October 16th!

Today is our wedding anniversary.

The months of planning leading up to our wedding were just plain horrible. There was no wedding coordinator. Just me, dealing with every tedious thing and trying to keep BOTH moms at bay. I must have threatened to run off to Vegas hundreds of times, but didn't because my husband's one request was that we share this day with our family and friends. Grrr.

In spite of the drama... and the outbursts... and the crippled feelings along the way, our wedding day turned out to be absolutely gorgeous!

We had a beautiful Catholic ceremony, an awesome reception that people still talk about today, and a great photographer capturing every moment of it.

The first time I saw the photos from our wedding, they took my breath away. There's no other way to describe it. They were amazing, but I still only saw everything that wasn't right with the day-- the misspelling on the program that five people didn't catch, that weird look on somebody's face, my fat arms...

Oh, and that awkward, humiliating speech that my mom made where she was supposed to just thank every one for "sharing this special day with us", but ended up doing lame shout-outs like, "... and we have people here from NEW JERSEY!.. and from BALTIMORE! Whew-hew!!!", then called her new son-in-law by the WRONG name.... Yeah, it happened. It's on the video and she's never been given a mic since.

Given some distance from the situation and a great deal of perspective, I flipped though our wedding album recently and only saw what everyone else saw that day....

Two people, so excited, happy, and in love with one another, before God, making a life-long commitment to honor and cherish. To be faithful and devoted. In good times. In bad. Always.

photos by Huy Nguyen of f8studio

Clearly, we're two people who can trust and appreciate one another, even if that means being rather silly and inappropriate at times. We make each other smile constantly.

It's only been five years since we've met and three years since our wedding, but I feels like a lifetime... and I mean that in the best way possible. We're every cheesy pop song and more.

And, yes, that's me sticking out my tongue at Hubby during the ceremony and his "stop it right now" eyes. That just says it all, doesn't it?

(I love you more every day, Hubby.)