The Lessons Learned In Our First Year of Marriage

My husband and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. on Saturday. Today I’m sharing the lessons learned in our first year of marriage.

We were really excited to eat the piece of cake we saved in our freezer for over a year. My mother-in-law had offered to make the cake and cupcakes and while I was hesitant they were absolutely delicious! I need to ask her to bake them again! You can see what the cake looked like in the wedding decor details post.

Cake Recipe & Cupcake Recipe

We asked our guests last year to leave us messages to read on this anniversary. We opened and read all the messages together!

Favourite First Anniversary Messages

• On this magical day… 1 year ago. You chose each other. Tell each other your top 3 highlights of year ONE.
• Remember when you shooshed cake into each other’s faces on your wedding day? Do it again – but have more fun after 🙂
• Take this piece of paper and put it in a jar for your 2 year anniversary. Along with this paper include 5 things about your first month of marriage that was amazing that you didn’t expect.
• Try your most dreamt up sex pose!
• When in doubt, dance it out!

And a few sentimental ones that I’ll keep to myself 🙂

Mike’s parents got us a bottle of Moet Ice Imperial to celebrate. We had purchased a bottle on our honeymoon while in France and they remembered we had liked it!

Our tenant offered to make us a gourmet meal, so we grocery shopped earlier in the day and he whipped up steak, fried onions, prosciutto & asparagus, and a beet salad with vegan cheese!

And last but not least, Mike used Ruckify to rent a projector, purchased a screen and our tenant recommended watching The Prestige! So we swatted mosquitoes all night and stayed up way past our bedtime but it was awesome to knock this off the summer bucket list as well!

Last but not least, I re-watched our wedding video so I could happy cry.

Lessons Learned from our First Year of Marriage

People will ask you what married life is like? My answer was always, “Amazing, and the same as before, we just threw a really big party and I now have 2 rings on my hand!”

It is possible to fall even more deeply in love. We have had so many moments over the past year where my love for Mike has deepened due to honesty, vulnerability, tears, communication, and patience.

It’s very common now for many women to choose not to change their last name. After not taking it upon myself to fill out all the paperwork yet I understand why! I will eventually do it but the paperwork seems daunting.

In the letter that I wrote to Mike (which he read before the ceremony), that I fall in love with him in the simple mundane moments. That fact hasn’t changed over the course of this year. It’s the simple moments that I fall more in love with him. Like watching him set up the coffee machine the night before so we just have to press a button in the morning. Or watching him play with our dogs even after a long day working 2 different jobs.

I fall more in love with him sitting at my parent’s home eating pancakes and talking about life with my family. I fall more in love with him when I’ve come home from a long day and the dishwasher is emptied and the dishes are out of sight and out of mind. It’s not the grand gestures that deepen my love for him but the way that he shows up consistently in our life as a dedicated husband and partner.

I also wrote in my vows “I take you as you are and the person you have yet to become.” and that has so much more meaning than what I had anticipated it meaning when I wrote it in. We’ve been challenged this year and I didn’t realize the depth of my love for Mike. It’s just a sure thing, never wavering or faltering and I’m so grateful that despite any bad days or challenges our love is just simply there holding us as we work through the tough times. I promised him that I would love him unconditionally and that I do.

I said in my vows “I get to love you” and it rings true today. I’m one lucky lady that I get to love Mike daily. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The song in our wedding video is called Over and Over by Ben Rector and gosh our wedding videographer picked such a perfect song. I would choose Mike over and over again 🙂