This book is a comprehensive and unique guide on how to write one's own wedding vows. In the U.S. alone, there are over 2.4 million weddings every year -- and no two will be exactly alike. Yet whatever the differences, the exchanging of vows is often the most anticipated and memorable moment in the ceremony. Personalizing one's wedding vows is a growing trend in America, but it can be a very stressful experience. This book will help couples by answering some essential questions in preparing for their ceremony: How much of your religion's traditional vows should you include? Is your favorite poem appropriate for the setting you are in, or should you just memorize a couple of lines? Are you stuck on what to say after "I knew you were the one the moment we met?" Are your favorite Led Zeppelin song lyrics an appropriate expression of how you feel about your fiance? Should you share your vows at the rehearsal?

This is a story of a marriage in crisis. Effie and Lionel enjoy a lively social life and a comfortable home. They are proud of their grown up family, and life is as good as it gets. Until something happens. It happens slowly and insidiously, and it happens inside Lionel's head. His bizarre behaviour, though sometimes humorous, gradually drives away their friends. Effie is at a loss. Lionel in trouble with the police? Upsetting everyone he meets? What is happening to the man she married? What can she do? Finally there is a diagnosis. Frontotemporal Dementia. (FTD) Now Effie can understand. Lionel, however, hasn't a clue what all the fuss is about. FTD is destroying Lionel's personality and is stealing Effie's husband from her. Trapped in her new role as carer, Effie must watch him succumb to this evil degenerative disease. With her life now devoid of affection and companionship, her marriage vows are stretched beyond the limit. The temptation to find love elsewhere, however fleetingly, is irresistible. This novel, by turns heart-warming and heart-breaking, will have you gripped from the very first page. You will laugh and cry with the characters in their struggles with this malevolent mental illness. As you share their FTD journey, you will question the significance of those marriage vows. You will also question the manner in which society deals with mental health issues. The story of Effie and Lionel, sadly an increasingly common one, will stay with you long after you've finished the book.

The much-anticipated debut collection from a celebrated young poet, Someone Else's Wedding Vows marks the arrival of an exciting new voice in American poetry. Someone Else’s Wedding Vows reflects on the different forms of love, which can be both tremendously joyous and devastatingly destructive. The title poem confronts a human ritual of marriage from the standpoint of a wedding photographer. Within the tedium and alienation of the ceremony, the speaker grapples with a strange human hopefulness. In this vein, Stone explores our everyday patterns and customs, and in doing so, exposes them for their complexities. Drawing on the neurological, scientific, psychological, and even supernatural, this collection confronts the difficulties of love and family. Stone rankles with a desire to understand, but the questions she asks are never answered simply. These poems stroll along the abyss, pointing towards the absurdity of our choices. They recede into the imaginative in order to understand and translate the distressing nature of reality. It is a bittersweet question this book raises: Why we are like this? There is no easy answer. So while we look down at our hands, perplexed, Someone Else’s Wedding Vows raises a glass to the future.

How safe is your marriage? The answer may surprise you. The biggest threat to any marriage isn’t infidelity or miscommunication. The greatest enemy is ordinary. Ordinary marriages lose hope. Ordinary marriages lack vision. Ordinary marriages give in to compromise. Ordinary is the belief that this is as good as it will ever get. And when we begin to settle for ordinary, it’s easy to move from “I do” to “I’m done.” Justin and Trisha Davis know just how dangerous ordinary can be. In this beautifully written book, Justin and Trisha take us inside the slow fade that occurred in their own marriage—each telling the story from their own perspective. Together, they reveal the mistakes they made, the work they avoided, the thoughts and feelings that led to an affair and near divorce, and finally, the heart-change that had to occur in both of them before they could experience the hope, healing, and restoration of a truly extraordinary marriage.

Choosing whom to marry involves more than emotion, as racial politics, cultural mores, and local demographics all shape romantic choices. In Marriage Vows and Racial Choices, sociologist Jessica Vasquez-Tokos explores the decisions of Latinos who marry either within or outside of their racial and ethnic groups. Drawing from in-depth interviews with nearly 50 couples, she examines their marital choices and how these unions influence their identities as Americans. Vasquez-Tokos finds that their experiences in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood shape their perceptions of race, which in turn influence their romantic expectations. Most Latinos marry other Latinos, but those who intermarry tend to marry whites. She finds that some Latina women who had domineering fathers assumed that most Latino men shared this trait and gravitated toward white men who differed from their fathers. Other Latina respondents who married white men fused ideas of race and class and perceived whites as higher status and considered themselves to be “marrying up.” Latinos who married non-Latino minorities—African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans—often sought out non-white partners because they shared similar experiences of racial marginalization. Latinos who married Latinos of a different national origin expressed a desire for shared cultural commonalities with their partners, but—like those who married whites—often associated their own national-origin groups with oppressive gender roles. Vasquez-Tokos also investigates how racial and cultural identities are maintained or altered for the respondents’ children. Within Latino-white marriages, biculturalism—in contrast with Latinos adopting a white “American” identity—is likely to emerge. For instance, white women who married Latino men often embraced aspects of Latino culture and passed it along to their children. Yet, for these children, upholding Latino cultural ties depended on their proximity to other Latinos, particularly extended family members. Both location and family relationships shape how parents and children from interracial families understand themselves culturally. As interracial marriages become more common, Marriage Vows and Racial Choices shows how race, gender, and class influence our marital choices and personal lives.

The wedding is planned, but are you spiritually prepared for your wedding day? Trusted relationship author Gary Thomas coaches engaged couples on how to grow closer to the Lord in the days leading up to the wedding as a means of preparing them for all the days after the wedding. Engagement is bursting with promise, hope, joy, and anticipation of all kinds. It can also be one of the busiest times your life. For some, planning a wedding, with all the decisions involved, can feel less like the exciting onset of marriage and more like a tedious to-do list. Amidst the busyness, this devotional is designed to encourage and guide you through the spiritual priorities and challenges that lie ahead in order to grow a joy-filled marriage filled with love, grace, and God's blessing. In addition to helping you celebrate the joys of marriage and become radically connected as you create an even deeper passionate relationship, this lovely book also provides encouraging entries that will help you deal with common issues such as: Building physical and emotional intimacy Repairing trust Celebrating differences Being a team player Managing finances With a special section on the marriage vows and thoughtful meditations for the bride and groom, Preparing Your Heart for Marriage will help you grow in your relationship as a couple on your journey from “me” to “we.”

"Disarmingly honest, beautifully insightful. Crack open Vow and prepare to be quickly carried away by Plump's vivid prose, so-close-you-can-hear-it voice, and suspenseful storytelling skills." -- Redbook magazine