Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary. Some days it feels like I blinked and 3 years have passed, others feel like we've already lived a lifetime together. What I have learned so far is that love is a precious thing. You have to work at it, you have to have patience for it, and you have to appreciate it everyday.
In just 3 years we have gotten married, moved our lives to Nashville, bought a house and had a baby. I'm sure some think that's a lot for such a short amount of time, but it's us. We make it all work and have fun doing it. Nothing has felt rushed...it's more like being on an amazing adventure together. We're both people who set a goal and do everything in our power to achieve it, which is one of the things I love most about James.
I will be honest and say these past few months have been our hardest yet. Really hard. We've never had to face a challenge we weren't able to fix. He's never been incapable of cheering me up and making it all better. I feel like I've learned a whole other side to James that I would have never gotten to learn. It makes us stronger. I now know how he approaches grief, handles pain and what it looks like when he comes out on the other side. We can and will handle whatever else life throws at us, and I feel grateful to be able to say that and mean it.
Today takes me back to that day in South Haven, Michigan. The weather was as perfect as it could have been. I remember every detail leading up to "you may now kiss the bride." So much so that I could recite most of James' vows on our honeymoon a week later, after only hearing them once. What was even more magical was they ended up sounding so similar. We had written our own, but pieces of each of ours aligned almost perfectly.
His
You've taught me to appreciate things that I've taken for granted; friends, family, and the things that really matter...the little things...the sentimental things.
Mine
You've taught me the importance of family and what it means to be selfless.
His
There will be some bumps along the way I am sure. But I have no doubt that we'll get by as long as we have each other. And when things get a little bumpy, we will always have our wooden friend from Lincoln Square to cheer us up and remind us that it's not arms and legs.
Mine
You've put everything in perspective for me - that at the end of the day, money and material things don't matter and if it's not arms and legs, it's not worth worrying about.
It was perfect.
After the ceremony, the rest was a blur. James and I had worked so hard on making every detail of our wedding come to life that I felt like I was too overwhelmed to realize it was actually happening. We wanted our day to be a reflection of us, and it was. We didn't hire a coordinator. We didn't spend a ton of money. We arranged our own flowers, made our own boutonnieres, hung every mason jar, set up every table, spray painted every vase, glued each program, hand-drew all the signs...I mean everything. But the details that I loved most are things that most people wouldn't have even noticed. I added our grandparent's pins to our bouquets. I walked down the aisle to an instrumental of "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds and engraved it into James' ring. We danced our first dance to my Grandpa's song. Every detail had to mean something and was made by us with love.
Happy anniversary, James. LPG.