Six years with Sam Darling had flown by in a flurry of vibrant colors, tears, and love beyond compare and here I stood fixing my veil. My maid of honor smoothed my white gown, a white so bright that it was blinding if someone was to stare at it for too long in the sun. The sun was shining through the curtains that were billowing in the soft wind coming from the beach, as Ash stood up behind me in her light blue dress. “Are you ready, Sterling?”

I looked back at her and smiled. “I’ve been ready since I first saw her under those lights.” We walked out of the open french doors to the cliff where our wedding was taking place. Strings of lights hung over our friends and family who had been seated for the past half hour. As Ash and I stood behind sheer and billowing curtains while Pachelbel's Canon began to play. My father came and took my arm with tears in his eyes and he led me down the aisle of rose petals. He stopped at the altar and kissed my forehead before letting go of my hand and sitting next to my mother in the front row.

As the music swelled and the curtains flew around her frame, Sam walked down the aisle with her father and looked up at me with bright and teary eyes. I could not begin to put into words just how much of a goddess she looked like. Sam had a soft, golden headpiece of leaves that matched the piece around her upper left arm. Her dress was simple and had lace detailing on the top, with a sweetheart neckline before it cinched at her waist and flowed to the ground behind her.

She joined me at the altar and I immediately grabbed her hands. We couldn’t take our eyes off of each other. The sunset framed the floral archway we were standing under with a mix of colors and before I knew it, the ceremony had almost come to an end. I kissed my beautiful bride as a tear rolled down my face. We pulled away and she giggled and wiped away the tear from my cheek, before she wiped away her own and she laced her fingers with mine before leading me down the aisle with her.

I immediately pulled her aside on the cliff away from the prying eyes of friends and family and held her in my arms. “I love you, so much.” I could feel her laughing as she squeezed me tighter and whispered the same sentence back to me. We began to sway to silent music as neither of us wanted to let go. I began to hum the song Kiss Me by Ed Sheeran as I spun her in front of the sunset and held her close once the stars started to peek through the sky.

Sam Darling was the feeling of home, of coffee on rainy Sunday mornings that were to come at our cabin in the woods, of finding hidden waterfalls, of seeing a shooting star, of wonderment, of renewed life.

Most Importantly, Sam Darling was the feeling of infinite and encircling love and passion.