Private Vows

As I have mentioned in the past, Mr. Buck and I have been together for going on ten years. I think anyone that knows us will say that we are very private people. We aren't ones to be mushy and lovey dovey in front of people. We have an extremely close relationship, but the details of such do not get shared with friends, family, coworkers or gasp- facebook. That's just how we are and how we prefer to stay. I know what you are thinking, "but you're a bee blogger." True, but I write about details of our wedding, not our relationship.

Which means originally the two of us were freaked out to write and say our own vows in front of over 100 people. We would both get super nervous, awkward and probably end up something like Doug from King of Queens:

{Video via You Tube}

I want the vows between us to be natural. I am confident if we try and do anything other than the traditional vows, both of us are going to end up in the awkward zone. We don't want that, but we still want something personal. So how do you have your cake and eat it too?

What we have decided to do is write our personal and private vows to each other. We are planning to trade them the night before, to be read on our wedding morning. Then we will proceed with the traditional vows during the ceremony. By doing this, I feel that we will truly be writing to each other from our heart. Instead of writing for the ceremony and avoiding certain details we may want to say to each other, but don't want everyone hearing.  Or trying to be too creative and failing (a la Doug Heffernan.) We will also have hand written vows to keep.

We plan on doing something special with the vows we write to each other. We haven't quite nailed that detail down, but we are thinking something similar to Mrs. Waffle's jar sealing ceremony. Except we would still keep the words in the letters between the two of us, and just seal them up in a jar.

I have heard a few comments here and there from people I have told this idea to. Some like it, some don't. In the end, I can't say those thoughts influence our decision to do this. Doing our vows this way is what makes the most sense to us and feels the most special.

Do you plan on writing your own vows or are you going the traditional route? Have you thought about doing private vows like we are?