ten
Ten years ago on this date, J and I put rings on each others' fingers and signed a simple piece of paper that declared us legally married. I was twenty-five and he was twenty-eight. I wore a silvery white shift dress from Metro that I bought for $29, and some dusty old heels. I didn't carry a flower bouquet. I wore hardly any makeup - maybe some loose powder and some blush and I don't know why I still had not discovered eyeliner at that age. (I can't live without it now.)
Our vows were the usual ones that the Registry of Marriages give you in a template. Looking back, I wish we put in the effort to write our own vows but at that point in time I think we were too stressed and preoccupied with renovations on our flat to bother much about this. Maybe the one thing I did prepare were some mix CDs to be played while we were having dinner alfresco on the terrace as the sun set. I don't even remember what kind of food was served - a variety of fusion-y dishes, I think.
After the reception was over our friends came over to our new flat to hang out. Looking back at the photos taken that night, I'm struck by how bare our place was. Newly-minted with the bare essentials, like our bed and our sofa and our beloved three-legged dining table that was our big furniture splurge. I'm so glad we have it because J and I probably spend 75% of our time at this table - eating, working, hanging out.
In the last ten years we have done quite a lot of growing up together. By today's standards, twenty-five is a pretty young age for marriage, and perhaps if I were getting married at age thirty-five instead, I would have a lot more reservations and worries than I did back then. My twenty five-year-old self was a lot more spontaneous, a lot more enthusiastic, and a lot more optimistic.
Ten years on, we have traveled a lot, survived grad school, spent a year in NYC, worked very hard (mostly J), ate a lot, had two kids, and loved and fought and cried and laughed. And true to form, we didn't do anything to celebrate the day. J kindly took The Bun out for most of the day so that I would have a break from The Bun's constant chatter, and we weren't very hungry at dinner tonight so we just had some Quiznos subs for dinner. That's totally fine by me. It's enough for me to have a roof over our heads, two healthy children sound asleep, a European stint to look forward to, and J to wake up next to. That's enough. It has always been.
Our vows were the usual ones that the Registry of Marriages give you in a template. Looking back, I wish we put in the effort to write our own vows but at that point in time I think we were too stressed and preoccupied with renovations on our flat to bother much about this. Maybe the one thing I did prepare were some mix CDs to be played while we were having dinner alfresco on the terrace as the sun set. I don't even remember what kind of food was served - a variety of fusion-y dishes, I think.
After the reception was over our friends came over to our new flat to hang out. Looking back at the photos taken that night, I'm struck by how bare our place was. Newly-minted with the bare essentials, like our bed and our sofa and our beloved three-legged dining table that was our big furniture splurge. I'm so glad we have it because J and I probably spend 75% of our time at this table - eating, working, hanging out.
In the last ten years we have done quite a lot of growing up together. By today's standards, twenty-five is a pretty young age for marriage, and perhaps if I were getting married at age thirty-five instead, I would have a lot more reservations and worries than I did back then. My twenty five-year-old self was a lot more spontaneous, a lot more enthusiastic, and a lot more optimistic.
Ten years on, we have traveled a lot, survived grad school, spent a year in NYC, worked very hard (mostly J), ate a lot, had two kids, and loved and fought and cried and laughed. And true to form, we didn't do anything to celebrate the day. J kindly took The Bun out for most of the day so that I would have a break from The Bun's constant chatter, and we weren't very hungry at dinner tonight so we just had some Quiznos subs for dinner. That's totally fine by me. It's enough for me to have a roof over our heads, two healthy children sound asleep, a European stint to look forward to, and J to wake up next to. That's enough. It has always been.