Anniversary

Three years ago today, I walked down the aisle to my sweetheart and said,

“I, Suzanne, take you, Harland, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”

Happy Anniversary Honey!

(The following is a repeat of an earlier blog post about that day. )

Surprisingly, I slept well the night before our wedding, and awoke the next morning about 8am. I showered, ate breakfast, loaded the dress into the car, and headed to the church. I did a few last odds and ends, accidentally ran into Harland in the church hall, we screamed, averted our eyes, and ran opposite directions. I closeted myself away in a small classroom with a mirror to do my makeup. My maid of honor did my hair, I dressed, and then Harland and I saw each other for the first time that day.

For the next couple hours pictures were taken, and then it was time for the wedding. All the planning and worry of the previous 9 months evaporated as I headed down the aisle towards Harland.

Everything went perfectly as planned. We exchanged vows and rings,

we kissed,

the guests applauded, and we walked arm and arm down the isle. The reception was a blur. We visited with friends and family, cut the cake,

enjoyed the best man’s toast, and soon it was time for our dance. We had chosen Etta James’ At Last for our song because it was such a good fit. We had waited and waited to find “the one” and in our early 40s, it had finally happened for us. As the 1st few notes of this very recognizable song started, the guests applauded, we held each other cheek to cheek, and lived in the moment.

Then we danced every dance until our feet hurt, and all too soon it was over. We changed out of our wedding clothes, kissed and hugged family and friends good bye, and headed on down the road in a hazy cloud of exhausted bliss.

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I could go on to say that we went away on our honeymoon for a week, which we did, but actually, the three years since our wedding has been our honeymoon. We are so happy to have found each other, and so enjoy just being together. Neither of us is perfect, but we try to be and do the very best for each other. We’ve had our ups and downs, but we know that we can’t ever take each other for granted and try to remember every day to say thank you, please, and I’m sorry.

When we chose the readings for our wedding, we both knew that 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 would be included, and we’ve tried to live those words every day since:

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

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