Many metaphors are at work in this relationship and we thought they should be honored and celebrated and shared with our friends and family. But they also need some explanation and a little warning, or prep-time. In leu of a cake cutting at our wedding, we will be ceremoniously nailing the lid on the "Fight Box." I know, it sounds bad. But hear us out.

The reason we invite our friends and family to witness our union is because we want your support in this grand, serious step in our commitment to each other. Having you there makes the commitment more meaningful, more serious, and more fun. But the thing is, the wedding day is arguably the easiest day of the marriage (and weddings are NOT easy by the way, but as far as the marriage and relationship goes, that's a pretty great day). However, we do not presume for one second that this marriage as a whole will be that much different from others; marriages are a lot of work. It will not be smooth sailing all the time. We feel confident we have been through enough experiences at this point (and have spent time actively working on building healthy patterns with each other) to be the team that we want to be going forward, but we know there may be great obstacles ahead through the years and we do not know how hard they will be.

At some point in our marriage we might be challenged for some reason or another, and on that day we will pry open the lid of the Fight Box, open the bottle of red wine, read the letters within, and remember why we did this. We want your support on the easiest day of our marriage. But we really NEED your support on the hardest day of our marriage.

So. On our wedding day, please add a letter of support to our Fight Box, which will be open all day at our wedding until the nailing of the lid around dessert time. You may either write something now and bring it with you to drop in the box, or write something on the day of, but we wanted to give you the option. We welcome any approach you feel like contributing...long candid experiences and lessons you've learned, short bursts of cheerleading...whatever your style is, whatever you feel like offering to us. Thank you for sharing with us your advice, your love, and your support of this union. It's already comforting to know that you and your words will be with us going forward.

Special thanks to our friend, Khalid, of Reclamation Republic for helping us build it!