What’s Different?

It’s been just over a month since we gathered on my parents beach in the warm embrace of love and said our vows to each other.  A month can feel like an eternity or pass by in the blink of an eye, depending on the circumstances.  For me, it’s been the latter!  I cannot believe how fast this summer has passed and how happy I am with my husband.

It’s funny, people keep asking me how we are and what has changed since we got married and honestly, this is not easy to answer.  Our day to day lives are pretty much the same as always, since we’ve been living together for years.  However, there is this deep sense of peace that overcomes me at the most random times.  I’ll be going about my day and then it hits me that I am the luckiest girl ever.  I have this amazing husband, a blessed life, goals and dreams, and so much love that I sometimes just want to burst.  How awesome is that?!

But really, how would I characterize what’s different now?  There is a sense of security that I feel in our relationship that I wasn’t aware of before.  Even though we had been committed to each other in the years leading up to our marriage, signing that piece of paper and declaring our love to each other in the presence of our loved ones truly has a profound effect on the stability of our relationship.  We made the choice to be with each other.  To support each other through the good times and the bad.  We choose to enter this union as individuals and create a life together.  I look at this strong and loving man and I see our future.  I am not naive, I know that there will be tough days, fights and sadness, but we entered this union with a foundation of mutual love and respect.  We will continue to cultivate our love by supporting our individual strengths and work together to grow as a couple as we start this journey of married life.

The Ceremony

In those brief moments after we said “I Do” my thoughts were a blur of happiness and love.  And then, for the first time my husband opened his arms, pulled me close, and kissed me.  And we held each other, just for an extra moment, and pulled apart, with smiles lighting the fading sky.

We grabbed each others hands and practically skipped up the isle, into married life.  Our wedding party then joined us, followed by our parents, and the hugs started!  Gosh, that special time, standing in front of that beautiful tree, was just right.  A few tears of joy, lots of smiles, and the hugs!  Oh the hugs were the best!  There is this one photo that I just love.  It is of my father embracing my husband, truly welcoming him into the family.

Our family and friends piled around extending their congratulations and best wishes.  This time, this precious time, was magical and perfect.  These snidbits of memory flicker in and out of my consciousness, bringing sparks of joy to my everyday life.  The hugs turned into photos and smiles with the lake glistening in the background.

Then we tuned our group loose and took a few more photos, just the two of us.  We walked along the beach, hand in hand, loving this thing called married life.

Advice: From My Mom

My mother has always told me that marriage {and relationships} are work.  Now, she does not mean this negatively, simply that it takes more than just being together to make the partnership successful.  It takes time, dedication, mutual respect, and love.

You have to actively work on the marriage, treating it like a job {an awesome job!, but still, a job}.  Think about it, would you be able to just jump into a new job, let’s say, a surgeon, without putting some work into it first?  I think not!  A marriage is like this.  You start with two individual people and you combine lives.  As the years pass each person grows separately and you must nurture the marriage unit to accommodate for these individual changes and make the unit grow right along with it.

I have taken this advice to heart and applied it to my relationships thus far.   I know that I will continue to be an active member of my marriage and work to grow as an individual and as an equal partner in this awesome new journey!

Wedding Day Memories

It was Saturday July 27, 2013 that the Mister and I said our vows to each other in the presence of our family and friends.  It was the perfect day in so many ways.  The sun shown down on our lakeside ceremony as I linked arms with my father and walked down the isle, with tears in my eyes, to meet my husband at the alter.  Who would have thought that I, the one-who-never-cries, was shameless sniffling away as my parents stood with us and gave my hand to my {now} husband.

The ceremony that we created passed in a blur of joyous tears and sappy smiles. Then it was time to say our vows.  The Mister discretely opened a typed sheet of paper and proceeded to profess his love to me in an eloquent flow of words.  It was lovely.  So lovely.  Then I, again with the blubbering, unfolded my hand-written torn notebook paper and looked down at the words I had written only hours before.  Then refolded the paper, smiled up at him and spoke from my heart to the man I love.  It’s funny, thinking back on it I cannot remember exactly what I said, but it was just right, just right.

And then it was time to say those magic words and we were married.  Just like that.  The Miss became a Mrs and our lives and hearts are forever entwined.

One of many “unofficial” photos from our beautiful day.  I simply adore my husbands expression and the excitement in my movement.