Six years.
Six bloody years. (not literally, of course)
Six years. That's how long the husband and I have been married.
Some days it really does seem like last month and most days it seems like 16 years. People ask my age and I still want to say 19! Time has FLOWN by! Between meeting each other when I was 18(!!) and getting married 30 days later (eeeek!), to him leaving for Basic Training for the Air Force 17 days after that, moving to be with him in Texas for 6 months while he was in technical training to being stationed in Florida for almost 4 years, 2 deployments, a handful of TDYs and more addresses than I can remember to then moving back to our home town of Vegas and now almost two years in civilian life, we survived - together.
WE SURVIVED!
No one ever thought we'd make it past a year, let alone six - especially without children (woohoo!!). We both lost the majority of our friends when we got married and of course made new ones throughout the years, but we always stuck together. We made it work and we worked together.
I went into marriage as a fresh faced, 18 year old, naive child. I went from having everything paid for and done for me to figuring out how to budget a checkbook, pay the rent, car and electricity on time to praying whats left in our account would last the next 5 days. (Let's just say we ate a lot of Taco Bell and Spaghetti because it was CHEAP!) Getting married so young made me grow up, made me be responsible and made me become very independent. For our first three years of marriage we spent more time apart than together, but you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. It made us stronger. We were 3,000 miles from family and [a few] friends and all we had was each other.
You're mad? Deal with it.
You want to leave? There's the couch.
Arguing in a 600 sq ft. apartment makes you work through it. There was no place to run when things got hard and for that I'm thankful.
Marriage isn't sacred anymore - People fall in love with the idea of marriage. There's always the safety-net of being able to get a divorce. The number of wives or husbands you've had isn't even something people bat an eye at anymore. It's sad if you think about it - How many people give up too easily because divorce is such a common thing. I know six years isn't 25 or 50, but it's longer than most in today's generation. ::Happy Dance!::
After almost 6 years, I was lucky enough to be able to plan a vow renewal on our actual 6th anniversary that included some traditional things (my dad walking me down the aisle, a big dress, etc.) as well as some non-traditional things like a top open double decker bus tour.
I'm SO thankful for everyone that made the effort to come out and especially those who stayed to celebrate all night with us.
It didn't go nearly as planned (it was so much more stressful than I thought - hey, it's not a party until the hubs loses his wallet and I cry, right?! ;)), but overall I hope people had a good time.
Here are some sneak peak pictures from the fabulous Gardenia Lane Photography (seriously, BOOK HER!), a non pro one of me and the girls, one of the photo booth, the favors and programs I made (yes I designed, printed and assembled), and one of the mimosa & bagel bar because I loved it!
