Dear Future Husband,

I’ve been thinking about you since I was a little girl, doe-eyed watching for the very first time what love between two people could be like. As I set there, enraptured at the twinkle in the eyes of a newly wedded couple as they caught one another’s gaze, I wondered if I would ever be as lucky as them to find someone with whom I could share my life with in that same capacity.

Since then, I’ve thought about a lot of things. I thought about what you would look like, as childhood images of knights in shining armor turned in to more realistic depictions of the ideal partner. Would you be tall, with wide shoulders and radiating warmth? Would you have soft locks of hair? So many ideas… so many drawing and depictions of a man with no face, because no matter how much I envisioned you, I could never quite grasp what you were going to look like as you locked gazes with mine.

How were we going to meet? Where? Who would introduce us? Question upon question, I relentlessly pondered one by one, because the thought of patiently waiting for the time to come was almost too much to bear, and if I didn’t have control over speeding up our meeting, I was going to at least plan it in advance.

But today, at twenty years old, and (while still extremely young) much wiser then I was as a little girl, I know one thing. I’m never going to guess right. You’re not going to be tall with wide shoulders, a cheeky smile and everything else I envisioned in my perfect image of you.

You’re going to be so much more than that.

You’re going to exceed every single expectation I had, and every single expectation I couldn’t even consider. You’re going to be everything I wanted and everything I didn’t know I needed. My ‘checklist’ of ideal traits and attributes won’t even hold a candle to you, because there’s something about you that’s so hard to place, and in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have come up with a combination of factors that come down to simply, perfectly you.

Thank you for being everything to me. Thank you for coming in to my life and showing me that I can be perfect and beautiful and wonderful, if only to you (and your opinion is the only one that matters). Thank you for pushing me to my limits, and testing my resolve and determination. You’re the reason I grow more and more everyday, the reason I pioneer in to new adventures and decisions. I am the woman I will become because of you.

In retrospect, I want to tell you how much I love you already. I think you’re handsome and kind hearted and wonderful. You make me smile when I want to cry, and you make me laugh whenever we’re together because nothing is better. I feel safe and happy whenever I’m with you, because you’ve provided me with the best possible life I could live, full of wonder and success. You’ve given me everything I need to be happy, and everything I need to succeed; you’ve been selfless and thoughtful, and always considerate, not only when it comes to me but also in every other facet of your life.

You inspire me every day to be the woman you deserve. I promise I will stand beside you always, I promise I will help you sort your colors from your whites, and remind you that you need to wash your jeans inside out. I promise I will never keep secrets from you (unless they’re a surprise for you) and I promise I’ll always put effort in to our relationship and our marriage. I want to make you laugh, smile, and live life every day knowing you’re the happiest you could possibly be.

You know how so many people say their relationships are going to be hard, but so worth it? Ours is going to be so worth it… and while there’s definitely going to be ups and downs, and a couple difficulties here and there, all in all, being with you is going to be the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I love you.