In creating a life together, there are everyday actions and habits building into a beautiful bond of togetherness. As a unit, a couple’s togetherness marks stability, reliability, and steadfastness. Sometimes, that is enough; other times, the magnitude of that togetherness warrants ceremony.
Intermixed into life, there are opportunities for ceremony. Choosing marriage is choosing to seize such an opportunity. After over a decade of life together, choosing marriage is the creation of intentional space celebrating the old traditions formed and creating new traditions to come. Marriage acknowledges. Marriage feels. Marriage commemorates. All of those sentiments are then witnessed by your community, family, and friends. Your marriage blooms from being a bond you two share into a larger forever story now shared by the minds and memories of everyone who joined you on that day.
“Why now did you get married after all these years?” is a question I have been asked a handful of times and a question I will continue to ask myself. For Justin and I, we started our relationship a bit backwards I guess you might say. We moved in together and a year into our relationship his three children joined us where I would set out to help Justin raise them. Things were not always easy, BUT we did it! We have three pretty darn amazing kids, too, I must say! I had always dreamed of a wedding and marrying my best friend, and after several years together (14 years), Justin popped the question I had long waited for and he asked me to marry him. I wasn’t sure where I would have my wedding at first, but I knew I wanted one! Would it be on a beach, my hometown, Paradise Valley, Bozeman OR would we wait another 10 years was the joke among friends? However, my dad became ill with cancer. I wanted nothing more than to make sure my dad would walk me down the aisle, have my family, our kids, and best friends there. Also have one big party to celebrate the long awaited event! So I began planning and we made it official on August 31,2019 in our beautiful town of Bozeman, MT. “You may not always end up where you thought you we’re going, but you will always end up where you are meant to be.”
