Who says you can't quanitfy love? I tracked my heart rate during our wedding ceremony in September and time-stamped a few highlights with the help of photos from family, friends, and our official photographer. I tried a few different tools for creating the chart (Google Sheets, Numbers, Sketch, etc.) but eventually landed on Plot.ly for the interactive annotations.

 

I wore the heart rate monitor under my shirt cuff to keep it out of the photos and against my skin. I'm sure it moved around a bit, but I was happy to see repeated measurements even after some of the steep drops or climbs.

Waiting for it to begin

My heart rate climbs slowly but steadily towards the beginning of the procession. The wedding party waited inside for everyone to be seated before the procession started. We could see the guests arriving, chatting, and getting to their seats through the windows of the auditorium we were waiting in. I definitely got more and more nervous watching and waiting.

Calm during the vows

A lot of friends and family have pointed out how the vows and then exchanging the rings seemed to calm me down a lot. It definitely did. I think part of the calm came from the most normal moment in the entire wedding. The whole day is this crazy ordeal. The two of you are the center of it, but it's not really about you. It's about celebrating with your friends and family, making sure the buses arrive when they're supposed to, remembering how slowly you have to step to take up all the time of the music during the processional.

But when it came to the vows it's really just the two of you again. Vows can be cliche and overplayed, but at the end of the day it was just me and my wife telling each other how we felt. Sure everyone else was there, but the words were just for us.

The glass

Oddly enough I was most nervous about this. Stepping on a wine glass isn't the most natural thing in the world. Not only that, but my father-in-law warned me not to step too hard as he'd actually injured his ankle at his wedding. You don't really get to practice either - unless you order extra glasses or have some at home you're not fond of.

Needless to stay I stepped a bit too delicately and needed a second attempt. If my heart rate wasn't up from the nerves it definitely was up from the embarrassment!

Full day

Here's the full day chart from the actual Fitbit app. It's crazy to me that breaking the glass topped everything - including dancing at the reception!