Weddingbee Blog

My favorite post is one of the many millions (or 6) from our actual wedding ceremony: our vows. Mr. Pencils and I spent many hours crafting our words for each other and we wanted a balanced, similar-toned but also personalized vows. The few hours we spent one Friday night creating them is one of my favorite evenings to date with my now-husband, and reading this post reminds me of the most important part of a wedding day: that physical moment when you and your chosen person look into each other’s eyes and say, “yes, I want you, now and always.” This post also resonates with me when considering my second favorite post alongside it, where I expressed some superficial as well as deep-set fears about our wedding day and marriage. Three months prior to the moment below, I wrote that I feared “I won’t be the wife that Mr. Pencils thinks I’m capable of being. I fear that my messiness, my long work hours, my addition to chocolate/Coca Cola/bad TV will drive him to drink.

I fear that all these fears will surface and Mr. Pencils will wonder why he chose this crazy, loud, irreverent, over-thinking, uncouth woman to be his wife.

I fear that in all this hoopla, I’ll forget the real reason for it all—us. Mr. P is my other half, my self’s reflection, my counterpart.

Our wedding day and our marriage itself is the beginning of something bigger, better—but it’s still just us. He is the man that will be my children’s father, his hands will hold mine as we create the life we’ve imagined. We’ll dream together, laugh together, cry together, FEAR together.”

When I read these fears, six months after our wedding and nine months after I wrote them down for all of you to read, I realize that the fears I had, the fears you may have, are silly, over-thought, justified AND ridiculous worries all at once.

In the end, our vows show how my fears about forgetting the real reason for it were completely unsubstantiated, as were my doubts that Mr. P could love a crazy woman like me. He managed, and still manages, to take my character flaws and see them as the traits that he loves about me. I can’t thank him enough for translating my stubborn as a mule nature into the wonderful euphemism of being “strong willed and stubborn, yet open minded and fair” and my outlandish ideas and eccentricities into the phrase “I love the way you can ignore the rest of the world and all of its conventions.”

In sum, this post means more to me than others for two large reasons; it is, to me, the most important, memorable, emotional moment of our wedding day, and it also represents how the fears I had about getting married and not being enough for Mr. P were completely unfounded. I hope you all enjoy it a second time around as well!

~~~

My most-anticipated moment of the ceremony had arrived—our vows! After the readers, the marriage address, and the sand ceremony, we poured our hearts out to each other in words.

Mr. Pencils’ and I had sat down one Saturday night and penned our vows together. We wanted them to be similar but not the same; different but in kind. We decided to keep the same structure for the first three “stanzas” and repeat the same words, vows, to each other in the last “stanza”.

Mr. Pencils started us off:

Ms. Pencils, I love you more than anything;

I look forward to every new day and new adventure with you at my side;

To me, marrying you means standing together facing the world.

You are beautiful and smart;

You are strong willed and stubborn yet open minded and fair;

You are charming, fun, and exuberant;

You are intelligent and loving;

You make me laugh at times that I am ready to cry;

Your mere presence makes me smile and relax even when I am stressed;

You make me a better person just by being in my life.

(I know I looked pained in the above photo, but I’m just experiencing emotion. Ugly cry face, it’s been called. :))

I love the way you burst into song and dance for no particular reason;

I love the way you can ignore the rest of the world and all of its conventions;

I love the way you fall asleep on my shoulder while trying to stay awake;

Just so we can spend more time together;

I love the way that you always keep me on my toes and challenge me to better myself.

When we are apart,

I am always thinking about you;

My vision for the future always has you in it;

Even at home, I miss you when we are not in the same room;

And when we are side by side, I can’t help but hold your hand in mind.

I vow to always be here for you, and to make any of your problems my own;

I vow to never forget the wonder of having found you, and to never take our love for granted;

I vow to help you with tough decisions, and to always speak my feelings;

I vow to support our dreams, and to shelter you when times are troubled;

I vow to apologize when I am wrong, and to forgive when we misunderstand;

I vow to trust you, to always believe in you, and to always place our relationship first;

I vow to faithfully love you forever, with all of my heart.

Ms. Pencils, I take you to be my wife and my life-long partner;

To laugh with you in joy;

To grieve with you in sorrow;

To grow with you in love;

Serving mankind in peace and hope;

As long as we both shall live.

~~~

And then it was my turn.

I love you Mr. Pencils, with all of my heart;

I feel lucky for every moment we have together;

To me, marrying you is continuing a relationship in which the independence is equal;

dependence is mutual and the commitment is reciprocal.

You are sweet, brilliant and fun;

You are handsome, strong and you always make me laugh;

You are silly, serious, loyal, and adventurous;

You are logical and level-headed, yet can be just as crazy as me;

You are compassionate and thoughtful in every action you take;

I smile every time I think of you.

I love that you have high ideals;

And are not afraid to go after your dreams;

I love that you appreciate the little beauties of life;

And live each day to the fullest;

I love that you can turn a simple idea into a philosophical discussion;

And manage to see both sides in everything;

I love that I still get excited every time I come home to you.

You’re my best friend;

You make me feel safe when I am scared;

You make me laugh when I am sad;

You comfort me when I am hurting;

You reassure me when I am doubting;

When you hold me I feel that everything is possible;

And that no matter what happens we can make it through together.

I vow to always be here for you, and to make any of your problems my own;

I vow to never forget the wonder of having found you, and to never take our love for granted;

I vow to help you with tough decisions, and to always speak my feelings;

I vow to support our dreams, and to shelter you when times are troubled;

I vow to apologize when I am wrong, and to forgive when we misunderstand;

I vow to trust you, to always believe in you, and to always place our relationship first;

I vow to faithfully love you forever, with all of my heart;

And on that line above, where it says “admit when I am wrong” I may have ad libbed a “when I actually am wrong… which is usually never…” And now that moment in pictures:

Mr. Pencils, I take you to be my husband and my life-long partner;

To laugh with you in joy;

To grieve with you in sorrow;

To grow with you in love;

Serving mankind in peace and hope;

As long as we both shall live;

And then it was time for our ring bearer, our Lord of the Rings, to grace the stage. My uncle and godfather Mark was the perfect man to introduce our ring ceremony.

He spoke about Mr. P and I, and his first time meeting Mr. Pencils. He made jokes and the entire crowd was laughing. Isn’t he handsome in the orange tie and deep blue suit?!?!

He shared how honored he felt to be introducing the rings and how much he loved Mr. Pencils and me.

And of course, he read an excerpt from the Lord of the Rings, and it was perfect.

We each gave him huge hugs.

And then we realized that all that was left was for us to actually exchange the rings and kiss. We were about to be officially married. (I swear, y’all, I meant to finish the wedding in this recap—I just can’t narrow down the photos! Please forgive me—I swear we’re married for real style in the next one :))

All beautiful photos are copyright and courtesy of amazing B. Scott Photography.

Catch up!

• Something Good: The unity ceremony.
• Something Good: Our readers kicked it off.
• Something Good: We joined at the altar.
• Something Good: Down the aisle we went.
• Something Good: Pre-Wedding Portraits
• Something Good: Our First Look
• Something Good: Jewelry and a garter.
• Something Good: I got dressed.
• Something Good: I showed off my undies.
• Something Good: A window and a van.
• Something Good: My gift to him.
• Something Good: A cello was given.
• Something Good: Guys got dressed.
• Something Good: We beautified.
• Something Good: Quality time with my friends.
• Something Good: We rehearsed.