If you’re currently planning your wedding, I’m sure you’ve been told at least 100 times that the day passes so fast. To enjoy your day. To take it all in.
The reason everyone tells you this is because it’s absolutely TRUE! It passes in a flash.
Now, if you’re a newlywed, or still engaged, you will read this with disbelief. You might think I’m a terrible wife, or a little feeblebrained. I promise, I’m not. But here’s the absolute truth:
After more than a decade of marriage, I can not remember my wedding vows.
I’ve got a pretty good memory. Members of my family might say TOO good, as I will sometimes remind them of the exact, word for word thing they’ve said or promised. But, I forget my wedding vows. Of course I remember the love, honor, to have and to hold until death do us part. We pledged all those things. We didn’t write our own vows, but our officiant let us choose from several ‘extra’ vows he had. We chose these really beautiful vows, where we had to hold both hands, and look into each other’s eyes. We pledged to use these hands that we hold to…..well…..raise our children together. I remember that. There are a bunch of other things too, and I can’t remember any of those.
I don’t even remember what my husband’s voice sounded like as he repeated the stock vows. Was he sure and strong? Nervous? Holding back tears? Excited? I don’t know. I can’t remember.
Now, we did invest in beautiful wedding photos. In fact, they were one of the biggest expenses in our wedding. I treasure them. I still have one hanging on our wall, and my kids love looking through my wedding album. I absolutely feel that couples should invest in a really good wedding photography. Photography that they love, photography that they print, and photography that they will treasure forever. (If you need a recommendation, we have a handful of amazingly talented professionals that we have worked with, in a variety of different styles, and I’m more than happy share their info with you).
But we didn’t have a wedding video. At that time, there were no wedding highlight films. Wedding video was literally, a straight video of your ceremony. Usually one camera, more angles if you really spent some money. It wasn’t very artistic, or something we were interested in. I can honestly say that if we had, we wouldn’t have watched our ceremony over and over. But at the very least, I would be able to rewatch and hear (hopefully, because audio wasn’t the same then as it is now) our wedding vows.
There will be times in your marriage where you may need to hear those things again. Where you really just need to hear the emotion in your voices as you pledge your lives to one another.
You do not want to forget those first excited, jumbled words you exclaim to each other in the privacy of your first look.
You do not want to forget how your dad has to stop and gather himself in the middle of his speech, almost too overcome with emotion to continue.
You do not want to forget the kind words shared by your friends and family as they toast your new life together.
(This is the 2nd post in a 3 part series. Be sure to check out Reason #1, and finish things off with Reason #3!)
Love seeing life captured through photo & video! There is so much value in it!
We didn’t do video at my wedding but i still look back at our pictures and am so thankful we have those for memories. You’re right – it’s incredibly easy to forget the beautiful details!!
Memories. They are everything. There are so many moments I wish I had more documentation of and being a part of the wedding industry I now truly understand the value of photography and videography. Thanks for sharing!