Emotional Wedding Vows Guaranteed To Make You Cry

A wedding day is often an emotional time for both the bride and groom, as well as the family and friends who were invited to witness their love. And, while many people can't wait to get to the reception for dinner and dancing, there are some weddings where the ceremony takes center stage. The ceremony is, after all, the reason why the wedding is happening in the first place. 

"As an officiant, I realize that the ceremony is the foundation, the reason for the day and for the couple's future together," says Rev. Liz Grimes of All Faiths Wedding Officiants of the Triad. The most important piece of the ceremony? Grimes says it's when the couples recite their vows. "Vows are the promises they are making to one another for their life together going forward from the wedding day," says Grimes. "Couples who write their own vows... are making promises to one another based on those things that are important to them."  

It's not just showing each other how much love they have for one another, but showing all of their loved ones, too. "Having the vows central to the ceremony is the way couples let their loved ones — families and friends — know how they intend to move forward in their marriage," says Grimes. The videos below are proof that vows are a sacred and emotional commitment, and will show that you don't even need to know the couple for their words to touch your heart.

In this wedding video, the couple have their special day documented from the time the pair get ready in the morning and all through their wedding reception. But the moment that is most striking is when the couple recite their handwritten vows to each other. 

An especially powerful highlight is when the bride talks about her initial thoughts of marriage, and how her groom had changed that. "We both know that in the area of marriage, I used to come from doubt. Now, I come from hope," the bride said. "I used to come from fear, and now I come from love."

There's something magical about witnessing a groom who tears up seeing his bride for the first time in her wedding dress. And, when the bride continues to make her groom tear up throughout her wedding vows, you know that these two simply can't contain their joy in knowing that they'll be spending the rest of their lives together. 

In this video, the groom made it through his beautiful vows, but it was his bride's words that reduced him to tears. She said, "Wyatt, I believe in you, the person you will grow to be, and the couple we will be together. With my whole heart, I take you as my husband, acknowledging and accepting your faults and strengths as you do mine," and finishes her vows by telling her groom, "You are my person, my love and my life, today and always." Let's face it: those words could reduce anyone to tears!

While it's technically not his wedding vows, the groom in this video did something completely unique and memorable. As the bride entered the church and walked down the aisle, the groom started to speak to their guests. He said, "Gather round one and all, and join me in my rejoicing, as the lover of my soul approaches, behold. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, indeed, this is the queen of me." 

You can see the bride trying to hold it together as she approaches her groom, but as she gets closer, a bridesmaid comes to bring her a tissue to wipe the tears from her face. This handwritten poem is something that the bride will treasure for the rest of her life.

When you lose someone you love, it's devastating — especially if it means that person will miss very important moments in your life. This groom decided to weave the loss of the bride's grandmother into his vows, and the result is tear-jerking: "A few years ago, I finally got you to move in with me. Shortly after, your grandma got sick. I watched you love her, protect her, learn from her, laugh with her and care deeper than I've ever seen anyone care before," the groom said to his bride. 

He continued, saying, "You show this ferocious love for your family that I didn't know could exist. In such a difficult time, it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I vow that I will bring that kind of love to you and our family." To mark such a special part of your life by incorporating your partner's love for their family is such a beautiful and meaningful way to commemorate the people you have loved and lost.

Every wedding is beautiful in its own way, but when you see a bride and groom getting married under the Tuscan sun, it adds a different layer of romance to the experience. This bride and groom had written vows that were so personal and so sincere that they had even their bridal party in tears. 

The groom started off by telling his bride, "seeing you smile is one of the greatest joys in my life," and continued on to say, "I promise I'll do everything possible to always keep you smiling, and fill our lives with as much laughter and joy as possible, with as little sadness as possible." The bride told her groom, "I promise to spend my days making every effort to deserve you."

When you have a couple that both resist the urge to cry during their vows, it's evident just how strongly they feel for one another. Both were fighting back tears of their own while reciting their beautiful vows, and it's clear why. 

The bride told her groom, "You are mine. My puzzle piece. Even after just meeting you, I felt like I'd known you my whole life, and now I get to know you forever, as your wife and your best friend." The groom emotionally told his bride, "I've never laughed so hard, smiled so much, and felt so confident with you by my side. As your husband, I promise to be by your side until I take my last breath." Both the bride and groom held such emotion in their words.

It's always a treat to see a couple have fun with their wedding vows. This couple's vows are a balance of emotional and funny, and show that their relationship is one that they never take too seriously. The bride started out telling her groom, "Your love is the kind that is not easily won, but once it is, it is the most generous of all." She then added personal bits about their relationship, telling her groom that she will always promise "to panic at the sight of bugs and call for your help," and "to sneak in hugs when you are brushing your teeth." 

The groom didn't hold back the humor, either. He started by telling his bride, "Today is the most exciting day of my life, even more so than when I finished grad school." But he makes sure to add something sweet into his vows, too, saying, "We will have good times together. Yes, we will have bad times together, but the point is that we'll have them together."

Hearing a groom talk about how important his bride is to him is always heartwarming and sweet — but hearing him declare his undoubted love for her is simply beautiful. This groom's vows to his bride are so powerful, and you can hear the emotion in his voice when he recites them. 

He said, "I promise to continually inspire you as you have always inspired me....  I vow to you my eternal loyalty and heart, for you are the only woman I'll ever need." You can tell from the video that the bride's heart is clearly so full of love for her groom — truly touched by her now-husband's loving vows.

Sometimes true love is when two people can think so alike, it's uncanny — like buying the same card for each other, or somehow saying what the other is thinking. This couple's vows hit on key points of their relationship, and even sound similar! 

The bride told her groom, "I love that you think I'm funny, because everything I do is to make you laugh." The groom's vows were strikingly similar, saying, "You're funny, possessing the ability to make me laugh the way no one else can." It's almost as if they knew what the other was going to say when dedicating themselves to each other!

There are some vows that make a permanent mark on your heart — even if you're not the bride or the groom. This bride's vows to her groom are so deep and poetic that her groom didn't even wait for her to start reciting before tearing up! But her vows — written in the form of slam poetry — talk about her struggle with pain and the ability to let her groom inside her heart, and how she's not what you'd consider your "average girl". 

She spoke this powerful words to her groom: "I choke on soft words, like "want" and "need". I hate flowers, red boxes of unpredictable strange-textured chocolate, balloons that take months to die, and everything-Valentine's Day," she said. 

She continued on about how, even though she is unlike most women, somehow, her groom managed to make her fall head-over-heels in love anyway: "While climbing the attractive Mount Everest of your mind, I attempted to hike a little higher to take a peek at your soul. I lost my footing on that trail... and there is where I fell in love." You have to listen to this from start to finish — the result will give you absolute chills.