Vows from an iPhone

Dear #Evernote,

On Friday December 30th, my husband and I had a wedding ceremony in North Texas exactly one year after we were married in South Korea where he was stationed serving in the US Army the year before. We planned our entire wedding from El Paso in far West Texas (only about 600 miles away from where we had it) as my husband is currently stationed at Fort Bliss, and I used Evernote to help us do that every step along the way.

Using Evernote meant that no matter where I was, I could add things to my todos, inspirations, growing expenses, guests lists, and more. I also used it to write my vows the day before the ceremony. This is where it gets fun.

About an hour and a half before the ceremony I realize that my vows and the reception music were still on my laptop, which was at the house where I had started getting ready and not at the venue of the wedding where I had already arrived. I had one of my bride’s maids shove it in the car of another to bring it so that I could fix my overlook. (Funny that my todo list on Evernote did mention putting the music on a flash drive, but alas in the chaos of it all I didn’t have a chance to refer back to it!)

All of my bride’s maids arrived in time and we were getting ready when we realized that the car where the laptop was had its keys locked inside. This meant that both the music and my vows were now in the car and I only had half an hour to go before the ceremony. Realizing that I had typed my vows into Evernote, I took out my phone and looked them up in an attempt to memorize them. Then one of my bride’s maids said, “Why don’t you just use your phone? Better to have it and read them, then not have it and forget them.” With that they all agreed that not only was the the best choice, but for me – a cyber anthropologist, it was apropos.

With that, my phone was handed to the officiant and off I was rushed to hide in the final moments before the ceremony began. It was a pretty emotional ceremony as we’ve spent almost as much time separated as together in our marriage due to the fact he’s serving his country. I had already been tearing up before he got to his vows and by the time he uttered his words to me I was about to start sobbing. That’s when it was my turn and the officiant took out my phone and handed it to me. All of the guests began laughing, which was a blessing in that I was able to laugh too. Otherwise, I may not have been able to actually read my vows without being a blubbering bride.

After all of that, and all of the other uses I have for Evernote as a PhD student (all of my class notes, paper drafts, project notes), Research Assistant (all of my meeting notes and todos), an Anthropologist (all of my field notes), and a User Experience Designer (notes, todos, ideas, drafts etc) – I just want to say thank you for making such a great product and for all of the extensibility that is offered through its various application interfaces. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. Using your product really did save me on my wedding day!

For those interested, you can read the vows here.

Yours Truly,
A thankful bride