Properly Pretty & Poetic (Potentially Practical) Promises for Posterity

Ah, the vows..oaths, pledges, professions, troth, promises...Of course we are writing our own. I want to get a copy of our vows to the officiant just in case. Here's how writing those went.

Excuse my hair (ugh) and the plastic croissant courtesy of little Miss Roo. This is me writing my vows. Actually this is right after I wrote them. I was laughing because I sat down with that mound of books in front of me and didn't open a single one of them. I'd been researching vow inspirations for months. It just felt like an imposing task.

Yesterday, I was determined. I had Shakespeare, Chekhov, some works of fiction, handwritten notes, blog posts, some of my friends vows, old poems I wrote Mike and other assorted things on standby. I procrastinated by changing my Facebook status. Then I looked at my old blog posts about vow inspiration, started crying and went to find chocolate.

Armed with Hershey kisses, I took a deep breath and took another run at it. I managed to copy and paste a few quotes into a word document. Then I looked and what I'd done and got annoyed. It was at this point that I decided to check my Facebook page. It was a good call because a wise (and recently married) friend had left this comment:
There is nothing I stressed about more. I kept on telling myself that I consider myself somewhat of a writer, so there's more stress. In the end, I stopped thinking about it and let my heart speak. Apparently, my heart is a better writer. But, there will be so many emotions you can quote Godzilla and Mike would say "I Do."
That made me feel a lot better. Here was an intelligent person who knows how to turn a phrase feeling the same pressure I was. I was over thinking it. Maybe I needed start again.

At that point I erased all the copied quotes and just started writing. It took me about 15min all together to finish my vows. They just flowed. I stopped thinking about it and just did it. There was a minor revision here and there, but they're done. I've said everything I need to say in 13 lines. I read them to my mom and she cried. She may also have laughed I don't remember. I think I'm in good shape.

It's an enormous weight off my shoulders. I can't believe how much lighter I feel. I double checked that I addressed all the major points of traditional vows. It's all in there. I'm pretty sure I said all the things I need to remember as I grow old with him.