You wrote them on a legal pad. On your phone. On a piece of hotel stationery. You read them in the mirror and then out loud in front of a hundred people who meant something to you. And then the wedding ended, the photos got taken, and at some point you folded your vows and put them somewhere.
Where are they now?
If you are like most couples, you are not sure. A keepsake box, maybe. A drawer in the bedroom. That envelope you definitely did not lose. You will deal with it eventually.
This piece is for the people who are finally ready to deal with it — or who want to figure out what to do with their vows before the wedding is even over.
Option 1: Keep Them in a Keepsake Box
This is what most couples do. It works. Your vows go in a memory box with the invitation, a dried flower from your bouquet, the matchbook from the rehearsal dinner. It is a legitimate place for them to live.
The drawback is that a keepsake box requires you to go looking. You will not rediscover your vows on an ordinary Tuesday. They will stay sealed until you move, or until your children find them, or until you happen to be going through things. If the words are important to you — and they were, once, which is why you spent three weeks writing them — they deserve something more active than storage.
Option 2: Scan and Save Them Digitally
This is the responsible move regardless of what else you do. Scan the handwritten copies and save them somewhere you will actually find them again: iCloud, Google Drive, a folder called "Wedding" that you actually look at once in a while. If the physical copy is ever lost — floods happen, moves happen, boxes get mislabeled — you will be grateful the words still exist.
Digital storage is not the same as display. It is insurance, not presence.
Option 3: Frame Them
This works if you have lovely handwriting and the physical copy itself is worth showing. A simple clip frame from a home goods store, your vows inside. Straightforward, low cost, and meaningful.
The challenge is that most people's handwriting looks very different under the pressure of writing vows the night before. The paper may be wrinkled, the ink may have smudged slightly, the lines may not be perfectly straight. This is real and beautiful in its own way. But if you want something that looks like it was made to be on a wall — something that does not require explaining that yes, it is a bit messy because you wrote it at midnight — you may want a designed version.
Option 4: Get Them Professionally Typeset
This is what Kept Vows does.
You submit your vow text — typed, copied from a photo, transcribed from the original handwritten sheet — along with your names, your wedding date, and your choice of background style. Within two business days, you receive a digital proof: your words set in a premium font, professionally laid out, ready to print on stretched canvas.
Nothing goes to print until you approve it. If the spacing is off, if you spot a typo (your typo or ours), if you want the date formatted differently — say so, and we revise it. Once it's right, the canvas is printed and shipped directly to you, ready to hang.
The result looks like something that was always supposed to be on your wall. Because it was.
Which Background Style Is Right for You?
Six options, each distinct:
Classic Ivory is the one for couples who want something that could hang in any room without calling attention to itself as a "wedding thing." Warm white, refined serif font, timeless. The most commonly ordered style.
Midnight Script is deep navy with gold lettering. It is the most dramatic of the six and works best as a statement piece — above a fireplace, at the end of a hall, in a room that can hold it. If you want people to notice it immediately when they walk in, this is the one.
Watercolor Blush has soft pink and mauve washes behind the text. It reads as romantic without being loud about it. Good for bedroom walls, reading nooks, or any space that is already warm and soft in its palette.
Garden Sage uses a muted sage green with a delicate botanical border. The most organic feeling of the group — it belongs in homes that have plants, linen, natural light.
Modern Minimal is light grey with a clean sans-serif font. If your home is contemporary — clean lines, neutral palette, no clutter — this is the one that fits without trying too hard.
Gilded Edge has a warm cream background with a hand-drawn gold border. The most formal of the six. Works beautifully as a gift and stands on its own in spaces that already have a hint of luxury to them.
What About the Premium Edition?
The Premium edition uses your own wedding photo as the canvas background — softly faded behind your vow text so both are present without competing. In the lower corner, a small QR code links to your first dance song. Scan it with a phone and the song plays.
It is more. More personal, more technically involved, more likely to make someone stop mid-sentence when they see it for the first time. If you have a wedding photo you love and you can remember what your first dance song was, Premium is worth the upgrade.
Standard is not a fallback. Most couples choose it, and most couples hang it in their bedroom for the next twenty years. The vows are the thing. The style is just how you show them.
When to Do This
Before the first anniversary is ideal. Close enough to the wedding that the vows still feel new, and the memory of writing them is still specific.
But there is no wrong time. We have had couples order ten years in, fifteen years in, after a cancer diagnosis, after a major move, after their children found the vow text in a box and quietly ordered it as a surprise. The words do not expire. The instinct to do something with them does not either.
If you have been thinking about it, this is probably enough of a nudge.
Custom Wedding Vow Canvas — Standard and Premium editions, 12"×16" and 16"×20". Digital proof included. Free US shipping. Use code VOWS10 for 10% off your first order.