Native American Wedding Vows

High Strung

The night of the 1980 Wimbledon final, after experiencing the highest high and lowest low of his career in the course of a single match, Bjorn Borg returned to his room at a London Holiday Inn and spoke to no one for two hours. After gathering his wits and finishing the night with friends at a local club, he flew with his fianc�e, Mariana Simionescu, the next morning to Bucharest, capital of her native Romania. There Borg did nothing for the next three days. "He was in a trance," Simionescu said. While it had rarely been mentioned between them, the pressure on Borg to win Wimbledon again had been infinitesimally greater that year than been the previous four. The couple was going to be married three weeks later, and they both knew that a loss would have put a cloud over the occasion. As their friend Vitas Gerulaitis joked during the tournament, Mariana wanted to marry a king, not a "viceroy."

As it was, the ceremony capped a dream month for Borg. The wedding took place in a monastery outside the town of Snagov, 25 miles from Bucharest. When the couple walked into the hall, a choir began to sing. Borg squeezed Mariana's hand a little tighter. At the end, the priest put a crown on Borg's head. "My husband the king," Mariana found herself whispering.

On the way out of the chapel, the Borgs passed a row of solemn monks -- as well as the unmistakable yellow mane and toothy smile of Vitas Gerulaitis -- and stopped to listen to the local abbot's words about the "mystery of the wedding vow." By Romanian peasant custom, they traveled in an ox-drawn cart to the reception a half-mile away. According to another fellow player in attendance, Ilie Nastase, this was the cause of the day's only snafu. "It wasn't easy to walk behind the cart," Nastase said, "because the oxen had shit all over the road."

Like the rest of the world, Nastase believed that "everything was looking up" for Borg in July 1980. That night the Viking God, dressed in a white suit, seemed to have it all. He had a new bride, a record fifth straight Wimbledon title, and he was in the midst of the most lucrative year of his career, one in which he would earn a then-staggering $5 million.

Yet, a dedicated Borg observer may have descried a few signs of trouble. For one thing, he had just married a woman who had been the roommate of his first serious girlfriend, fellow Swedish player Helena Anliot. When he'd been introduced to Mariana, Borg said he "wasn't overwhelmed." And he had told Gene Scott just the year before, "I have no idea what it's like to be with just one woman for one's whole life. I think it must be very difficult. If you see each other every single day, I don't think it's good." But Mariana was a warm-hearted and funny woman, and she was willing to sacrifice everything, including her own tennis career, for him.

honoring now and then, traditional native american wedding vows ...

Apache Blessing”Now you’ll really feel absolutely no rainfall, for each individuals is going to be protection for that other. Now you may really feel no cold, for every individuals is going to be heat towards the additional. Presently there will be absolutely no being lonely, for every individuals will be companion towards the other. Now you tend to be 2 persons, but there is only one existence before you. May beauty surround both of you in the trip ahead and through all the years, May happiness be your companion as well as your times with each other be good and long upon the earth.”Cherokee BlessingGod within heaven over please protect those we like. All of us recognition all you produced as we promise our minds as well as life together.

Your Special Wedding Vows

Renewing Your Wedding Vows, A Complete Planning Guide to Saying "I Still Do"

Wedding vows, finding the perfect words

The Everything Wedding Vows Book, How to Personalize the Most Important Promise You'll Ever Make

Wedding Vows & Traditions