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We didn’t imagine celebrating two years in quarantine, but we still have much to celebrate.
Two years ago we gained our oneness under a desert sunrise, and it has been an amazing ride so far.
This morning, our flight should be landing in Seattle to spend the first weekend away together exploring a new place, just you and I, since we got married. We had a photo session booked for updated photos of just us two and a whole checklist of things we wanted to experience.
Actually, this is a little tradition we wanted to carry on for all of our anniversaries – going to new places and documenting our love year after year. Last year, we traded that in for maternity/newborn photos and this year, we were going to make the best of it and attempt a tripod session in the pretty little dress I got followed by a romantic picnic dinner. Of course, we’re getting a weekend full of rain instead because mother nature wanted to make sure we still got the PNW in spirit.
I keep thinking back to this day last year snuggling our brand new baby in our newly first home and remember wondering what year two would hold for us. Little did we know it would be such a growth year… full of trials and failures, yet so much marital success.
Together, you and I have knocked down so many walls of communication deficits we once had. We have grown in our faith side-by-side as we have watched God weave together more of our story and also have gotten so comfortable in sharing that faith with one another through worship and prayer time in our home. We began questioning societal norms and have spent the last couple of months digging for real answers and breaking boundaries for change. You have become my best friend in the whole world in a whole new way. You know me inside and out and we have really become one in the way we live and think and equally lack patience when we’re hungry.
Two years in a row though, nothing has gone how we have planned, and that just seems to be the theme of our lives together. It’s kind of a bummer we miss out on all the cool things but we trade all of that in for our beautiful and growing family, slow snuggly mornings, and our everyday chaos. I cherish it all in this season of life with you, Drew.
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To be honest, I wasn’t even going to write this blog I had scheduled without pretty new photos to show off. And then I considered all of my brides this year who are having to make new plans and decide between waiting on marriage or doing a private, intimate ceremony.
Obviously, for many of you, this wasn’t your dream. But in two years of the married life, we can attest to shortcomings of expectations being the norm and how much it grows us as a couple to navigate through those.
We also wanted to share memories from our own intimate ceremony and tell you just how special it was. There was practically no stress. We spent the entire day together – from helping each other getting ready to tying the knot to celebrating and lounging by the pool afterwards. It was no big party, but there’s nothing stopping you from having one later on if this is the route you choose to go. And believe me, the memories we have together from it are so much more than the scenery. Epic location was not a necessity.
A photographer, however, was. I’ll let our images (by Kristen Kaiser) speak for themselves. Even on our own without a big wedding party, we can relive the start of our lives together through our pictures.
