A teary evening...

I *had* big plans for my evening, but since my garage door is not cooperating (gr!) I'm at home doing wedding stuff.

Thinking about the Catholic vows and how much I wish we could have them say something a little different (case in point, I don't want to talk about death, in any fashion, on my wedding day. "'Til death do us part" has always sounded SO morbid to me!), I set out into the e-world to find out "how to write your wedding vows".


Here are some of my favorite suggestions.

I love you. You are my best friend.
Today I give myself to you in marriage.
I promise to encourage and inspire you, to laugh with you,
and to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle.
I promise to love you in good times and in bad,
when life seems easy and when it seems hard,
when our love is simple, and when it is an effort.
I promise to cherish you, and to always hold you in highest regard
These things I give to you today, and all the days of our life.
Source

_______, I love you. You are my best friend and will be forever. Today I give myself to you in marriage to be your wife. I promise to encourage you, to laugh with you and to comfort you in times of sorrow. I promise to love you in good times and bad. I promise to cherish and respect you. Because of you, I laugh, I smile, I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you, caring, loving and being there for you in all life has for us. I will always be the person that you can trust, talk to and the person that will always understand. I will make my home in your heart. These promises I give you today and all of the days of our lives. I vow to be true and faithful for as long as we both shall live. Take this ring as a sign of my faith and commitment.
Source **I changed this one a little bit.

I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give.
I promise to accept you the way you are.
I fell in love with you for the qualities, abilities, and outlook on life that you have,
and won't try to reshape you in a different image.
I promise to respect you as a person with your own interests, desires, and needs,
and to realize that those are sometimes different, but no less important than my own.
I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my personal
world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.
I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face change as we both change
in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting.
And finally, I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give
and all I feel inside in the only way I know how... completely and forever.
Source

Today I will marry my best friend,
the one I will live with, dream with and love.
I take you to be my husband/wife.
From this day forward I will cherish you,
I will look with joy down the path of our tomorrow's
knowing we will walk it together side by side, hand in hand and
heart to heart.
Source

So they all brought tears to this bawl-baby's eyes. None are perfect and, obviously, I've got some thinking to do on length, style, etc. But it was a fun project. :)

Which of the vows above is your favorite??