2 Years Down, Forever to Go

I think we’ve all heard the phrase, “The Honeymoon is Over”, am I right? This “honeymoon stage” is said to be the time of marriage when everyone has on their best behavior. Where it’s all red roses, hand holding, and long walks on the beach. But, apparently people seem to think that once the “honeymoon stage” ends, it’s all downhill. Then comes the bickering, the piles of dirty laundry, and the unfiltered opinions.

Oh, you guys, as a wedding photographer, I FEEL for these couples. These couples who are so excited on their wedding day and during their engagement to only be met with sarcastic comments about how fast they should “run” from marriage, and how to enjoy the honeymoon because reality will soon hit.

Ew. Yuck. NO THANK YOU.

When Kyle and I first got together, we went to coffee to talk about the things we wanted to choose to do in our relationship. Because neither of us are mind readers, we needed to have a very non-romantic conversation about our expectations and the things we wanted. And one thing we decided we wanted to do was to :

“Enjoy the season we are in.”

Whether that was the excitement of our first date, the days of planning a wedding, the beginning of marriage, or now – the consistency of married life. We wanted to not try and rush through any one season. Knowing that there are benefits, as well as challenges to each season.

You see – there are things we learned in our dating relationship that we could have only learned during that time. Same goes with engagement and learning how to compromise while planning a wedding. Then – in our first year, we learned about boundaries and how to say “no” to things in order to say yes to our relationship. And now – now we are learning how our marriage benefits when we invest our time in things that matter to us.

I think it’s so easy to only share the extremes of life on social media. It’s easy to share the mountain top moments like wedding days, engagement rings, vacations to tropical places, and baby announcements. And it’s also easy to share the hardest moments like strep throat, sick kiddos, car accidents, work drama, stress, and frustration. But those middle moments, the moments that just feel kind of like normal life get skipped over a lot.

The moments of ordering pizza and watching a movie at home on a Tuesday. Or going to Red Robin for dinner instead of Daniel’s Broiler. Or coloring with your kiddos. Or sweeping the kitchen floor. These moments don’t really make the Facebook Statuses I see.

I rarely see : “Cleaned under my couch and found 5 million bobby pins today. #winning”

The middle moments make up so much of life. And so much of marriage.

You guys, I’m so in love with the middle moments.

I am so obsessed with them. Normal. Weekdays at Home. Weekends at Costco. Grilled Cheeses for Dinner. Popcorn and a movie on the couch.

The honeymoon might be over, yes. Because we don’t have a zillion dollars to stay in Cabo at the Westin for 2.5 years eating chips and guac. If we did, I would still be there and I would have the best tan of my entire life.

But the “honeymoon stage”, the part where you feel happy and in love, and excited for the next 50 years? THAT part isn’t over.

And I’m gonna tell you that I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have to end.

Uh Oh. Call the Internet Police. She’s getting crazy again. Proclaiming that marriage can be good for longer than 3 weeks.

You’re gonna have to make a lot of choices. To invest into your marriage. To choose to enjoy the grilled cheese sandwich in Covington as much as the pina colada in Cabo. You are going to have to make the middle moments full of memories. But it can be done. You can enjoy the season you are in, each and every season. There will be mountains and valleys, there will be seasons of gain and seasons of loss, joy and sorrow, easy and hard. There’s always gonna be the highs and the lows.

I’ve been his wife for 27 months. And I can tell you that I have still the most giant crush on him. Sometimes, when I see him walking towards me while we are shooting a wedding, I wonder how in the world I got so lucky. To spend my days, my weeks, and my years next to my best friend, the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, and the person who makes me laugh harder than anyone. I would choose him every day. I would pick him for my dodge ball team every time. He’s the one I prayed for, hoped for, and waited for.

Marriage is awesome, friends.

Year 3, we are ready for you.

These photos are from our 2 Year Anniversary Photo Shoot with Jessi from Echo Photography. She’s won our hearts by capturing us being 100% ourselves. So grateful for these images, for her friendship, and for her ability to make my heart explode with each image.