After the readings and the homily, it was (finally) time for the good part- the actual getting married bit!
First, there was the Statement of Intentions. Fr. Ninja asked the following questions, to which we responded "we have" and "we will."
[Mr. and Miss Potion], have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
Will you honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?
Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Then came the vows. Now, marriage is a sacrament, and all sacraments have specific physical symbols and specific words spoken in order to be considered a valid form. In the case of matrimony, the physical symbols are the rings, and the specific words are the vows. As such, the Church discourages couples from writing their own vows- some priests will allow it, but you must add the "official" vows to the end of whatever you've written. Before we got engaged, I thought writing our own vows sounded romantic, but this is actually one of the first things we talked about once we got engaged- even before we started meeting with Fr. Ninja. Mr Potion said he was uncomfortable with the idea of writing our own vows- we would definitely have to read them off a piece of paper, and what if they got lost? Or what if one person's vows were much longer than the other's? And he didn't think he could be as eloquent as me (hey those were his words, not mine!). I certainly didn't want to make Mr Potion uncomfortable as we vowed our commitment to each other, and besides, writing vows would just be one more thing I'd have to work on...so I scrapped the idea. I'm glad we made this decision; we recited the same vows as my parents and grandparents- couples' whose marriages have provided wonderful examples of what love is- and every other couple in the global Church! We decided to do the repeat-after-the-priest version of the vows because we didn't feel confident enough in our ability to memorize them and Mr. Potion felt like it would be "cheating" to just respond "I do."
I, [Mr. Potion], take you, [Miss Potion], for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
I, [Miss Potion], take you, [Mr. Potion], for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
All during the rehearsal, Mr. Potion was threatening to do all sorts of goofy things during the ceremony- including during the vows. He said he might "accidentally" vow to take me as his "awful" wife, or that he might "forget" my name and say someone else's. Thankfully, Mr. Potion recited his vows properly and seriously- but then it was my turn. For some reason, just as Fr. Ninja was feeding me the first portion of my vows, my brain all of a sudden started to think, "don't say wife, don't say wife." For some reason I was afraid that I was going to say, "I, Miss Potion, take you, Mr. Potion, for my lawful wife," instead of husband. And then, of course, since I was actively thinking "DON'T SAY WIFE," I started to freak out even more, afraid that this mantra would be what ultimately screwed me up. Thankfully, when Fr. Ninja stopped speaking and it was my turn to repeat what he said, I said it correctly- I vowed to take Mr. Potion as my husband. Phew. I have no idea why I was suddenly afraid of saying the wrong thing but I am so glad I didn't- otherwise I'd never live it down...
Potential catastrophe averted, it was time to exchange rings. First, Fr. Ninja blessed the rings...
then we placed them on each other's fingers, reciting the same blessing:
Take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All that was left were some final words from Fr. Ninja and we were married! And Hive, I gotta be honest- I wasn't really paying attention anymore. I'm not sure what was going through Mr. Potion's head, but I know that in the below picture, all I was thinking was, Say 'kiss,' say 'kiss,' say 'kiss,' say 'kiss'...
Apparently he said "kiss"- or otherwise stated that we were totally married now, because it was time to kiss!
And then I finished it off the same way I finish nearly every kiss- I kissed him on the nose :)
Did you write your own wedding vows? Did you stumble over your words or have any accidental comedic moments during your ceremony? What thoughts were swirling through your head as you finally became man and wife?
*all photos by One Photo Gallery*
First, there was the Statement of Intentions. Fr. Ninja asked the following questions, to which we responded "we have" and "we will."
[Mr. and Miss Potion], have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
Will you honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?
Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Then came the vows. Now, marriage is a sacrament, and all sacraments have specific physical symbols and specific words spoken in order to be considered a valid form. In the case of matrimony, the physical symbols are the rings, and the specific words are the vows. As such, the Church discourages couples from writing their own vows- some priests will allow it, but you must add the "official" vows to the end of whatever you've written. Before we got engaged, I thought writing our own vows sounded romantic, but this is actually one of the first things we talked about once we got engaged- even before we started meeting with Fr. Ninja. Mr Potion said he was uncomfortable with the idea of writing our own vows- we would definitely have to read them off a piece of paper, and what if they got lost? Or what if one person's vows were much longer than the other's? And he didn't think he could be as eloquent as me (hey those were his words, not mine!). I certainly didn't want to make Mr Potion uncomfortable as we vowed our commitment to each other, and besides, writing vows would just be one more thing I'd have to work on...so I scrapped the idea. I'm glad we made this decision; we recited the same vows as my parents and grandparents- couples' whose marriages have provided wonderful examples of what love is- and every other couple in the global Church! We decided to do the repeat-after-the-priest version of the vows because we didn't feel confident enough in our ability to memorize them and Mr. Potion felt like it would be "cheating" to just respond "I do."
I, [Mr. Potion], take you, [Miss Potion], for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
I, [Miss Potion], take you, [Mr. Potion], for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
All during the rehearsal, Mr. Potion was threatening to do all sorts of goofy things during the ceremony- including during the vows. He said he might "accidentally" vow to take me as his "awful" wife, or that he might "forget" my name and say someone else's. Thankfully, Mr. Potion recited his vows properly and seriously- but then it was my turn. For some reason, just as Fr. Ninja was feeding me the first portion of my vows, my brain all of a sudden started to think, "don't say wife, don't say wife." For some reason I was afraid that I was going to say, "I, Miss Potion, take you, Mr. Potion, for my lawful wife," instead of husband. And then, of course, since I was actively thinking "DON'T SAY WIFE," I started to freak out even more, afraid that this mantra would be what ultimately screwed me up. Thankfully, when Fr. Ninja stopped speaking and it was my turn to repeat what he said, I said it correctly- I vowed to take Mr. Potion as my husband. Phew. I have no idea why I was suddenly afraid of saying the wrong thing but I am so glad I didn't- otherwise I'd never live it down...
Potential catastrophe averted, it was time to exchange rings. First, Fr. Ninja blessed the rings...
then we placed them on each other's fingers, reciting the same blessing:
Take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All that was left were some final words from Fr. Ninja and we were married! And Hive, I gotta be honest- I wasn't really paying attention anymore. I'm not sure what was going through Mr. Potion's head, but I know that in the below picture, all I was thinking was, Say 'kiss,' say 'kiss,' say 'kiss,' say 'kiss'...
Apparently he said "kiss"- or otherwise stated that we were totally married now, because it was time to kiss!
And then I finished it off the same way I finish nearly every kiss- I kissed him on the nose :)
Did you write your own wedding vows? Did you stumble over your words or have any accidental comedic moments during your ceremony? What thoughts were swirling through your head as you finally became man and wife?
*all photos by One Photo Gallery*
Miss a Potion Recap?
Love Potion #0.5: Uh…Who is This Chick?
Love Potion #1: Dress Rehearsal
Love Potion #2: Gettin’ Our Hairs Did
Love Potion #3: Last Minute Details
Love Potion #4: Corsages for the Generations
Love Potion #5: The Boys Get Spiffy
Love Potion #6: “Formal” Portraits
Love Potion #7: Goin’ to the Chapel…
Love Potion #8: Proceeding with the Ceremony
Love Potion #9: Leaving Our Families to Cling to Each Other
**I realize I took a break from posting recaps for like...a month. Oops. Life got a little hectic in Chez Potion in November, but it's starting to get back to normal. I can't promise that I'll be posting with any sort of predictable schedule, but I can promise that I'll finish my recaps! Just please be patient with me :)**
Love Potion #1: Dress Rehearsal
Love Potion #2: Gettin’ Our Hairs Did
Love Potion #3: Last Minute Details
Love Potion #4: Corsages for the Generations
Love Potion #5: The Boys Get Spiffy
Love Potion #6: “Formal” Portraits
Love Potion #7: Goin’ to the Chapel…
Love Potion #8: Proceeding with the Ceremony
Love Potion #9: Leaving Our Families to Cling to Each Other
**I realize I took a break from posting recaps for like...a month. Oops. Life got a little hectic in Chez Potion in November, but it's starting to get back to normal. I can't promise that I'll be posting with any sort of predictable schedule, but I can promise that I'll finish my recaps! Just please be patient with me :)**
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