Having an outdoor wedding is risky. With ornate flowers, freshly prepared food, and the prized wedding cake; mother nature can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. And in Washington State, just south of Seattle, the weather is especially unpredictable. Well on our wonderful day, the first of August, I believe God literally held back the showers and let the sun shine all day. It was the perfect day and definitely, one of the nicest Washington had seen all summer.
Our wedding day was hands down, bar-none, no other questions need to be asked – the best day of my life! I know this sounds trite and whether it sounds like it or not, its the truth. And I mean that with everything in me – it was truly the best day.
It felt like such a long time coming to get to that day though. Whether it was the overtime at Auto-Chlor, the searching for the perfect glass jars for the candy table, finding the right fabric to set the center pieces on, or just the longing to be with each other and finally; just be married. Its tough, really tough. I remember how we spent hours and hours and hours printing our own invitations on different card stocks with different sized fonts – all to the conclusion that we wished, more than anything, we would have just paid for them to be printed. In the end it worked out just fine, like it always does. It was fun and wonderful and yet stressful and stretched us thin at points. But looking back, I know one thing about us that keeps ringing true; we come out on top and stronger because of it. Getting to our most amazing wedding day, well it was full of laughs and tears, and some of the most adult-grown-up decisions we have made to date. But amidst it all, they made us stronger. They made us love deeper, trust quicker, and believe in each other without hesitation.
I think that ‘in-between’ part for a married couple is actually extremely vital. Waking up on our wedding day was so much deeper and more complex than just being deeply in love and excited for the ‘I do’s’ and the ceremony. Its more complicated than being stoked out of your mind to go on a honeymoon to an all-inclusive resort with the love of my life. The time and emotions and effort and all that; it was worth every moment. Every moment with you is gold. But all the days before our wedding day, it just made my love for you grow even stronger. It fortified those walls of trust. You continually show me to this day that I have no reason not to trust you. Of the multitude of hard decisions we were faced with, you always proved to me that you would not only make the right decision, but the best one for the two of us.
Getting married is in itself a rite of passage, but I think getting there and to that day, well that is equally a stepping stone of life. Standing at the alter waiting for your dad to walk you down the isle, I had all the ‘getting here’ in my head. The getting to this point, on this wonderful day – I believe this paved the way. My love grew leaps and bounds before our wedding day. But nothing compares to how full I was on our actual day. It feels like a whirlwind, and especially writing this and thinking about it, well, it all seems too quick. These last two years have absolutely flown by. And I count it pure joy, all of it.
And then I saw you.
You. Your dad. The dress. Hand in hand. Tony playing the piano. Walking down the windy path towards me.
This is my favorite moment of all. Not to put down all the thousands of other lovely moments we have had with each other in the past four years. But lets be honest, this literally blows it out of the water. Everyone kept predicting who would be the first to cry in the beginning. Well Im actually not sure who did. But you made me cry. I was the happiest man on the happiest day of my life.
You were stunning. Absolutely stunning. Breath taking. Gorgeous. Divine. Magical. A breath of heaven. I will forever have this moment in my heart. I lost it all together at this point. Of course I held back as much as I could – but you ruined me in that moment. And I mean that in the best possible way. I was by far the luckiest man on the earth. That I, just a guy from rural Oregon, get to be forever tied to you. Spend all my days by your side. I don’t deserve you in the least but am thankful everyday that you said I do on that day.
I love to re-read our vows to each other. They remind me that I am just a man. They remind me that we are in this together, side-by-side. They remind me that love does not just grow on its own but that it requires constant, die-hard, focused effort. Its about being purposeful on how we love each other. They affirm to me how unique and rare our love is.
These were and still are, my vows to you:
“I love you for your beauty,
For your intelligence and your kindness…
and for the way you always know
how to make me feel so loved.
So on top of all the other vows
that I will make to you today, our wedding day,
I also vow to always appreciate
how lucky and blessed I am
to have someone who makes me feel the way you do
and to continue to try as hard as I can
to make you feel as loved as you make me feel,
forever and ever.
On this day,
I promise to you perfect love and perfect trust,
For one lifetime with you could never be enough.
These are my promises to you:
I promise to encourage your compassion,
Because that is what makes you unique and wonderful.
I promise to nurture your dreams,
Because through them your soul shines.
I promise to help shoulder our challenges,
For there is nothing we cannot face if we stand together.
I promise to be by your side in all things,
Not possessing you, but working with you as a part of the whole.
Lastly, I promise to you perfect love and perfect trust,
For one lifetime with you could never be enough.”
We have something sweet. Something that cannot be explained or
quantified. Its rare. Its unique. I love our vows because I feel they so accurately depict the essence of who we are. When we wrote them before that day, on our wedding day, and still to this day; they ring true. They are beautiful in every way.
Remembering our wedding day, the happiest day of my life, is a moment I will never forgot and always cherish. Nothing is near perfect in this world, but our day was. Absolutely perfect.
One lifetime with you is really not enough.
Happy two year anniversary sweetheart.
your huz
This means two things:
Colin T Hedren 