I NAME, take you NAME...

The wedding is in forty-six days, but I feel like the planning has ground to a halt. I got so much of the big stuff out the way at the beginning of the year, that it feels like all that's left is the niggly, last-minute stuff that we can't do until the last minute, like seating plans and choosing the menu and printing the place cards....ok, we could totally do all of that sooner than last-minute. I'm beginning to regret my RSVP date of 30th September, because it means that we can't start doing any of that stuff till we know who's coming, where to put them, and who is or isn't vegetarian. At any rate, I can't do it now. What we can do now, though, is print the programs. Except we haven't chosen the readings, decided who is doing them, and we have noooo clue what order stuff happens in. This also led us to the fact that we hadn't actually written our vows yet.

Mr Slippers and I wanted something with a traditional-ish feel to it, without being the usual "To be my lawful wedded wife/husband, to have, to hold, to love, to cherish from this day forward, etc etc." I do like the traditional in weddings, but I think maybe I've watched way too many soaps to feel like repeating those lines. (I used to be majorly addicted to Days of our Lives, Bold & The Beautiful, and before that, Loving and Santa Barbara. So lame.) Anyway, so Mr RS and I decided on something with a similar flow, without being too out-there and unintentionally cheesy (think Wedding Crashers and the sailing-themed vows at the main family's wedding that Owen & Vince crash).

Now I have a confession: Mr RS and I both like writing and I think we're good (ish) at it. But neither of us felt that we would be able to write something like vows. I know, I know, it's supposed to be more meaningful if it's from your heart, and stuff. But we just couldn't see how to do it! Enter: The Interweb. Or, more specifically, enter: Indiebride.com, and their giant vow repository.

I still feel like it's a bit lame that we found our vows on the internet (so don't tell anyone) but there is some awesome stuff on that forum! I was crying by the time I was halfway down the first page, because some of the vows were so beautiful and moving. So I copied and pasted everything I liked, sent it to Mr RS, and he deleted everything he didn't like. Then on Sunday morning we got his laptop, snuggled down in bed, and proceeded to create our vows from shards of other people's. It was one of the most fun mornings I can remember in ages. We laughed, I cried (as I do), we wrote fake funny bits and deleted them, and it just made me so happy that I'm marrying this wonderful man who can make me laugh and cry (from joy) and tells me he loves me and that I'm beautiful, and that he's scared but he still wants to marry me.

So without further ado, these are the vows we, um, created:

I, Mr/Miss Ruby Slippers, take you,Mr/Miss Ruby Slippers,

To be no other than yourself;

Loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know.

I promise to love you, to honour you, and to see you as the extraordinary person that you are, not only when you are acting with love, but also when you are not; not only when you remember clearly who you are, but also when you forget.

I acknowledge that I am whole and complete as I am; that all the love, the wisdom, and the strength that I need reside within me, and that I am marrying you not in the hope of getting these things, but with the promise of giving these gifts to you.

I love you for who you are, for who you might become, and for who I am when I am with you. I promise to celebrate with you in happiness and comfort you in sorrow, through all our years.

As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my heart to keep. My heart is, and always will be, yours.

The last line (My heart is, and always will be, yours) is from my favourite getting-together scene EVER, in the movie Sense & Sensibility. Mr RS knows this, so he used it in his proposal too. It's a nice way to book-end the engagement. :-) And the only line we came up with on our own! You know, after Jane Austen and Emma Thompson...

*sniff* I am going to BAWL.