at straws here xD), and then to (3) vows that relate to a man and wife's function together as a whole.
Or you could switch out one of those sections for "vows that relate to man and wife's function in regards to immediate family", or even "vows that relate to man and wife's function in regards to the king/kingdom/etc". The options available to you are vast, but will probably be restricted most by whatever principles/themes you most want to stress and your people's culture.

Thanks, guys! Today I feel more confident about writing out the vows, so I hope to get them done today.... maybe.

I am going to take all of your comments and try and figure out what I want to do.

And now I'm glad I didn't give away too much info, since one of my Betas ended up commenting in here.