Playful wedding vows for a spouse at a courthouse ceremony

Remember when we stood in that courthouse line clutching our paperwork like it might escape, and you bought us the worst vending machine coffee in state history? I drank it anyway because you handed it to me like it was champagne.

I promise to keep drinking the bad coffee you hand me — literally and otherwise — because you make even the worst stuff taste like a good decision.

I promise to always have the paperwork, the backup paperwork, and the snacks, because someone in this marriage has to be prepared while the other one charms the clerk.

I promise to laugh with you in waiting rooms, parking garages, and any other unglamorous place life makes us stand in line, because apparently that's where we're at our best.

So here, under fluorescent lights instead of string lights, I choose you — official stamp pending.

That coffee was objectively terrible and you drank it with the enthusiasm of someone at a five-star brunch, which is honestly when I knew I was stuck with you forever.

I promise to keep buying questionable vending machine coffee and other small, ridiculous gifts, because your reaction to them is one of my favorite things in this world.

I promise to let you handle the paperwork while I handle distracting the clerk, the line, and occasionally myself, because teamwork means playing to our strengths.

I promise that wherever we end up waiting next — DMV, jury duty, the end of the world — I want you next to me, complaining cheerfully about it.

So here, with a number from a deli-style ticket machine instead of a wedding program, I choose you — paperwork and all.