Hi everyone!

So it’s my 1st wedding anniversary {read about our wedding}. To mark this special milestone, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned. Personally, yes, we knew these lessons, but I found that we had to be very active participants. Read on to find out some of the key principles that we’ve turned to help us stay focused on each other, our kids, our newly blended family.

Honeymoon blues

It’s a thing and I suffered from this big time. But it didn’t linger long thanks to the holidays. I also put a lot of focus on my event coordination business, Always Creating Studio (www.alwayscreatingstudio.com), which left me zero time to wallow in post honeymoon blues.

Compromise

Whether we’re trying to decide where to go for dinner or what movie to see or whatever, compromise has been our biggest marriage lesson. Not in the sense that it was never there before we got married, I mean in the sense of having the common human decency and respect for each other to be able to agree on what we all want at the time. Compromise and over-communicating are two constants in our marriage, in our family, and both allow us to be in sync at all times.

Support

Emotional support is crucial for us. My husband’s support is unmatched, I don’t think I have enough time in this post to share just how supportive he is. I am just so incredibly lucky. He’s so good at pushing me to do what makes me happy. He is always there to support 1000%! He has the best way of making everything okay.

Adjusting to Expectations

There are things that my husband likes to do around the house and things I’ve noticed he doesn’t like to do. Based on my observation (HAHA), I have adjusted my level of expectations. I have also accepted that he doesn’t like to maybe do said things. I have basically started doing what he doesn’t like to do. For example, he takes out the trash, he doesn’t like doing the dishes. He does yard work, but refuses to pull weeds. He wants nothing to do with my gazillion plants; fine with me. He takes the dogs out and I fill their bowls. {You get the point}…  see: this is OUR THING. It’s like a well oiled machine. Nobody is perfect so learning to adjust to one another has saved us from bickering over crap that doesn’t matter.

Focusing on Moments

My husband is such a huge influence on me and vice versa. He likes to go with the flow and sometimes so do I, but what I have always practiced (especially since becoming a mom nearly seven years ago now, is living in the moment… creating happy moments and literally LIVING in it until you must come up for air). We vibe off each other in this because we just love to be with each other, our kids and family, and our friends; probably my favorite thing about us.

Romance

We’ve re-committed to more date nights together. It doesn’t always mean getting a sitter and going out to a restaurant and that whole thing. It’s about spending an hour together at happy hour on Friday. Or, finding a non-Disney movie on Netflix that we both love and watching it together after our daughter is in bed. I mean how many times can one person watch the movie Frozen?

Saying Yes More

For me this is easy because I’m always on the go. He says yes to my endless requests to do different things. My husband is super low key, a homebody, and so am I (and so is our Little A), so doing things together is so much fun! However, I do respect his decision when he wants to sit out on certain things.  I might not like it, but I respect it… I’m just lucky I get to do life  with him!

Overall though our first year of marriage has definitely taught us that family and our commitment to each other is what truly matters. Happy First Wedding Anniversary, babe! I love you forever! Here’s to MANY more! Let’s do THIS!!

What are some of things that you’ve learned from your years of being married and/or being together? I’d love to know your thoughts. Thanks for reading!

Photos: Brooke Silverman Photography