I light the candle and I place this bracelet on your wrist to tell you how much I love you.

We have been together for four years now and we’ve been through a lot of changes. There have been some ups and downs, and occasionally even a little renegotiation, but throughout it all there have been things about you and about us that haven’t changed at all. These are the things that I want to tell you.

In four years I have never stopped loving you, I have never been seriously angry with you, and every single moment that we have been together you have shown me nothing but love and devotion. You and I have cared for each other in times of sadness, and celebrated together in times of success. I love your humor and your intelligence, your skill and your determination, and even your obsessive copyediting. I love every side of yourself that you have shown me so far. Without exception. No matter what has been happening in my life, when we are together you make me feel strong and secure and loved.

Betty, this is the longest non-psychotic relationship that I’ve ever been in, and the best. We’ve built something here that we’ve come together today to celebrate. I want to tell you right now, in front of all the people that are important to us, or at least as many as can stand to be in the same room together, that I love you more than anyone else in my life, that I love you in a way that I could never share with anyone else, that I love you now more than I ever have before. You are my first and my foremost, you are the one I love above all others, and I am never going to give you up.