Frankie & Gina - Downtown Tampa Wedding

Frankie and Gina's downtown Tampa Wedding was one of the most powerful days I've ever witnessed. I think the best way to tell the story is to let you read Frankie's vows. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Frankie's vows:

 "I can’t believe that it was way back in our senior year of high school that I first had the privilege of formally meeting you. It was Mr. Ganyas english composition class and you and I would study our vocabulary words consistently together for the first few minutes of every class. Then one day, this thing called prom came crashing into our lives. A friend asked you if you were going with anyone and you said no because you didn’t desire to go with anyone who had already asked you. Then she turned to me and asked me the same question. And I told her I haven't asked anyone yet. So there must have been a bright neon sign hovering over your head pointing down towards the earth that said 'ask her', because not a second later I turned to you and asked if you wanted to go with me. I will never forget the immense reassurance of your response.

You said to me, “Sure.”

It’s crazy that such a casual conversation would set us on trajectory to such a serious moment as now.

And it has been nothing short of treacherous. It would be an understatement to say that things were rough for us. At one point you even told me to my face that you could never see yourself marrying me. Well look at us now. To have reconciled as we reconciled is something that could only be attributed to the grace of God. Because you have literally been the source of my deepest sadness yet the light of some of my biggest joys. It is a testament that I will not leave you. I am here to stay.

I have never seen anyone love as deeply as you. And yet somehow the depths of that love reach even further still for me. I am encouraged by you in so many ways. You are amazing. I am both humbled and afraid that you would want to give your life to a man like me. I love you so much. And I am pained by the fact that I will fail you more times than I would like to. So I can only hope that when you see my failures you will look past them to the successes of Christ. Because to be a husband to you will be, by far, one of the hardest things I will ever have the privilege and joy of being.

So in light of who I will be to you, I vow, for the rest of my life to fight to bear the weightiness of these “I do’s.” To love you even in the unlovable moments because love is without conditions. Your pains will be my pains, your joys my joys and your loves my loves. I vow to have my happiness with you be rooted in my satisfaction in God. To have the bricks of our marriage laid on the foundation that is Christ and be held by the mortar that is faith. And though I will sin against you, I vow to be the first to repent. Because I do not want to sacrifice your heart on the altar of my pride. I vow to not compare any other women to you, because you--my wife that the Lord has given me--will be the lens by which I see every other woman with. Anything else will be a direct assault on His sovereignty to make us one.

You are my one. And I will fight with every cell in my body to keep us as one. And the only thing that will ever do us apart is death.

So it is with the great heaviness of these words that I commit myself to you Gina. My love. My wife."

(Keep reading for Gina's vows)

Gina's Vows:

Psalm 145: 14-17“The LORD upholds all who are fallingand raises up all who are bowed down.The eyes of all look to you, and you give them food in due season.You open your hand;You satisfy the desire of every living thing.The LORD is righteous in all his waysand kind in all his works."

For many years my eyes have looked to Him…Longing for Him to draw back His fingers… and just open His hand.

“Oh God, when is that “due season”!?” 

Impatiently waiting, I began to cultivate my own garden, attempting to foster what I thought was waiting for me within His clenched fist.Only to find that my counterfeit fruit never… not once tasted sweet. With each bitter bite, I longed more and more for what He had for me…far from my reach…far from my plastic garden and bitter fruit. I stopped all irrigation, ended all the tilling, and it was there, at the end of my striving that brought about the beginning of His fingers drawing back… one by one…until all five were opened and in His hand…was you.

You whose fruit is O so sweet;You whose garden is laden with genuineness, overgrown with hope and so much love.You whose character is so rich!You whose heart longs to serve!

It was YOU the whole time within His closed fist!

And now that it is “due season”, I cannot help but say,

“The LORD is righteous in all His ways,And kind in all His works.”….every single one of them.

Frankie, I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I do know that at some point tomorrow, I will fail you.I also know that at some point next week, I will also fail you yet again.But I praise God that this covenant is not based upon how happy I make you… but how through this covenant, God makes us holy.

J.C. Ryle once said, “He who loves me most, loves me best in prayer.”So these vows are not simply something beautiful I will only say once in my lifetime… But rather, they are requests that I will bring repeatedly before the throne of God for the rest of my life, because apart from His grace, I will never be able to uphold them.

Frankie, I vow to regard you as who you truly are in God’s sight:Forgiven, loved by God, holy, blameless, righteous and seated with Christ in the heavenly places.I vow to make war against the sin in me that would view you as anything less.I vow to race you to repentance when we argue, and should you cross the finish line before me, I vow to rejoice in your leadership and disregard my failure to win.I vow to be your greatest encourager and your most faithful companion and friend.To honor and respect you…. In your presence and in your absence.To fight for the purity of our marriage… In your presence and in your absence.I vow to nurture, care and cultivate my heart to keep you as the apple of my eye.

To submit to you as unto God. To follow you wherever you go…with joy.I vow to care for you as I care for my own body.To be the lifter of your head when discouragement ravages your soul.

But most importantly, it is my greatest and deepest joy that I have the privilege of vowing to you that as long as I live, I hope to be the biggest arrow in your life pointing your eyes back to Jesus.I vow to help you be the most amazing man that God has created you to be.I vow to love you…and I praise God that I have such an amazing example…Not from our parents, not from our grandparents, but from the great example of love that God the Father has shown us both…A love that has covered a multitude of sins…A love that is longsuffering, patient and enduring…A love that is sacrificial.

Frankie, I pray that these vows would always point you back to that ultimate love, for as long as I live. Te amo.