Playful wedding vows for a partner at a beach ceremony

Okay, first: remember the day we tried to beat the tide back to the car and lost absolutely all our shoes to the ocean? That's us. That's the whole relationship. We chase things that are probably bad ideas and somehow end up laughing on the shoreline anyway.

I promise to keep chasing bad ideas with you, as long as you keep grabbing my hand right before I fall. I promise to never, ever let you win at who spots the dolphin first, because I will always win that, it's just a fact.

I promise to build you increasingly elaborate sandcastles even though you always 'accidentally' step on them. I know it's not an accident. I'm choosing to love you anyway.

I promise to be the one who remembers sunscreen, and to gently judge you forever for the one time you didn't, resulting in a sunburn shaped suspiciously like a heart. Romantic, honestly.

Today, with the water at our ankles, I promise this: I'm yours on the good days, the sandy days, the days we lose our shoes to the sea and have to walk back laughing anyway.

For the record, I did not lose the shoes. The ocean stole the shoes. There's a difference, and I will be bringing this up at future dinner parties. But yes — that day sums us up completely: reckless, soaked, happy.

I promise to always grab your hand right before you fall, even when some small petty part of me wants to let you have the full comedic tumble. Love means sometimes skipping the good bit.

I promise to let you win the sandcastle-stomping war, even though we both know I could rebuild better and faster. I'm being generous. Please notice.

I promise to bring the sunscreen you forgot and apply it with maximum smugness, because someone in this marriage needs to think ahead, and apparently it's going to be me, forever.

With my toes in this same sand, I promise this: I'm yours on the reckless days and the soaked days, the days the ocean takes something from us and leaves us richer anyway, standing here, together.