"I will!"

On August 9th, when Deborah and I where stuck on the highway to Niagara Falls, I told her "you know, I don't really care what we are doing, as long as we are doing it together." Little did I know the prophetic character of those rather lightly spoken words. Over the last five months, our relationship has deepened and strengthened in amazing and breathtaking ways. Yesterday¹ evening, in the presence of a small circle of family and close friends, we honored and celebrated the special bond between us, using the following vows:

My beloved Deborah, I, Ilja, take you to be my companion, my constant friend, my muse and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in joy and in sorrow, in times of plenty and in times of want. 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, to nurture you and to grow with you through all of life's challenges. I will cherish you for as long as we both shall live.

My beloved Ilja, I, Deborah, take you to be my companion, my constant friend, my muse and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in joy and in sorrow, in times of plenty and in times of want. 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, to nurture you and to grow with you through all of life's challenges. I will cherish you for as long as we both shall live.

It was a nice, small ceremony. We are both very happy, as should be apparent from the photo, taken after the wedding dinner. :)

We will get our custom wedding bands next Friday, just the day before I go back to Germany. Deb plans to follow me just a handfull of weeks later. Once we are settled in Germany, we plan to follow up with a bigger wedding party, to share our joy with all those friends and relatives we weren't able to invite to this event at short notice.

These are amazing times for us. Best wishes to all of you out there, may your life be as full of luck and joy as mine!