As mentioned, we really wanted to make the ceremony about us, rather than just have a generic, cookie-cutter service. Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of beautiful ceremonies out there and I love a good Kahlil Gibran poem just as much as the next person. But we wanted something a little more personal. So in addition to having four friends speak, we also wrote our own vows. For posterity (and the Internet at large) here they are:
Jamie,
It's fitting that our first date involved tea and baked goods. What started out sweet has only become sweeter for me. I didn't arrive that March afternoon with a checklist of attributes that I needed you to have. After several years of being single, I knew there was only one elusive thing that you had to be able to do - you had to make my heart skip a beat. And you accomplished that the moment we said hello.
Almost five years later, I feel confident that I'm standing here with the person I was waiting for. You are smart and funny, while also asking for my opinions and laughing at my jokes. You are strong and sentimental, yet will still lean on my shoulder when you need to.
On my happy days, you laugh with and at me and put up with the crazy ways I express my joy. And on my rare gloomy days, you know how to find a little spot to allow the sun to shine back in. With you I am 100% myself and feel loved for *almost* all of my quirks and questionable attributes.
Jamie, I love and trust you with all of my heart. You have become the keeper of my stories and my ultimate cheerleader. Besides my own, the vision of myself that matters most to me is the one that I see reflected in your eyes.
I am so excited about the future that stretches out ahead of us. From the family we will create to the accomplishments that we will celebrate. We're partners in crime and in cookie-eating. We can take turns keeping each other's feet on the ground, so that our creative whims can take flight.
Thank you for loving me. May the sweetness continue for the rest of our lives.
Tammy, from the first day I saw you staring back at me from that Internet dating website, the butterflies in my stomach told me that meeting you was going to change my life.
And of all the people I’ve encountered in my now-changed life, you are unique among them. An example, and as I told you early on, I think you are the living embodiment of musical theatre, which at once makes me wonder what I’m getting into, but also makes me so glad to have met someone who can be so passionate about something. Even if it’s musical theatre.
Your perpetually sunny demeanor makes the world a better place, and when a storm blows up in your eyes, it’s a wrong that I feel compelled to right. It makes me want to “fix you” as that band sings…
Your grumpy old lady of a cat, Daphne, seems to have adopted me, so as of today I officially adopt her and I vow to at least think about cleaning the litter box.
I also vow to:
- Notice (and comment positively) when you get a haircut;
- Tell you that you’ve “hit pretty” as you’re on your way to work in the morning;
- I vow to try to keep pace with you in your role as unofficial “celebrant” to all of our friends and family. You still send Christmas cards, you call people on their birthdays, and you never pass up an opportunity to partake in cake. Maybe that’s what it’s all about…
I vow to be better, to try harder, to make the world a better place, even if only in small ways, just like you do.
In one of the many greeting cards that you’ve given me over the last few years, all with thoughtfully written messages and expressions of your feelings, you wrote: “Thank you for letting me love you in ‘my way.’”At first I wondered a little what that meant, but now I think I know: It means that you love constantly and with determination. You love attentively and thoughtfully. Deeply and warmly. Unapologetically and perhaps a little crazily. I vow to follow your example.
And our first dance...
Give me a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination
Will thrive upon that kiss
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this
A Kiss to build a dream on
Give me a kiss before you leave me
and my imagination
will feed my hungry heart
Leave me one thing before we part
A kiss to build a dream on
When I'm alone with my fancies
I'll be with you
Weaving romances
Making believe they're true
Oh, gimme your lips for just a moment
and my imagination
will make that moment live
Give me what you alone can give
A kiss to build a dream on
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