Vows

“Blah, blah blah. I do.”

“Blah blah blah. I do.”

“I now pronounce you man and wife.”

(A man is pronounced two things in his life: married and dead.)

Your vows are a public statement that you intend to marry each other. Then, your officiant tells you that you’re married.

So, Intention and Pronouncement.

The legal details are that the officiant has to be legally able to officiate weddings, the happy couple has a valid marriage license and (usually) the officiant makes sure the license is signed, witnessed and returned to the civic authority in charge of marriages (county clerk, probably.)

The vows are your chance to explain to each other what you are putting in the relationship and what you expect to take out. (My wife had in the vows that I was responsible for killing bugs.)

My advice? Keep it simple. You don’t need to list everything. You don’t need to thank your entire family tree for getting you to this point. Just say why you are willing to spend the rest of your life with one person, and then mention that the person is standing next to you.