Anniversaries & vows

Anniversaries & Vows are much the same.  They are both a sign of commitment to each other which is celebrated in various ways.  By saying vows to one another you are celebrating that commitment with a wedding or ceremony.  

A wedding is not about how much money you spend, where you have it or who to invite.  It is about showing all your friends and family the commitment you have for each other.

Stop stressing about who to invite and how you can’t not invite that person for fear of offending them.  Offend away, only have the people there that want to be there and celebrate with you.  Don’t invite someone out of obligation. If certain family members are not supportive of your decisions then it is their loss and they can stay home and wash their hair.  There are people we invited to our wedding that we haven't seen since so they are lucky to have made it on our guest list at all.

Anniversaries become the celebration of that initial union whether you are married or not. Russell and I had meetaversaries (the date we met) every month up until we were married and then our anniversaries were yearly.  Our meetaversaries became our Date Nights and we would celebrate in a unique way each month.  When my turn came around I would plan Dates around a letter of the alphabet.  I loved creating fun and unique adventures for us to do and Russell looked forward to my Date Nights well ahead of time.

Having something to look forward to gives you another reason to move through your daily routine. Date Nights should be pre planned and scheduled onto your calendar and should never be cancelled unless there is an alien invasion, and if there is, invite them along too.  The more the merrier.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary of owning Romantic Gestures in 2016 and it was the same year we celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary so I thought I would share with you the vows I gave to Russell on our Wedding Day.  Here they are:

I cannot promise you a life of sunshine,

I cannot promise you riches, wealth or gold,

I cannot promise you an easy pathway that leads from change or growing old. 

But I can promise all my hearts devotion, a smile to chase away the tears of sorrow, a love that’s ever true and ever growing, a hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow. 

I promise to love, honour, be faithful to, clean and cook for, stand beside and salute to, for by our actions we are known. (He is a soldier and yes I did salute him.)

I love you Russell, not only for what you have made of yourself but for what you are making of me. 

I love you for the part of me that you bring out.  I love you for teaching me that God is watching over me and that he has sent you to teach me that my prayers are being answered.  God has chosen you to be my husband.  Will you take me as your wife, will you love me all your life? 

Mark Twain was my inspiration for writing my vows.  I came across one of his works in ‘Poems and Readings For Weddings’, download your copy today.  I love reading these again and I would love to hear your vows to your sweetheart.  Feel free to email them to me anytime.  Tell us about how you celebrate your anniversaries in the comment box below.