A Woodside Wedding: Our Short and Sweet Ceremony and Vows

Once everyone had walked down the aisle (and I managed to roll my ankle in doing so), it was time to start the ceremony.

We had put together the ceremony text ourselves, which I wrote about in full here. It was short and sweet, and perfectly suited for what we wanted our ceremony to be. And it was even more special to have a good friend marry us.

A few excerpts:

"Love is a friendship that has caught fire.
It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.
It is loyalty through good and bad.
It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weakness.
Love is content with the present.
It hopes for the future and it doesn’t brood over the past.
It is the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories and working toward common goals.
If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack.
If you do not have love in your life, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.
So search for love.
Share it. But most of all… ENJOY IT."

"Let your love be stronger than your anger.
Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend than to break.
Look for the best in your beloved rather than the worst.
Confide in your partner and ask for help when you need it.
Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting relationship.
Give your spouse the same courtesies and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.
Say 'I love you' every day."

Then it was time to say our vows. Mr. Cola and I had each written our own vows, and hadn't shared them with each other prior to the ceremony. But we had laid out some parameters by making "vow libs," so they would be similar in tone and length. Mr. C read his vows first.

"Morgan, you mean more to me than any words I put together could possibly convey. You are an amazing, beautiful and intelligent person with a great sense of humor.

Today I would like to thank you for your friendship, unwavering support and motivation, as well as your ability to keep me well-grounded, with a balanced perspective on life.

For as long as we have been together, you have always been there for me, making the good times even better, and the bad times not so bad.

(My "I'm not gonna cry" face)

Today I promise to be there when you need me, to comfort you when you are upset, to make you laugh when you are unhappy, and to help you when you need assistance....even when you are stubbornly determined to do it all on your own.

(That line got a big laugh from everyone...so true!)

I will strive to make every day we have together better than the day before, and will do my best to appreciate all the wonderful things that make you unique.

I vow to work hard at nurturing our relationship, so that we will always stay as close as we are today, and together we will continue building our lives on the strong foundation that we have created.

Today marks a giant milestone in the journey of our lives. I don't know what the future may hold for us, but I do know that together it will be an amazing adventure."

Then it was time for me to read my vows.

"Alex, I love you from the bottom of my heart, and probably more than I can ever say. You know me better than anyone, and love me for who I am: a planner, a messy housekeeper, obsessed with shoes...You love me, even though I have cats, and don't really understand how robots work. (I just had to throw some inside jokes in there!)

You are my best friend, and the best person I've ever known. You're sweet, kind, loyal and funny. I love the many inside jokes we share, and how much we've grown up, and together, over the past 10 years.

Thank you for always being there when I need you. Thank you for being my rock, for grounding me when I'm overdoing it, and encouraging me when I need it. Thank you for being exactly who you are, my perfect compliment.

Today, I promise to love you unconditionally, to support and defend you in difficult times, and always appreciate you, and the little things you do.

I will try every single day to make you happy. I will listen when you need to vent, comfort you when you've had a rough day, and always be on your side, no matter what.

I vow to spend the rest of my life with you, laughing, sharing, building memories, and thoroughly enjoying whatever adventures may come our way.
I vow to build the best life together with you that we can, filled with passion and achievements, and be fully devoted to the love we share. And I promise to love you with my whole heart, forever."

Coming up next, the "I dos," ring exchange, and making it official!

Will you be writing your own vows, or going with more traditional vows?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

Vow Libs

Our vows are something that took Mr. Cola and I a while to decide on.

On one hand, I didn't really want to do the more traditional vows, where we would just repeat the same thing our officiant said. I wanted something a little more personal and meaningful for us, especially since we pieced together the ceremony wording ourselves.

But on the other hand, Mr. Cola thought that writing our own vows would be a lot of work. And I couldn't argue with that, because I agreed it would be. And then I read Miss Sewing's post about vows, and she brought up the very good point that when a bride and groom both write their own vows, and don't see them in advance, there's a good chance they could end up being vastly different in length and/or tone.

So Mr. Cola and I came up with a compromise: Vow Libs!

We put together the beginnings of some sentences for our vows that we will both use, and each fill in the end of the sentence with whatever we want. We also set the parameter that there will be at least 3 adjectives/actions/promises per line, and an additional sentence can be added after any of the lines if we just can't express our loving thought in one sentence.

This way, we can keep our vows a surprise until our wedding day, but they will be similar in feel and length. We're both fans of short and sweet, so this works perfectly for us!

Here are the Vow Libs we will be using:

Mr. Cola/Miss Cola, ________________________
You are __________________________________
Thank you for _____________________________
Today I promise ___________________________
I will ____________________________________
I vow to _________________________________
And I promise to __________________________

I made some cards with our Vow Libs on them, and lines to fill in the blanks, that we will each fill out with our final drafts a few days before the wedding, and give to our officiant to hold in his booklet with the ceremony text (we will also give a back up copy to one of the groomsmen to hold, just in case the originals get lost).


Now, as for what I'm going to write on my card, I don't really know yet. I'm giving myself until a week before the wedding to think about it, after all, these are going to be some serious and deep mad libs to fill in the blanks for!

What are you and your fiance doing for your wedding vows?