One of the best comparisons for marriage is traveling. The two of you have traveled across the Earth. You’ve seen many lands, gone through adventures, lived abroad.

You know there are different kinds of travel – for work, for rest. Travels with friends, with each other, with family. On some trips you rush from point A to point B, trying to find the fastest and most comfortable way to get there. On others, the truly meaningful ones, it hardly even matters when and where you arrive, but it’s the journey that matters.

Some journeys take you to the end of the world and back. Together.

The most important journey of your life is about to begin – your marriage. For the road, you will get four questions. The questions everyone asks before any travel.

Wedding photographer: Valdur Rosenvald | Rosenvald Photography

Wedding planner: Katre Relve

Videography: Henry Talvik

Venue: Viru bog

Pastor: Peep-Ain Saar

Bride’s makeup: Solveig Jõgisoo

Bride’s earrings: Birgit Skolimowski

Bride’s hair: Solveig Jõgisoo

Bride’s dress: Liina Stein

Groom’s suit: Kaubamaja

Where to go?

The question that invites us to think and to dream. To plan and study. To talk to friends, to look around on Instagram.

Your road together has brought you to this place. It is time to ask: where do we go from here? What are the dreams and goals we’re moving towards? Where will we end up together? What kind of a family do we want to create? What values do we want to live out?

On one hand, this can be answered with big dreams and ambitions. To the end of the world and back!

On the other hand, this is a question to ask yourselves every morning. Where am I on the road to today? Are we going in the same direction?

Whom to go with?

We know that if the company is good, you can go wherever. Even a day cruise to Helsinki can be full of laughter and adventure. Who will be your main companion on this life’s most important journey?

Yes, it seems to be obvious. The two of you have chosen each other as your number one traveling companion, that’s what we’re here to celebrate.

Yet, you also know that there will always be competition for that spot. Competition from the best and most important things in life. It could be children, especially when they’re small. Work and hobbies, new business ideas, and ambitions. All the things that captivate your time and attention, your care and dreams.

On the day of your wedding, it is easy to say that of course, you’re the one I choose as my most important travel companion! But this is a question to ask and answer yourself every morning. Who am I traveling with today? Who is my main companion?

What will it cost? And who will pay?

This third question is not a pleasant one, but it needs to be asked because every travel has its cost. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if someone else is paying. But what is the cost of this journey the two of you are embarking on and who will pay?

The answer is: it will cost you everything. And the both of you will pay.

Today you are paying the highest price you’ve ever paid. You’re giving away everything you have to the one beside you. There is no higher price. And today you are getting the greatest gift – the one beside you. There is no greater gift.

Yet both of you know from looking back on the years that the hardest time to pay the price is in your everyday. When you’re hungry and exhaustion is knocking you off your feet. When work is more stressful than ever before. When your last vacation was far too long ago. When your baby wakes up crying in the middle of the night for the fourth time already. In those moments you will want to ask, why must the price be so high, and is it again my turn to pay it?

In every other area of life, when you must pay a price, you become poor for it. That is not how love works. In love, paying a price will only make you richer for it. Thus, even though the price of this marriage journey is higher than anything else, paying it will make you richer than anything else.

What is waiting ahead?

Will everything go smoothly? Will there be adventure or affliction? Will there be sun or thunderstorms? Perhaps there is no point in asking those questions, for we can never really know the answer.

So, too, with marriage, there can be no sure guarantees here in front of the altar of what is waiting ahead. But you can be promised that it will include an abundance of beauty, joy, and adventures. And sometimes we all must go through hardships. That is the way for the most meaningful journeys – they bring both joy and pain, laughter and tears.

Is it not strange to say that you choose this imperfect human beside you, ready to go on through life together, hand-in-hand, disregarding the cost, not knowing what awaits ahead? Yet that is the beauty of a marriage – it is a step in love, faith, and hope.

Let these following words guide you on this journey. Words of love where there is beauty and pain and abounding wealth of grace. These words were written down nearly 2000 years ago, yet they speak to us now, as if meant for just this day.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1Cor 13:4-8)

Lastly: though this travel is all your own, find ways to live it bigger than just the two of you. Find ways to change your corner of the world.

Today you’re embarking on the most important journey of your lives. The best is yet ahead.

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