“I Vow” “How did I get so lucky?” Kelsey thought to herself as she looked around the hotel suite. She stood up from the bed, slowly and carefully so she wouldn’t wake the 3 bridesmaids snuggled under the covers next to her. She tipped toed over to the small closet near the door, smiled at the disaster that was Meg and Alex trying to share the fold out. Alex had spread out her arms and legs to wide she looked like a stranded starfish, leaving Meghan clinging for dear life to the metal edge. Poor girl was going to feel that walking down the aisle. Kelsey opened the white door to the closet and rubbed her hand over the plastic bags holding the girls long golden dresses, stopping at the thick white garment bag that held her wedding gown. She was tempted to unzip the bag, but she didn’t dare tousle a single bead. She was getting married in less than 12hrs and she had to get some sleep. As she made her way back to bed she saw a notebook sticking out of her overnight bag and froze. Terror shot up her spine so forcefully that her nerves were no longer sending messages to her muscles to move, she was immobile. “O god, I never wrote my vows,” she was almost sick with the thought. She clamped her hands tight over her mouth to
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contain the desire to scream out loud. What was she going to do! “I’ll just write them now, how hard could this possible be,” She told herself that it would only take a moment. She smiled to herself as the unfaltering love she had for Ken warmed her blood and she blushed to herself. “How did I get to be so lucky?” she pondered again to herself. So lucky to have met the love of her life, so lucky to have him love her too and so lucky to be spending the rest of her life with him. Snagging the notebook from her purse she walked in the room’s bathroom, sat in the chair that faced the large vanity mirror sitting on the counter and started to write. At least that was the idea, but instead she found herself tapping the end of the pen against the paper, letting the thud-thud-thud echo in the room like a metronome; like the hands of a old clock, counting down the time she had left. She pinched the bridge of her delicate nose and blew out O2, very, very slowly. “Come on Kels, get you act together, you can do this!” she was not going to mess this up. She put the head of the pen on the paper and forced herself to write. I, Kelsey, take you, Adam, to be my husband. I take you as you, I love who you are now and who are yet to
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become. I promise to listen to you and learn from you, to support you and accept your support. I will celebrate your triumphs and mourn your losses as though they were mine… Kelsey re-read what she wrote, bit the end of the pen and scratched it out. She was pretty sure her cousin’s vows were the same thing. She pulled her fingers into a tight fist, cracking them almost simultaneously like she always did when she was stressed, and tried again. I take you, with your faults and your strengths, as I offer myself to you with my faults and my strengths. I promise to be faithful, supportive and loyal, and to give you my companionship and love throughout our lives. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. I vow to bring you happiness, and I will treasure you as my companion… “Stupid, stupid STUPID!” she wanted to scream as she violently crossed out words on the paper. She didn’t want to be clique. She wasn’t going to let Adam down with cookie-cutter vows. She thought long and hard, thinking about her and Adams relationship and tried one, last, time. Today I get to promise my life to you and I couldn’t be more excited about the adventures that we’re going to have together! You’re my favorite person, my best friend, and the best thing that ever happened to me. This is what I
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vow to you today and all the rest of my days: I vow to hold you accountable to being the leader of our family, even when it means turning down your offer to make chocolate chip pancakes so that we can make it to church on time. I vow to help you see the beauty in life, to be the optimistic dreamer to your practical side, and to do everything I can to preserve the memories that we make together. I vow to always warm your cold fingers and toes and try not to steal the blankets when it gets chilly at night. I vow to respect you as a man, my husband, and protector of the house. We all know that I’m an opinionated and strong-willed girl, but I vow to always give you the respect that you deserve. I vow to love you in all of your forms: the happy one where you get crinkles around those beautiful green eyes, the angry one when the Bears are losing, and the vulnerable one too. I vow to make sure you know how much I love you every second I’m alive. I vow to always be honest and real with you, even when it’d be easier to fake it. I vow to always put away the dishes that you wash and
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to scratch your back as we fall asleep at least every other night. I vow to always put you first, before the secrets I have with my little sister, before my dreams of owning an ice cream shop, and even before the little ones that we’ll have someday not so far away. You make me want to be a better person, and I vow to work every day to be the one you deserve. I love you for accepting my sassy side, for pushing me when I’m not so brave, and for really listening to me when I talk. You’re exactly the one I’d always hoped I’d find and I’m so glad that God brought us together. I choose you on this day with all of my heart and vow to continue choosing you for the rest of my days... Kelsey let her head fall on the paper. She couldn’t be happier and more tired if she tried. She started to let the events of the next day run through her head until she drifted off into the dreams of her future.
“Kelsey! Kelsey?!” Kelsey awoke to her maid of honor screaming her name. She wiped the drool from her chin, stretched out and cursed herself for falling asleep on the vanity counter. She stood and opened the bathroom door. Her bridesmaids looked at her
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in a panic, registered that she was all right and hadn’t ran away in the night and rushed her all at once. Kiley, her maid of honor, cut through and gave her a huge hug. “Your getting married today baby girl,” she whispered. Chocking back the tears welling up in her throat. Kelsey smiled at her, a big smile that showed teeth. Let out a girlish scream and yelled at her friends “holy shit ladies, I’m getting married.” “How did I get to be so lucky.”
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