Dearly Beloved

We were gathered in Dallas this weekend to celebrate the marriage of Jesse Eyer and Jenny (Hutcheson) Eyer. It was so wonderful to see all of our "old" friends from college and catch up. Jenny was a beautiful (albeit nervous!) bride, and Jesse played the part of excited groom with ease. Like with all weddings, the bridal suite was full of girls putting on each other's make up and curling each other's hair before the ceremony, while the groom's suite was full of young men in tuxedos spitting grapes at each other.

The service was an emotional time for bride, groom, and their families, but also for me as I looked across the stage at the man who I married just a few short months ago. I vividly remember that lovely day in March when we promised to love each other forever, and I had to fight back tears when I heard Jenny and Jesse recite those same vows that Jeffrey and I recited, and that our parents said, and that our grandparents vowed. The words are simple, the words are few, but their power is undeniable. Those sacred vows have bound together millions of hearts throughout history, and part of their magic is simply the fact that they are ancient and wise.

The words of the vows are not flashy, they do not promise anything incredible, but they ask of you such honorable things. They do not ask you to give up your family, but to create a new one. They do not ask you to lose you identity, but to become a better version of yourself. They do not ask you to like each other every second of every day, but they do ask you to love each other from this day forward--to care for the other in sickness and in health--to stand beside each other in good time and in bad--and to live every day together until death parts.

I wish the best to Jenny and Jesse, and hope that their first months together as husband and wife are as wonderful as ours have been.

Lauren