Reliving 5 Years of Marriage

 

This past weekend, Andrew and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. Although it may not seem like a long time to many, and just a tiny milestone in our love story, it is a big deal and leaving a mark on this date was just as important to us as the day we got married five years prior. Andrew and I used to always be big into buying gifts, expensive gifts, and showering each other with presents—the bigger, the fancier, the better. 

 

As the years went by though, and especially once we got married, we realized that the little things were what made the biggest of impact. Love letters. Handmade gifts. Surprises. It also made more sense since we did not separate our finances. We don't say who makes this much and that person makes that much—we, as a married couple, make this x amount of money, and our money is viewed as ours, not his or hers. So, instead, we decided that trips, dinners, and little surprises would be what we would expect on things such as our anniversaries, Valentine's day, and so forth.

 

 

Andrew's surprise to me this year started out with a letter at midnight telling me that the first part of my surprise would be waiting for me when I got home from work and it would be the start of reliving our wedding night all over again. So imagine my face when I walked into our bedroom to find my wedding dress {that I hadn't seen in years} and his suit lying there on the bed. And to be honest, my first thought was---how in the world am I going to squeeze into this wedding dress. My next thought was..I get to do really wear again. 

 

Random side note here, when we were leaving Maui and packing up our bags, I had my wedding dress hanging in the closet and when Andrew did a last minute walk through, he found it said "You almost forgot this!" In which I replied, "I didn't forget, I just don't want to drag that thing back with me!" He was shocked and couldn't believe I didn't want my wedding dress, and said if I wouldn't take it, then he would.

Although I never really had any use for it before, I certainly did now 5 years later.

 

So when Andrew came home, we quickly fed the kids and did our usual night time routine. Except this time, they were in bed sharp at 7. I made sure we had a wild fun day with no naps {for the oldest} and they were nice and tired when no complaints.

 

We turned up the music next, and got to cooking—something Andrew and I love to do together and have done since we started dating.  Next, we put on our outfits and I had to giggle when I couldn't zip my dress up all the way. 

 

So here we were in our wedding dress and suit and it was just like we were back in Maui again. Well, except we didn't say our vows again, we didn't have our sweet little old guitar player, and we didn't practice Hawaiian traditions. Not to mention the setting wasn't exactly the same.

We did however talk about that day and night, look through our wedding album, took out our wedding champagne glasses that we drank out of the night of our wedding, and drank even the exact same champagne. Andrew made the same Ruth Chris dinner that we obsess over---steak, creamy spinach, and carpaccio. Honestly, it was better than any restaurant food, and I'm not just saying that because my husband made it on our wedding anniversary. I mean, maybe it was that really good tasting bottle of champagne.

 

What I do know for certain is that as great as our wedding day was 5 years prior, it doesn't come near to comparison of our lives today. Our lives that are now one hundred times richer and fuller because of our two sleeping babies upstairs. 

But without August 15th, 2009, and without January 30th 2006, those babies may have never been here. 

Happy Anniversary to my husband. A love worth celebrating.