How I Wrote My Vows and What I Learned:
On a wedding day, the bride and groom make promises to each other. Sometimes, those promises are recited after the pastor, and other times they are written individually by the bride and groom. Whether they be the classic vows recited by many at the altar or the personal, letter-type vows, they are meaningful and incredibly important in every marriage.
My husband had a moment of inspiration around 6 months before our wedding and typed them up the very day he thought of them. I, on the other hand, waited until last minute to write them. I was waiting for that moment of divine inspiration that would give me the perfect, easy to read, emotional and passionate vows I had dreamt of, but that moment never came. Instead, I worked on them faithfully for a month before our wedding, even changing wording and adding things the evening before our wedding! I was so worried they would be too short, too wordy, or too childish. I was so nervous and wanted them to be “just right!”
However, during that last month, on a day I had broken down crying wondering when they would sound perfect, I felt the Lord teach me it wasn’t supposed to be that incredibly perfect (whatever perfect is!). My vows were to be simple statements of love, admiration, and respect towards my husband and God. They were to be genuine promises to my husband., but they had to be promises I meant and intended to keep. They should also be challenges to myself to love my husband in ways I had never thought of or may be difficult for me. They were to be an expression of my love for him.
I no longer felt the need to impress with my vows, or make them lengthy or eloquent. That evening before my wedding, I finalized my vows and made them exactly what I wanted to tell my husband alone. He was the only one receiving the promises so I made them just for him.
Where My Vows Are Now:
Some time after our wedding, I found my vows saved on my computer and read through them again. I enjoyed comparing what I had promised and how I had been carrying those out. I realized this was something I had to do more often; I wanted to make sure I was keeping those vows I made to my husband. After all, I didn’t make those vows only to my husband, but to the Lord as well!
Since long before writing my vows, I always knew that I wanted to frame them. However, I had never gotten around to doing it and I quickly forgot all the things I wrote! Every time I referred back it was a refreshing reminder of the joy there is in promising these things to the man I am going to spend the rest of my life with and everything I want to be for him.
I knew I just had to frame them already so I went on over to Michael’s, bought some matching frames and printed our vows and framed them. I then hung them in our room straight ahead from our bed and also hung two little wooden plaque’s my aunt gave me above those.
Our vows are now hung and easy to read. We have them in a place we can see every day and remember the promises we made to each other. It is such a nice reminder to have them there! So one day, if things get tough, we can remember our vows to each other and our deep love and joy when we wrote those promises to each other. This has by far been one of my favorite home decorations; it means so much to me!
Just beautiful Sophie.