Imagine this: The day you have been planning for months has arrived – you are going to marry the love of your life! Your nerves may be frazzled, you probably have a million things running through your mind, and you can’t wait to see your fiancé and seal the deal. But there is one solitary letter that will be one of the most important things you will read all day – a love letter that is penned by your fiance.
Taking a moment to sit and read their words, absorb their meaning, and reflect on the step you are about to take together is one of the most powerful things you can do on your wedding day.
No matter whether it was written months, weeks, or even days before your wedding day, the letter is a great way to help your partner to calm their nerves and know how much they mean to you before you say, “I do.”
You might think this is a lot of pressure to put on each other and that you have to be a practised wordsmith to be able to put your feeling eloquently into a letter like this – but it is a lot easier than you think.
Here are some tips to help you to write your wedding love letter…
Take some time to think
It’s a rare gift for someone to be able to sit down and pour their heart out and nail the perfect letter on the first attempt, so don’t set that as an expectation for yourself. Giving yourself time to reflect on your relationship can really help to give you clarity on what it is about your fiancé that made you fall in love with them, what their best qualities are, and how you have made the perfect team.
Write down notes
When you think of the perfect memory, or the buzzword that has been eluding you springs into your mind, write it down. Keep all of these thoughts in a notebook or a safe place squirrelled away on your phone, so you can whip them out easily when the time comes to start constructing your letter.
Make it personal
Throw generic out the window! Use the memories you have created together, the quirky things your partner does, and the shared experiences you have to really tailor this letter to them. This is the ideal forum for inside jokes and pet names!
Go digital first
Whether you decide to present your love letter in a card, on traditional paper, or in a special notebook, you want to make sure you don’t have to reach for the White Out if you make a boo-boo. Write your drafts on the computer and then, when you have it just the way you want it, you can transcribe it.
Take your time when writing it
When you get to the point where you begin to hand-write your letter, make sure you have lots of time so your writing is legible. Your fiancé will be able to tell if you have rushed to jot something down at the last-minute!
Don’t make it too long
There will be so many emotions to process, but not all of them have to make it into your letter. Not only that, but you will be reading this on your wedding day and chances are, you won’t have time to read through pages and pages, no matter how sweetly written they are. Just because it is a letter doesn’t mean it has to fill an entire (let along multiple) A4 page. A succinct small card can be just as powerful.
Stay true to yourself
If you aren’t known to fall on bended knee and recite turn of the century poetry, don’t feel like you have to in your love letter. Be genuine and use the tone that you would normally speak to each other in, but feel free to turn up the romance dial ever so slightly! This is the best way to prompt your fiancé to ‘hear’ your voice when they read your letter.
Avoid creating a list
Dot points are simple, succinct, and to the, er, point. But avoid this being your final product. While “25 Reasons Why I Love Sandy” may seem like a catchy way to go, there is so much more you can do. Even expanding on each of these will allow it to flow nicely into a letter style.
Add a fragrance
It may seem like something a teenager would do for a letter to their first crush, but research has shown that our sense of smell is strongly linked to our memory. Giving you letter a little spritz with your perfume or cologne can have a calming effect on your partner as they read your letter.
