When we first met, I didn’t eat cheese. Or mushrooms, or seafood, or peppers. Or eggs. Now, we ask each other “Indian or Nicaraguan?” “Persian or Thai?” You express love through the making and sharing of food, and the strength of that love has helped me discover a whole world I never knew existed, This is just one way you’ve helped me to grow.

When we met, I was a small-town girl without a clue about the world. I knew I wanted adventure, but I didn’t know where to begin to find it. You made it easy. A lot of people thought I was crazy to move away with you, not knowing what I’d do when we got there, leaving everything I knew behind to follow some guy. What they didn’t understand is that you were giving me everything I wanted, an adventure with the man I love.

Most people don’t realize that adventures, for the most part, are kinda boring. Most days Frodo and Sam simply walked, fell asleep, and woke up to walk some more. Adventures aren’t thrilling every day, but the hope is that they take you to something that is thrilling. Like today.

I think back to my 20-year-old self sitting in class in awe of this quiet, intelligent, fascinating man sitting next to me. I heard echoes of this day from the very first time you kissed me, and I felt lightning crackle down to my fingertips. I heard echoes of this day in the first weeks we were together, when I knew I was in love with you, and knew it was way too soon to tell you. The more I knew you, the more I wanted to know you, and that has not changed. I’ve known this day was coming for a long, long time, with a certainty that can’t be explained, only felt.

Now that I’m here, standing in front of you, on this day I’ve felt coming for seven years, I have never felt more certain of us. We have been through so much together, sometimes walking confidently hand in hand, other times hanging on by our fingertips. But we have always made it through, together, which is how I want to walk the rest of my life. Here are my promises to you.

When we met, I had been spending the last few years trying on different personas as I left high school and started college, trying to figure out who I was. When I met you, you helped me feel like I was returning to the true self of my childhood, now with the wisdom and experience of my adult self. I promise to always try to remind you of your true self, to honour him, and to bring you back to him if you lose your way.

That being said, you are going to change many, many times over the course of your life in ways we can’t yet imagine.I promise to continue to learn and relearn who you are for all the days of my life. In the words of Mr. Rogers, “Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”

As we continue to build our lives together and take on more responsibilities and more cares, I promise to help you hold on to your sense of childish play. Having a dance party together in our living room on a random Wednesday night a few weeks ago reminded me how important it is to be silly sometimes, to play, and to share in that together.

Finally, you are my rock and I am your river. I promise to always honor that yin and yang balance, and to provide you with a safe place to drift when you need to. At those times when you can’t be steady and strong, trust me to anchor you; I promise I always will.

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies was made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff and everyone one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.

Hannah,

I remember the first time you took my breath away on our first date, and over the past seven years I've barely gotten it back. We've moved all over in that time, and as hard as its been these past few years, the joy I've had has been in seeing us finally settle into a real life together. It's given me a vision of what the rest of our lives could look like.

You are my best friend and co-adventurer. You have plenty of fears but I've seen that you have the bravery to overcome all of them, and I've never been prouder to be your partner than in those many moments that you have. You constantly make me laugh and have a wonderful sense of humor, and in return I promise to remain secretly goofy. You are talented and love to learn, and I will spend my life learning with you. You are kind and loving and make me feel loved, and I promise to love you in return. I will respect you, support you, and be honest with you until one of us kicks the bucket.

Thank you for journeying with me, and thank you for becoming my wife.