After a week and a half in Chicago, we’re home. I’m still not entirely sure what happened. All I know is, we weren’t married when we left, and photos like these offer some clues:

Rings on our hands

As part of the deal, we both got ourselves a new name. Our friend Henry explained:

They wanted it to represent both of them…. Rebekka suggested the idea to Germify the “Schlair” name, which is already a German word meaning “veil”, by giving it its standard German spelling. This was obviously the best idea. It was a short and satisfying conversation.

He also saw fit to share a bit of my bad poetry in the ceremony. So I’ll share a few of my better words here:

It’s because of you that I keep getting better at knowing what I need, at choosing what to do about it, and at being able to do it. And it’s because of who you are that what I need most is you, and what I choose to do about it is this.

These are supposed to be my vows, but I have only one: I promise that for us to continue having a fulfilling life together, there aren’t any new promises we need to make.

She said some nice things to me too. We’re very happy.

Smiling selfie in the bridal suite after the ceremony