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So we lie here in the dark
All the wrong things on fire
In sickness and in health
To be with you, just to be with you
[Chorus]
In your wedding dress
To have and to hold
Cause even at my best
I wanna let go
And you hold me in your arms
And all that I can feel
Is my future in your hands
And all that I can see
Is how long ever after is
It's all that I can do
To be with you, just to be with you
[Chorus]
Thought I'd lost you
Thought I'd lost you
I gave you away
Thought I'd lost you
I'm jealous of the moon
For how it moves away
[Chorus]
And I wanna be (hard to hear
On the live recording, anyone?)
And I wanna wish it all away again
All the wrong things on fire
In sickness and in health
To be with you, just to be with you
[Chorus]
In your wedding dress
To have and to hold
Cause even at my best
I wanna let go
And you hold me in your arms
And all that I can feel
Is my future in your hands
And all that I can see
Is how long ever after is
It's all that I can do
To be with you, just to be with you
[Chorus]
Thought I'd lost you
Thought I'd lost you
I gave you away
Thought I'd lost you
I'm jealous of the moon
For how it moves away
[Chorus]
And I wanna be (hard to hear
On the live recording, anyone?)
And I wanna wish it all away again
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but after going through a completely verbally abusive relationship, I think it is about the fallout of marriage. the breakdown of love. about divorce.
I always saw it as a love song until I started going through the slow breakup with my ex, and then started relating to it in a whole new way. This song is beautiful, but terrible at the same time.
It also got me through some of the worst days.
He is an amazing performer, but an even better song writter.
But the beautiful thing about music is that it moves everyone in a different way.
So no matter what the writer of the song may have meant it to portray, the possibilities are endless as to their meanings. The music will be what it needs to be to each person. I love that.
so we lie here in the dark
all the wrong things on fire
sickness and in health
just to be with you
just to be with you
"so we lie here in the dark, all the wrong things on fire" he is in the dark cuz he and the girl he loved, broke with each other, and about "all the wrong things on fire" he talks about how the breaking was a wrong thing cuz he loves her. On the part that says "sickness and in health, just to be with you, just to be with you" he is thinking on what they said the day they married, cuz obviously thats what u say when u marry a person... to be with her on the good and bad and on the sickness and health.
in your wedding dress
to have and to hold
even at my best
I want to let go
Here all that comes to my mind is that he is holding her wedding dress thinking about her, and all he really wants is to let go of that since it’s painful for him.
and you hold me in your arms
and all that I can feel
is my future in your hands
with all that I can feel
is how long ever after is
its all that I can do
to be with you
just to be with you
“And you hold me in your arms, and all that I can feel, is my future in your hands”. Here it seems that even though they broke up they are still friends, so every time she holds him to comfort him or something he thinks how his future is on her hands, cuz if they never get back together, his future will be miserable. “with all that I can feel, is how long ever after is” he thinks about how he’ll be suffering forever, since they are not getting back together, and he still has a lot of years to live with the pain of not having her. “its all that I can do, to be with you, just to be with you” I’m not sure about this part, but I think he means his life is nothing if he isn’t with her.
and I lost you
thought I lost you (I gave you away)
thought I'd lost you
jealous of the moon for how it moves the waves
“and I lost you , thought I lost you (I gave you away)” Here he is saying that he lost her, but then he takes it back, cuz he didn’t lose her, he gave her away, since he took her for granted, and maybe the reason they broke up was his fault (maybe he cheated or something). “Jealous of the moon for how it moves the waves” he is jealous of the moon, cuz the moon has control of the waves, but he doesn’t have control over his life, since he wishes they were together, but they aren’t. This last part could also mean that maybe, since the girl he loves caught him cheating; he wished he had control of his live, so that way he could avoid her finding out about what happened.
and I want to be somebody else now
and I want to thicken my skin
and I want to wish it all
just wish it all
away again
Here he is wishing he was stronger (“thicken my skin”), so that he could throw what he is feeling away like he threw his relationship away (“away again”)… it says away again cuz it wouldn’t be the first time he is throwing something away… he threw his relationship before too.
Marriage counselors and friends will tell you, "Always remember what brought you together in the first place; revisit that."
My wedding day, it was all I could do to not cry. She looked so beautiful in that dress, so happy, and she wasn't a dress-wearing kind of gal. I have never had another day I felt more filled with happy emotions.
I still look at those pictures. There's one with our eyes closed, my mouth resting in a kiss against her shoulder, and she looks so perfectly at ease and happy at that moment.
I look at her, and I still love her. I want little more in this world than her happiness and success... I just want it to happen without me.
I met someone else while distance and time kept us apart unavoidably, and somehow fell in love with her without being any less in love with my wife. We fooled ourselves into believing some things could never happen and laid a perfect trap for what did happen.
So, in one night, I ruined a friendship -- with all the guilt there we can't even look at each other -- and find now I can't look my wife in the eyes either. Still, it did make me realize that I didn't love her as much as I should have loved someone who I chose to marry nor was I close to her in the manner I should have been. It took me time, but I concluded with consideration and conversation that while "close enough" would work for some people in a marriage -- including, unfortunately, for her -- it would only lead to a hollow bitterness for me. So, even though she would have forgiven me and gone for "making it work," I had to doubly break her heart by being the one not willing to try to "fix" things.
It's funny too, the one thing I always saw as the single unforgivable sin was cheating. Weird when we become the things we most despise.
So, this time next year, I'll be divorced, and I don't know who will hate me more, her family or my own. I'll have those wedding picture too, for as long as I live; maybe I'm just a masochist. I know, to the day I die, I will love her, and I will see her in that dress and remember the brief, hopeful moment so much seemed possible; remember how I almost couldn't get out my vows without crying tears of joy; remember how illogical and strange the human creature is. In her wedding dress, I will always love her with all of me that is pure.
I guess, why this song hit me so hard, is because it captures so well for me the perplexing contrasts of wanting to leave someone you still love.
my best friend and i had been dating for awhile then he decided to go into the military. at first everything was great, besides the whole distance thing. he was the person i wanted to spend the rest of my life with. we had everything planned out. and i mean everything. we were going to get married within a year we decided... that was until everything just started to fall apart. bit by bit. and he kept pushing me to marry him. but with everything falling apart as it was i wanted to wait. but he was convinced it'd fix everything, that it'd magically fix everything. but we eventually broke up.
to me this song means that maybe they were best friends and thought getting married was right choice. but as he looks back upon it, maybe it wasn't? maybe you two weren't ready? it's supposed to feel one way.. you're supposed to feel so happy... but you realize you're not. and even as she looks perfect, like every bride is supposed to... he just wants to run away. he feels stuck. lost. like he lost his best friend in maybe a desperate attempt to keep them together (cuz no matter how many times we fought, my fiance said that if we got married it'd fix everything) but it doesn't fix things.
i think that's how i'd feel today if i had agreed to rushing into a marriage that we just weren't ready for. a lot of military marriages are like this. it means so much to me. but still touches that sore spot that still haunts me.
overall, an amazing song. everything i've ever wanted to say... Matt Nathanson sings with such ease
excuse my pouring out of my heart :) lol yikes.
it could go either way but i never thought of it as a divorce song, i always saw it as him watching the girl he loved marry someone else