Laowai

Today is my wedding anniversary – Brian’s too (ha). We’ve been married 13 years. This morning, after getting Bea off to school, l did something I haven’t done in a long time. I got out my wedding and honeymoon albums and took a trip down memory lane. 

We got married on a Tuesday at Midland’s beautiful courthouse.

A few weeks later we had some pictures taken at Dow Gardens. It was the most beautiful time of the year at Dow Gardens – when the crabapples and tulips are blooming.

Much of my memories center around the fact that I made my wedding a pain in the butt for my mom. It was mostly because a big wedding felt uncomfortable and meaningless to me, but I think I was afraid to admit that for a while. I did want a dress and I did want some pictures at Dow Gardens. I remember Brian was really uncomfortable taking the photos. I’m glad we have them now – they seem special – especially after not looking at them for many years. 

After we were married we took a big trip to Italy – it was the first big international travel that Brian and I did together. At the time I could never imagine how much travel I was going to get to do. All thanks to Brian – he’s taken me all over the world.

I spent a lot of time putting together our wedding album and then our honeymoon album. It was back when I did it by hand and included bits of ephemera from our travels. We went to Verona, Bolzano, Venice and then Sienna.

The other day we saw a wedding on some TV show and the girls and I were talking about weddings. I told the girls that mommy and daddy’s wedding anniversary was coming up. I explained how you can get married in a church or you can go to a courthouse and a judge will marry you. Claire looked at me and said “so daddy was a judge when he married you?” Ah love – I guess I didn’t explain that very well did I.

I think I’ll sit down with the love of my life and look through the pages of our special, special albums tonight. He’ll be smiling too.