Today it is 7 wonderful, busy, trying, exciting and love filled years since I married my best friend! Our wedding day was filled with love; our love for each other and our friends and families love for us. As a relatively young couple getting married, we didn’t have a lot of money. Without ever asking, our loved ones contributed in their own way to make our wedding day special. From an old school teacher who (along with his wife and father in law) documented our day in photos and video for free (the video was a blessing as my Grandad was too ill to attend after major surgery, and my uncle stayed to look after him) to our friend, Nathan, hiring a posh car and being our chauffeur for the day (we weren’t bothering to hire cars as my Mum lived right next door to the church – a hired car was a big expense that we didn’t feel was worth it). The vicar, who we were friendly with, did his best to keep all of the church fees as low as possible for us and (we didn’t know this prior to the ceremony) said that the collection for the church during the ceremony would go towards paying fees. Another friend kindly played the organ for us, and a colleague of mine did a great job of my make up (I’m useless at it!). There were many more acts of kindness from friends and family that really made our wedding day so special, and made love the focus of the day rather than money. I think it also set us on a path to a wonderful marriage, where we have been able to appreciate some of the simpler things in life. We have certainly had some tough times, and a man with less patience than Ashley may have left me long ago! If Ashley has faults, being loyal and strong are not amongst them!
I don’t think we just ‘had a wedding’ or ‘got married’ – from the very beginning we created a partnership, a marriage, a life together. And every step of the way, our friends and family have been there for us and Ashley and I have been here for each other. May there be many, many more years of happiness and hopefully some more adventures to be had!
