Show & Tell Wedding Bells

Today I'm linking up with From Mrs. to Mama for Show & Tell Monday.  Since the topic is marriage and this started out as a blog to document my wedding planning I couldn't really pass up this link up.

Are you married? If so when did you get married, and tell us about your special day. If not? How would you describe your dream wedding?

 

Yes I'm very happily married. Kristian and I got married on May 22, 2010 after a 15 month engagement. I had always wanted to have a May wedding and we picked the date because it's a combination of our birthdays- Mine is May 12 and his is Oct. 22. I figured it would be an easy anniversary to remember!

 

We had a smaller wedding with about 95 guests at a venue in Alexandria VA. We were supposed to get married outside in the garden but it decided to start raining about 20 minutes before the ceremony so everyone scrambled to move everything inside and set up the reception room for a ceremony. I was STRESSED the entire day about the rain and had a hard time enjoying myself which I regret. The ceremony ended up being beautiful with candles and flowers and felt very intimate, so I think it was even better than being outside. And we were able to get some cool pictures outside afterwards.

 

My favorite part was walking down the aisle towards Kristian who had tears in his eyes. I actually didn't cry, I kept wanting to laugh the whole time because it just felt so surreal to me that this moment was FINALLY here.

 

The reception was fun and a lot of our guests got quite intoxicated so I guess we did our jobs as host/hostess.

 

I wouldn't say it was my "dream" wedding per se but given our budget and having to do so much of it on our own I think we had a pretty damn good wedding and there isn't much that I would change looking back.

 

Show us some wedding pictures. Either yours or of some that you love.

 

 

How about the engagement? Tell us your story. If not engaged, what's your dream proposal?

 

Kristian proposed on Valentines Day (2/14/09) after only about 6 months of dating. We had been talking about marriage since around month 2 (insane I know) and even gone ring shopping so he could see what I liked. I didn't realize that when we were looking at rings in Dec. he had already purchased my diamond in Nov. and was already having the setting designed. Yep he bought me a diamond after only 3 months of dating (again, insane i know).

 

He invited me over for dinner at his place for Vday and had the whole dining room decorated with balloons, streamers, flowers etc. We had a wonderful meal that he cooked and afterwards were sitting around the table just talking and listening to music. Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" came on (this ended up being our wedding song) and he got up and went into his bedroom. I wasn't pay much attention and thought he had just gone into the kitchen but he came back out, made me stand up and got down on his knee. I thought he was just messing with me and was a little annoyed to be honest so I kept telling him to stand up. When I looked down I saw him holding open a box with the prettiest ring I had ever seen. That's when I knew that he was serious and freaked out. I don't remember what he said except for the the "Will you marry me?" part. I think I said "Oh My God" and "Shut Up" a dozen times before finally saying yes.

 

He actually hadn't planned on proposing that night since he thought it was cheesy. He wanted to wait until our Jamaica trip in May but he said he just couldn't wait any longer so he did it then.

 

 

 

Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo! If not engaged/married ... show us your "dream" ring.

 

I love my engagement ring, the center stone is a 1.25 carat cushion cut stone with smaller diamonds around it and on the band. The boy did good!

 

My wedding band has small diamonds going halfway around the band. His wedding ring was his grandfathers wedding ring that he wore for over 50 years of marriage before he passed away.

 

Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many? What can we do to make things last?

 

While I do think there are certain reasons when divorce is unavoidable like abuse or infidelity I think a lot of times one or both parties aren't willing to put forth the effort to work on whatever issues they may be having in their marriage. Communication and patience and learning how to pick your battles is so important as well as remembering that marriage is hard work and even though it may not be all flowers and sunshine everyday that doesn't mean you should run from the commitment you made. With that said no one should stay in a marriage where they are completely miserable for the rest of their life and if getting divorce is truly the only way to be happy again then that's what you should do.