Do You Know About Vows and Marital Contracts?

Most wedding ceremonies include an exchange of wedding vows between husband and wife. In some cases, couples write their wedding vows themselves and in others, the individual that is officiating over the ceremony, reads the vows and asks the couple to agree with them. Generally, each spouse will answer in agreement by saying, "I do."

Wedding vows are often derived from marriage contracts, which include all of the rights and responsibilities conferred upon marriages. However, wedding vows are just a brief example of all of those rights and responsibilities granted to the couple. Wedding vows will generally include some form of religious, legal and ethical rights and responsibilities generally associated with marriage.

However, couples actually acquire thousands of rights as a result of their marriage contract, and there is no way to cover all of them during a wedding ceremony. In addition, vows tend to include the aspect of a marriage contact that are expressions of love, rather than benefits brought to the couple.


Marriage contracts include principles such as mutual respect and responsibility. In other words, one vow generally explains that couples have agreed to treat each other with respect and to care for each other, no matter what the circumstance. Included in that vow, is generally the phrase, "for richer or poor, in sickness and in health," which means that couples are meant to care for each other in any circumstance.

That vows reiterates that their relationship is not based on any changing variable such as wealth or health. Also included under that vow, is "till death due us part," which signifies the expectation that marriage is meant to last until one spouse passes away, rather then in physical separation such as divorce. Many churches take that vow very seriously and are opposed to divorce.

Marriage contracts also include vows such as, "I will be true," which signifies that the marriage relationship is unique and that neither souse will have a similar relationship with anyone other than their spouse. Most religious marriage vows are based on mutual expectations between the church, God and the couple.

Whereas, non religious vows tend to focus more on the relationship between the couple. In either case, the marriage contract is expected to be upheld by both spouses, as they agreed to during the wedding ceremony.


In many cases, couples choose to add input into their wedding vows to make them more personal for the couple. The purpose of wedding vows is to make a public proclamation of promises found in the marriage contract. In addition, vows help couples to express their love and their agreement to enter into the marriage contract.

Vows signify the importance of their new relationship and declare it as being different form any other relationship in their life.Whether vows are unique for a couple, or general vows are used, the propose is the same. Vows help couples to proclaim their intentions for their relationship.