Celtic Wedding Vows
If you're planning a "Celtic" wedding, you've probably found lots of heartfelt romantic examples already. This page makes no attempt to improve on the exquisite poetry others have already written.
They lay great emphasis on the ancient use of Celtic wedding vows, though sadly fail to point out that the language today is completely different. "Thou art my beloved light, thy face is my sunshine" is certainly alluring, but there's nothing Celtic about that language or even that phrase.
If you want truly Celtic wedding vows, the first step is to choose the specific Celtic language you wish to use.
Celtic is generally divided into two main branches:
Goidelic (or Gaelic) which includes Irish, Scottish and Manx.
Brythonic (or Brittonic) which includes Welsh, Breton and Cornish.
Today, the Celtic languages in use are shown in the table below, plus wedding vows in Celtic variations.
The number people who claim some ability to speak the language varies according to which survey has been consulted, therefore the numbers shown below are just a rough guide.
| Main areas | Approximate number of speakers | |
| Irish (Gaeilge) | Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, particularly in Gaeltacht areas. About 40% of the Republic of Ireland's population have learnt Irish as a second language. Less than 2% are native speakers. | 1,800,000 |
| Welsh (Cymraeg) | Wales, particularly in education and media. About 29% of the population can speak Welsh, | 892,000 |
| Breton (Brezhoneg) | Rural areas of central Brittany among older people, and the number of people able to use Breton is declining. | 280,000 |
| Scottish (Gàidhlig) | Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and the Western Isles, and a small number of people (0.1%) in Nova Scotia | 100,000 |
| Cornish (Kernewek) | Cornwall, mostly spoken by language enthusiasts and not used widely in daily life | 4,000 |
| Manx (Gaelg) | Isle of Man by those involved in revitalization after being nearly extinct, and not used widely in daily life | 2,000 |
Whilst Irish the largest number of people who are able to speak the language, Welsh is actually used most frequently with around 300,000 people using it daily. Welsh is taught in schools and has a strong presence in television and radio.
For wedding vows, we show the Celtic-rooted languages of:
