8 Years and Counting

Today Dear Husband and I celebrate eight years of (mostly) wedded bliss. In honor of the occasion, I have dredged up our wedding vows, which we wrote as a mash-up of traditional and contemporary vows. Despite cautions not to do so lest we forget on the big day, we memorized them. (We're both performers, after all; the recitation sounds better; and the idea is sort of to know them and keep them for the rest of your life!) Actually, neither of us had remembered to learn the ring vows, too, so I'm a little foggier on that one. Anyway, here they are, illustrated with photographs from our wedding and our first anniversary. Aw, what kids!

Credit: Regina Lansinger

"I, Frau Doktor Doctor, take you, Dear Fiance, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to journey with you wherever life’s adventures may take us, for as long as we both shall live."


"Dear Fiance, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows. With all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. With this ring, I marry you."

1st anniversary at Second City in Chicago