To my future husband,

On Saturday 28 November you got down on one knee and asked me to be your wife. It was the easiest yes that’s ever left my mouth.

Three years ago I wrote about you. I started that open letter by saying how I don’t do perfect. I do real. I have never stopped being myself around you over the course of this relationship and our authenticity, conversation and hunger for each other will be the manifesto for our marriage together.

I read somewhere once that you need to fall in love six times before you get married. All I needed was one. And while I’ve met some very special people out of the 7 billion wandering the globe. Despite time and life, some inexplicable nonsensical pull brought us together.

So all I want to say is thank you. Thank you for representing true love to me. Thank you for never holding a bad day of mine against me and loving me through it. Thank you for pushing me to always be better than I was yesterday. Thank you for your understanding, kind and gentle heart. Thank you for loving every flaw and for seeing me for who I am. And thank you in advance for all the spiders you will kill for me.

The concept of love? I think I’m a little in love with it.

Love is the most powerful emotion on the planet. It motivates us, it comforts us and it defines who we are. It drives us to do the craziest things but it also inspires us to reach new heights and follow our dreams. Love is risks, love is rewards, love is hope and love is passion.

So until the day we say ‘I do’, I am enjoying the present and look forward to a future with you.

Too many people stay together because of expectation. Or exhaustion. Or fear of upsetting the status quo. But we, perhaps because of the divorce skeletons rattling through our heads, have always vowed we would never settle for second best.

And we won’t. You will be my family. Bound not by DNA, but rather the family I choose.

And every day, I will choose you, again. And again.