Free, and blank on purpose
A wedding ceremony script template you can fill in
A wedding ceremony script template is a complete ceremony with the personal details left as blanks: every word the officiant says, in order, with a bracket everywhere a name, a story, or a state goes. The one on this page runs about 22 minutes from processional to recessional, and it is free to use.
Square brackets are the parts only you can write. Names, how they met, the one true thing you have watched happen between them. They are left empty on purpose — a sample script populated with an invented couple teaches you to read invented things aloud, and the people in the seats can tell.
Anything in mono, inside brackets, is a direction and is never said out loud. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Reading a stage direction aloud in front of two hundred people is a specific kind of moment, and the whole layout below exists to stop it.
If you would rather read a finished one first — the same shape of ceremony with every bracket already filled, for a couple we invented — the complete example is here.
The template
[ Stand at the front, slightly to one side, so you are not in the aisle photograph. Hands loose. Wait — do not start until the music has actually stopped. ]
[ Look at the back of the room, not at your page. One breath before you begin. ]
Good afternoon, everyone. Please, take your seats. We are here for [PARTNER A] and [PARTNER B]. My name is [YOUR NAME], and they have asked me to stand up here and say the words — which, if you know them, tells you something about their judgement. Thank you for coming. Some of you travelled a long way to be in this room, and they know exactly who you are.
A wedding is a strange and wonderful thing. Two people who found each other — out of everyone — stand up in front of the people who raised them and love them, and say out loud what they have already decided privately a hundred times over. Nothing that happens in the next twenty minutes will make them love each other more than they already do. What it will do is make it real in front of witnesses. That is what we are for.
[ This is the part people remember. Say it like you are telling it at a table, not reading it off a page. ]
[HOW THEY MET — where, when, and who made the first move. Two or three sentences, in your own voice.] [ONE TRUE THING you have seen between them. Not a joke about the wedding planning. Something you actually watched happen.] [WHAT THEY ARE LIKE TOGETHER — the thing everybody in this room has noticed and nobody has said out loud.]
[ Name the reader and where they are sitting. Wait until they are standing at the front before you sit down or step back. ]
[READER’S NAME] reads [TITLE].
Marriage is not the promise that this will always be easy. Anyone who has been married for more than a fortnight will tell you it is not a promise anybody could keep. It is the promise to stay — through the ordinary Tuesdays, through the years that are harder than this one, through whatever comes that neither of you can see from here. To keep choosing each other, on purpose, after the choosing stops feeling like a decision and starts feeling like a life. [PARTNER A], [PARTNER B] — that is what you are about to promise. Not a feeling. A practice.
[ Turn to each in turn. Wait for the answer. Do not rush the silence. ]
[PARTNER A], do you take [PARTNER B] to be your [wife / husband / partner] — to love them, to be honest with them, and to stay? — I do. [PARTNER B], do you take [PARTNER A] to be your [wife / husband / partner] — to love them, to be honest with them, and to stay? — I do.
[ If they wrote their own, step back and let them. If they are repeating after you, feed them short lines — six or seven words — and pause at every slash. ]
I, [PARTNER A], / take you, [PARTNER B], / to be my [wife / husband / partner]. / I promise to be honest with you, / to be kind to you, / and to stand beside you / for as long as we both shall live.
[Their own vows, if they wrote them.]
[ If a ring sticks, keep talking and let them sort it out. Do not stop and watch. Nobody will notice unless you make them. ]
The rings are a small thing to carry something this large. They are round, they have no end, and they are the part of today they will still be wearing on an ordinary Tuesday in thirty years. [PARTNER A], place the ring on [PARTNER B]’s finger and repeat after me: With this ring, / I marry you. [PARTNER B], place the ring on [PARTNER A]’s finger and repeat after me: With this ring, / I marry you.
[ Louder. This is the line the whole room is waiting for. Head up. ]
Then by the power vested in me by the [STATE OF ___], and in front of every person in this room — it is my very great pleasure to pronounce you married.
[ Step back and let it be theirs. Do not stand between them and the photographer. ]
You may kiss.
[ Wait for the room to quieten before you present them. Then get out of the aisle. ]
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family — it is my privilege to present [PARTNER A] and [PARTNER B].
What to change before you use it
- Every bracket. Read it through once looking only for them — one left unfilled is one you will meet at the front of a room.
- The pronouncement names your state. Check what you are actually authorised to say there, and check what you have to do with the license afterwards.
- The vows, if they wrote their own. Ask for them a week ahead, not on the morning, and print a spare copy for each of them in a size they can read while shaking.
- The reading. Pick one, name the reader out loud, and give them their own printed copy — the readings are here.
Questions
What are the square brackets for?
They mark the places only you can fill: names, the story of how they met, the one true thing you have seen between them, the state you are marrying them in. They are deliberately left empty rather than filled with an invented couple, because a sample with fake details in it teaches you to read fake details aloud.
Can I use this template for a wedding I am officiating?
Yes. It is ours, we wrote it, and it is here to be used — fill in the brackets, cut what does not suit the couple, and say it in your own voice. Keep the declaration of intent and the pronouncement close to the wording here, because those are the two parts doing legal work, and check what your state expects you to do with the license afterwards.
How do I write the story section?
Two or three sentences on how they met, one true thing you have watched happen between them, and what they are like together. Write it the way you would tell it at a table, and do not invent anything — if you did not see it yourself or hear it from them, it does not belong in the ceremony.
Brackets are the slow way.
Answer questions about your couple instead, and the whole package comes back finished — the ceremony written around their story, plus the run-sheet with every section timed, cue cards for the front of the room, a rehearsal checklist, and your state’s license duties on one page.
Also here: a complete ceremony, already filled, how to officiate a wedding, and the order of a wedding ceremony.