3 years ago today : I was married.

3 years ago.

I knew, but yet I did not know.

I knew that this was the man God intended for me. He had made that clear enough through a long-distance relationship in Japan, through many late night phone calls, through so many affirmations. It was as simple as the way he made me feel. It was as simple as knowing that I would rather not live the rest of my life apart from him.

Yet I did not know, then, that this man would truly be FOR ME. That he would make me a better person in every single way. That he would support me in ways I could not imagine, through dark hours of bad health, through the hardship of starting a business. I could not know, then, how he would be the reason I could follow my dreams.

I know now.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is a man, and a marriage, worth fighting for. With everything in me, I know.

We are so completely opposite, him and me. And there are days that I feel tired of working those things out. Trust me, I do. Every one  has those days.

But oh, friends, it is worth it.

Marriage is not meant to make you happy. It is meant to make you better.

If you, if I REALLY believed that, today, how would you serve your spouse differently? I know that I would stop my selfish internal monologue and start serving more.

My commitment today is to keep fighting.

A good marriage REQUIRES fighting.

Fighting the part of me that wants to be selfish. Fighting the business and staying in for a night on the couch. Fighting the distractions of our work, the internet, the world.

You know why I love wedding photography? Because it is a reminder of the way we felt then, the love that filled us up so much that we were brought to tears.

But also because it reminds me just how FAR we’ve come.

Aaron, I love you.

You are my heart.

And I would marry you again, 100 million times.

(Our tables were named after famous individuals who had visited the Palace Hotel…)

(The cake was supposed to be white with colored buttons. I’m over it, clearly.)

Aaron, I love you more today than ever before.

 

Xoxo

Em

 

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Our wedding vendors: It’s Your Day! Wedding + Event Planning / Nikki Ritcher + Jenny at Red Loft Studios / The Palace Hotel / Gown : Melissa Sweet