Our Vows

For posterity's sake (and because I'm up late waiting on laundry to finish and doing taxes . . . SOOOO ROMANTIC), I'm going to share the vows B and I said six years ago today. We each wrote our own.

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B (on typed, numbered note cards, no doubt written days or weeks in advance):

On this day, we are joined by our friends and family, and I am filled with eager anticipation to continue our journey together that began some time ago. You have given me the feeling that my life is finally mine and that our life together is ours for the making. For this, I can never express how much I am grateful. You have allowed me to feel things I have never felt, see things in myself that I have never seen, and become the man that I am today. And in return, these promises I make to you:

I promise to never take you for granted and to always be inspired by you.
I promise to learn from you but to teach you things as well.
I promise to make mistakes but I also promise to grow from my mistakes.
You, better than anyone, know that life is not always easy for me. As such, I promise to ask for your guidance and support during times when I feel uncertain and unsteady.
I promise to love and respect you.
I promise to remain faithful and steadfast in my love for you in sickness and in health.
I promise to always be myself and to make you fall in love with me every day.
Lastly, I promise, it will always be you and me against the world, kid (an old favorite saying of ours).

Me (handwritten notecards, thought about for weeks in advance, written the morning of our wedding!):
First, you were my friend. Soon, you were my best friend. I knew from the beginning that there was just something special about you. That something special is the reason why, still today, your smile makes my heart flutter. You can make a bad day better and we help each other be better people. Most of all, we laugh together. B, there is just something so speical about you, so special about us, and today is the best day of my life.

I am so lucky to stand here today and say that I am marrying my best friend, the one I laugh with, live with, and love. I will love you all the days of my life.

I promise to support you in your endeavors, to love you in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and above all, to never lose sight of the fact that you are my best friend. And today, my best friend is becoming my husband. I am so, so lucky.

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You know what? I think we should say these vows to each other every year. It's so, so easy to get lost in the everyday living and forget the big promises. Isn't it?

I married my best friend. I am so, so lucky.