At this point in the ceremony, BIL Cardy asked us to face one another as we prepared to read our vows.
(Note: As I mentioned in part 1, I am only sharing bits and pieces of the actual text from the ceremony and readings. If you’re interested in seeing the whole thing, let me know and I’ll pass it along.)
We wanted to have a ring warming ceremony, but we didn’t want to have to wait for the rings to make it through the entire crowd. Instead, we chose to have just our bridal party bless our rings for us.
As the bridal party was blessing the rings…
…we had our second reading by my Bee-FF, Mrs. Socks! (See what I did there? Bee-FF? I crack myself up!)
Mrs. Socks read “Love” by Roy Croft.
I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out
After Mrs. Socks’ reading, it was time to exchange rings.
Corey and Amanda, your rings are both an outward symbol, telling the world that you have chosen each other, and also a personal reminder of the promise you made here today.
Every time you look upon your ring, remember this day.
Remember the feeling of excitement, the look in each other’s eyes, and the love in your heart.
Amanda, take Corey’s ring and place it on her finger and repeat after me:
“I give you this ring as a sign that I choose you to be my partner and my best friend, to the end of my days. Wear it, think of me, and know that I love you”
With the rings on our fingers, the time had come for our vows. Please remember that we wrote these vows completely separate from one another. That fact will be important in just a minute.
Mr. Cardigan was up first.
Corey, I love you because you know me better than anyone else in the world and even after five years together; you still find new ways to make me smile every day.
Before I could even get the next part of my vows out, I felt the giggles coming on…
I love you because we can spend an entire day on the couch, doing nothing but watching HGTV, eating junk food, and cuddling with our dogs, and it’s still considered a wonderful day together.
At this point, all of our guests were laughing, because we had basically said the exact same thing to one another. Even our bridal party had a hard time holding it together.
I love you because of the way your eyes crinkle when you smile, and the way you always make me walk on the inside of the sidewalk, just in case.
I love you because you were the first person to ever make me feel truly beautiful. You’ve brought out the absolute best in me and I love the person that I am when I am with you. You make me happy in a way that I can’t even begin to describe, and I am so blessed to have you.
Because I love you, I promise to never stop making you chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread. I promise to be the one to clean up after you, because I know you’ll never do it yourself, and not complain about it (too much). I promise to do anything and everything I can to make you happy, just because I absolutely love to see you smile.
Because I love you, I promise to always be the one you can come to when you’re stressed, sad, or just need to talk. I promise to always listen to you and respect you, and I promise to never stop being your best friend
Because I love you, I promise to always put our relationship first. Today, you become my husband but I will never stop treating you as my boyfriend. I promise to look forward to each date with the same enthusiasm I did when we first started dating, and I promise to never let our relationship become any less fun and exciting than it is now.
Because I love you, I will be my best for you.
With our vows finished, we turned to face one another again.
Corey, do you promise to love, support and challenge Amanda, to be her closest friend, confidante and companion?
I do.
Amanda, do you promise to love, support and challenge Corey, to be his closest friend, confidante and companion?
I do.
You may now kiss the bride.
Mr. Cardigan gave me one kiss, and then decided that wasn’t enough and went in for a second one, much to the amusement of our guests.
And then? We were married!
Our DJ didn’t start the recessional song right away, so there were a few seconds of awkward silence that Sister Cardy and I decided to fill by laughing like maniacs. What can I say? We’re totally related.
Finally, the music started and we all made our way back down the aisle.
Our photographer had given us strict instructions to rush outside after the ceremony so that we could get some formal shots in before the sun went all the way down…but we were pretty giddy, and we couldn’t resist stealing just one more kiss in the couple of seconds that we had alone in the hallway.
And just like that, our ceremony was over and it was time to go celebrate!
(All photos by She-N-He Photography)
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