Craig & Ashley - Part 5

For our wedding day, we wrote our own marriage vows and followed them up with the traditional.

Ashley's Vows:

Every experience we have had,

everything we have done,

and everything we have learned,

has brought us to this moment.

As we stand here before God,

and in the company of the people

who make our lives so full and special,

I pledge to you my friendship, my life and my love.

I promise to always put you first in my life,

to never take you for granted,

to hold you close when you need to be held,

to laugh with you when you laugh,

and to always be your save haven in life.

Craig, you are my first love and my last love,

my best friend, and now my husband.

And I promise to be faithful to you

for the rest of my life.

We are each bringing our individual strengths

and weaknesses to this marriage.

But I also believe that we compliment each other,

and that we are stronger together than we are apart.

Today, we are making the promise

to commit to a love that will last a lifetime.

And I promise to spend my lifetime

striving to be the best wife that I can be for you.

I love you.

Craig's Vows:

Ashley, I am here with you today,

as the person you have helped me become.

You have made me a believer in true love.

You have filled my world with meaning,

and you have made me a stronger,

more confident, and more complete man.

Today, I would like to thank you

for making me a better person,

for loving me, and welcoming me into your heart.

I promise to do the same for you,

and to walk by your side forever,

with respect, honor and conscious thoughts of your needs,

as your best friend, your husband and your soul mate.

As your husband,

you have my vow to be faithful, honest and loving

for the rest of our lives.

I know I cannot promise to fulfill all your dreams,

just as you cannot fulfill all of mine.

But I can promise to give you my time, my body,

my soul and my love.

And this is all I have to give.

I love you.

It's funny - I loved my vows when I wrote them and I cried as I practiced saying them aloud. But reading them now, I see that my "promises" were a bit naive and lofty. To "always put you first and never take you for granted"? Those are the words of someone young and immature. Kind of like saying "my kids will never watch tv or talk back to me in public". Certainly, they are good goals. And I still try to keep Craig first in my life. But promising "always" and "never" just sounds unrealistic to me now. We do the best that we can. We keep our marriage a priority - a top priority. But life says you have to grow and change; you have to be flexible and act in many roles. And Craig's vows seem a lot more mature and realistic and honorable to me. "To walk by your side... with respect, honor and conscious thoughts of your needs... To be faithful, honest and loving for the rest of our lives." We "cannot fulfill all of [each others] hopes and dreams" but "I give you my love".

So anyway.

We then recited these vows with the minister:

[Craig/Ashley], I take you to be my [husband/wife]

in the presence of God, our families and friends.

I promise to love and cherish you,

To honor and respect you,

To encourage and serve you,

No matter what the cost,

As we walk with Christ together.

And then:

[Craig/Ashley], I offer you this ring

as a symbol of my enduring love

and of my solemn vow before God

to love you just as Christ loves us.