Replacing our Marriage Vows

When I was growing up, one of my favorite things to play was Barbies. My favorite aspect of playing Barbies was, of course, weddings! I only had one Ken and one MC Hammer doll that was Ken-sized (MC Hammer had on gold parachute pants and a gold vest and had his own boom box!). Due to my limited supply of men, Barbie and Ken got divorced a lot, so I could put on another wedding with a different Barbie. For the divorce, I would do reversed wedding vows, “Do you Ken stop taking Barbie to be your awfully wedded wife?” And yes, I thought the words to wedding vows were awfully and not lawfully (haha!).

Fast forward to my adult life. When David and I were planning the wedding, I asked him if it would be okay to say non-traditional wedding vows. With all of the Barbie weddings I officiated, I thought that the “traditional vows” wouldn’t hold as much significance to me. Together, David and I found vows we loved. One of my dear friends (and talented artist) Rachel Cobler painted our vows for us (photo below).

We hung the painted vows above our stairs that lead from the main floor to our basement. When we hung them, we knew it was a temporary spot because David had a special plan for that location. Before we met, David went on a hunting trip in Ohio with several of his buddies. On the trip, David shot a ram that he had taxidermied. The taxidermy process took much longer than expected, so he just got it back this spring.

Now our wedding vows are in our bedroom and our spot above the stairs feature our new friend, Walter.