I, Nicki, take you, Jonathan

Tonight is the rehearsal dinner! I am so freaking excited I can't stand it. It still blows my mind that me and Jon are tying the knot.

Last night we wrote our vows. We chose to write our vows because it allows us to better express our love and promises to one another for our life together. It gives us the opportunity to focus on our relationship and what makes it unique and amazing. It was definitely a daunting task. To come up with the words that would literally last a lifetime. Words that are much more than a cheesy love poem or a movie quote, but words that are actions and emotions that our marriage is built upon. These words will anchor us and remind us in the future as our relationship faces challenges what we are to one another. These words will give us courage and resilience as we spend our lives together. Yeah, pretty big deal.

We started the way everyone else starts: Google. What else did other people write? We shared our favorite phrases and words from different examples. We questioned our relationship. What makes this work? Why are we so perfect for each other? What is the foundation of our relationship? Our list included honesty, friendship, trust, humor, forgiveness, and other words. We didn't want to just copy someone else's vows. Vows should be uniquely yours if you choose to write them. This is when we really had to look inside our hearts to find the right words. Clearing my head, I imagined standing at the altar on our wedding day facing Jon, and I just started typing what I wanted to say to him. What I was feeling at the moment. What made me believe in us. What we were actually doing on our wedding day. This led to our first sentence of the vows. Jon thought I copied it, but it truly came from my heart. From there we did the same thing and came up with a total of 5 sentences that would build the foundation of our marriage. They are broad enough to last our lifetime, but specific to us. For now those words are for me and Jon. After the honeymoon I'll post them. Perhaps they can inspire others.

The Final Countdown

Here we go. 10 days til the Big Day. Amazingly, I'm not stressed out. Its all coming together beautifully, and I can vision how the day will pan out. Honestly, I can't wait. We worked so hard and spent so much time, that we are excited to experience the 'fruits of our labor.' My future Mother-in-law said it best, "Its now, just hurry up and wait."

With 10 days to go, today is the first day a forecast will be available for our wedding day. I haven't checked it yet. I'm a little nervous it may ruin my mood and sharply increase my stress. Inanimate objects may be kicked or punched. No one better tell me its good luck if it rains on your wedding day. That proverb was invented to make the bride feel better about crappy weather on her wedding day. Its pretty much the one thing that can go wrong, that will really make me mad. I could careless about everything else. The flowers, the cake. These problems I can fix. Mother nature on the other hand is a force I cannot reckon with. If it does rain, please do so in the morning while we're getting ready or in the evening during the reception. Just let us get all of our pictures done. We are getting pre-ceremony pictures at Fountain Square, Backstage Alley (Jon and I love Broadway and always walk this alley on our way to see a show at the Aronoff), and Mr. Pitiful's on Main St (our favorite bar where we have lots of memories and its simply beautiful on the inside). After the ceremony we're getting family pictures, again outside. Our church has a beautiful garden, a gazebo, and a rustic, old barn which we hope to use as our backdrop to our 'Thank you' postcards (more on that in a later blog). So as you can see, rain before the reception could really put a stick in the plans. But, I need to check. So here goes nothing.......