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:

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.