The oldest standard wedding vows can be traced back to the Book of Common Prayer, by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury: "I, _, take thee, _, to be my wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance." The vows included in that book are derived from the Sarum rite of medieval England, which was originally translated in the earliest versions of the Book of Common Prayer as "to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us depart." The earlier 1549 version of the Book of Common Prayer retained the "till death us depart" ("depart" here meaning "separate"), changing over as of the 1662 version to read "till death us do part." Eventually, the "us" and "do" were swapped, giving us the modern version: "till death do us part." Remarkably, they've remained much the same ever since. Though there are several variations, a standard version goes like this: "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." The whole beginning "I'll love you despite what crap life might throw our way" bit all sounds well and good, but the last "until death" portion understandably gives people some pause - especially since divorce is a perfectly acceptable thing that ends plenty of modern marriages, to the tune of 16.9 divorces per 1,000 married women per year in the U.S (according to the latest figures compiled in 2015). In the United States, the traditional Catholic wedding ceremony finds many couples (regardless of how religious they really are in their day-to-day lives) reciting the time-honored spiel up at the altar. Standard wedding vows have also given us some of our most memorable pop culture moments, like the immortal "I, Ross, Take Thee, Rachel" Friends scene. But plenty of people still use traditional vows - either in whole, in part, or adapting some portion of them. Today, personalized wedding vows are becoming more and more popular, with couples wanting to pay tribute to their unique relationship using their own words instead of something that's been said before (and maybe impress their guests in the process).
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