Meleth e-guilen Nicholas,

I stand before you today, on our wedding day, making the same pledge to you that many of the greatest have made before us - a pledge of love, loyalty, and friendship. By joining together under this pledge, I know that we are far stronger and happier than each could ever be alone. You are the strength I didn't know I needed and the joy that I didn't know I lacked. Today, I choose to spend the rest of my life with you.

As I have learned from spending countless hours laughing with both you and your family - sometimes the best way to express how you are feeling is by dropping a few quotes from some of the greatest characters in your favorite movies. So here is my best attempt:

“I’m your huckleberry” Similar to how Doc Holliday knew that he was the man to take down Johnny Ringo, I stand before you today knowing that I am the right one to love you for the rest of your life. Over the past 8 years, we have built our love on respect and trust, ensuring that we value each other every day with our words and actions, and by being vulnerable and maintaining unwavering honesty with each other. Because our love is built on this foundation, I am excited to spend forever by your side.

“Leave the gun, take the cannoli!” Oh wait, I mean “The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.” Similarly to how things were run by the Corleone family, our loyalty towards one another is based on honesty and commitment. I wholly accept you for who you are and hope that as we continue on this journey together, that I can be the person that you can always count on.

“I can’t carry it for you… but I can carry you!” Though I cannot take away your burdens and I cannot make your challenges disappear, I will always walk beside you and do whatever I can to help you complete your mission. I want you to know that whatever happens in your life, you will never be alone. By traveling through these challenges together, we will not only become stronger individuals but the friendship that we have built this relationship upon will become deeper rooted in the ground. “And to that, I hold. I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

Oh, by the way, looping back to my greeting in the beginning when I said, “Meleth e-guilen” This is Sindarin, the elvish language, for “love of my life.”

As depicted in these quotes, examples of love, loyalty, and friendship are all around us. But I think that it’s important for us to remember that we don’t need to turn towards the stars for such examples, but rather that we have found the most impressive examples of these things in each other. So that’s why:

I pledge to always know that I am the one to love you just as Doc knew he was the one to duel Johnny.

I pledge to be more loyal than all the members of the Corleone family, while still being a law abiding citizen; and

I pledge to always show up as your best friend, promising to take those adventures with you outside of the Shire and helping to carry any of the burdens you face along the way.

Through this pledge to you I will be pushed to ensure that the best version of myself shows up for you each and every day, as you have always done for me when I needed you the most.

It's not often that people get the opportunity to marry their true love twice. Standing here in front of you today, in this beautiful garden with the most special people around us, it's easy to think that this is a dream, but what I know now, as I stand here in our second wedding ceremony, is that YOU are in fact my dream come true.