The Vow

It's June and before this month ends, I want to blog about the first thing that comes to mind whenever this time of the year arrives: WEDDINGS! According to Wikipedia “June is known for the large number of marriages that occur over the course of the month. According to one etymology, June is named after Juno (Hera). Juno was the goddess of marriage and a married couple's household, so some consider it good luck to be married in this month.” However, as a Christian, I don’t believe in neither good nor bad luck hence we didn’t plan to get married on June but on December. In between my two most favorite times of the year: Christmas and New Year! (: But I hope you don’t get me wrong. The reason also why lots of people tie their knots on June may be because of reasons like having good, warm, sunny weather (summer in America), and beautiful flowers aplenty and in full bloom this season.

Anyway, today is exactly 6 months after our wedding! People say that the wedding day is a blur which for me isn’t true. I can still remember everything that happened from the very first second I woke up alone in my hotel room till the time I checked in with my husband to our honeymoon suite. But the most memorable of all for me was when we exchanged our wedding vows. Luckily, aside from the traditional vows, our priest who is a family friend of my husband, allowed us to write our own vows to each other. And to me, giving a personal touch to our vows is what made our wedding extra special.

Let me share with you our personal vows we made in front of God, our most dearest family and friends, and to one another.

Bride:

I, Joselle, choose you, Alan to be my husband.

I prayed that God would lead me to his choice,

And I praise him because I am confident that today, His will is being fulfilled.

I knew I love you right from the beginning.

I never met someone so wonderful.

I've never been more accepted and celebrated for who I am by you.

As we start this journey of my life together,

I promise to love you more each day, even in the hardest and worst of times.

I promise to stand by you through life's challenges and choices.

I promise to be the strength you need when you're weak,

The blanket when you're cold, and the calm in the storm.

I promise to you my deepest commitment in love, my fullest respect, and my tenderest care.

I promise to celebrate our life together and enjoy every second I'm blessed to have with you.

I promise not to take our love for granted and to freely give you all that I have.

As I give you my hand to hold, I give you my life to keep. 

I love you!

Groom:

Joselle, you are God's gift to me, my soul mate, my best friend, my angel. 

I fell in love with you before I could even realize it.
When we were neighbors, I thought of you as family.
And I was too timid and shy to show my feelings for you.

When you migrated to the US, the thought of losing you was too great for me to bear. 

I realized that I wanted you to become a bigger part of my life.

I remember getting a fever for a whole week after I confessed my love to you. 

Our long distance relationship seemed like a very long time. 

But we survived it.

I feel so grateful that you have patiently waited for this day.

I love you and thank you so much for choosing me as your husband.

I promise to care for you more and more, to be open to you at all times,

to cherish you as you are now and as we grow old together.

I promise to love you unconditionally, everyday and forever. 

I, Alan, take you, Joselle, to be my wife.

I’ve read our vows more than a couple of times but nevertheless, my heart still melts every time I read it. Our vows should be an everyday reminder to us of how we are to treat each other every single day of our lives. (I’m even thinking of putting up our vows in a frame of our bedroom wall. Haha.) There is not a single excuse on why our relationship is not going to work out because the words came out personally from our own thoughts and words. Whenever we get into a fight or argument (which is once in a blue moon, thank God), I pause for a moment and remember my vow to him and to God which helps me get over my emotional behavior. The moment that we decided to let God control our relationship, through the sanctity of holy matrimony, we agreed that there's no option for a detour. There's only one path we're going to take, however rocky and rough, and that's the path of growing old together and loving each other unconditionally.

I've once heard that LOVE is a decision. Once you have decided to fall in love, you have to make it work, there's no other alternative. That's why before Alan and I made the biggest decision of your lives, we had to be utterly sure of what we're signing up for. And how did the both of us get so sure of each other? That's a different story. Will blog about that soon!

xoxo,

Joselle