...after the 'wedding'

Now that I've been carrying the Mrs. title for a few weeks, I figure it's time to post and update... write about my wifey life.

I should talk about the "wedding" before I blog about what it's like to be married :). Well, initially Jose and I weren't planning a wedding. We were planning on just signing the legal documents, but then we discovered a few things. 1. Jose's dad wanted to be at our wedding ceremony, even though we weren't actually planning one and 2. I was told that you can't just "sign the papers" you actually have to get married before a judge. Hmm...well the idea of getting married in a courthouse before a judge wasn't very appealing to me or Jose, and we also wanted to make sure both our families were happy with our decision in how we were going to get married. Thankfully, we already had their approval to wed, but how we did it was another story. To make a long story short, there was a lot of running around the 2 weeks before we actually married before a minister in the cutest spot here in Austin, The French Legation. Things on my to-do list: I had to find a dress that fit, I had to find a minister, Jose and I had to figure out where the ceremony was going to take place, and where our families would gather to eat/meet after the wedding...it was stressful. Somehow everything fell into place! The minister was available the day we wanted him, and he ended up being a really wonderful one at that. Jose read about the French Legation online, and Jose was even the one to find a little place online where I could order my affordable but very wedding-like dress! Here are a couple of added bonuses/blessings that came with the wedding: Jose's dad's friend owns a flower shop and he donated about 15 lovely, Christmasy rose arrangements that were beyond beautiful, and right after our ceremony the minister told Jose and I that the actual ceremony was his gift to us...wasn't that nice of him?

The reason why Jose and I weren't initially planning a wedding was because we couldn't afford it. We wanted something simple and affordable...in the end, we were blessed and received a lot more than we ever expected. The wedding was memorable, and now that I look back, I'm thankful that things unfolded the way they did. The thing I'm most grateful for are the vows we got to exchange and even write! That wouldn't have happened had we married in the courthouse. Even though there was some stress in the planning that led up to the wedding, the wedding itself was peaceful and one-of-a-kind, what more could we want?

Things haven't changed much between Jose and I since we tied the knot. Maybe it's because we saw ourselves as married before the wedding even took place? As I've blogged about before, we've been through so much together already that our previous experiences have glued us together emotionally, making us stronger as a unit and even as individuals.

Sometimes I feel people lose site of themselves when they first get married or are in a serious relationship. I think I let that happen to me a little when Jose and I first started dating. I believe it's natural, to a certain degree, in the sense that you want to be with that person often. We only got to see each other on the weekends and between classes when our relationship first started, but I was always thinking about him and feeling way too sappy for my own good. Thankfully, he was the same way :D. Over time, though, as our relationship grew more secure, we realized that sometimes it's just knowing that you have someone to love that much is enough.

I think that occurred to me the most when Jose started studying for the LSAT, then taking up a job while taking a full load of classes last semester. I had more free time than he did since I was out of school already, so I took up new hobbies and discovered new things about myself. I think our relationship is better now as a result. In a sense, I've become more grounded in who I am, and even more well-rounded. Jose and I are quite different as far as are interests go, but our differences work because we always make sure to keep each other informed; we let each other into our different worlds, as cheesy as that sounds. He doesn't necessarily like to cook as much as I do, but he loves to eat what I make. I don't read the Economist or browse health articles nearly as much as he does, but I love learning about new things, so he's always there to enlighten me. He's only taking two classes this semester, but we're both working, so usually we just have the evenings and weekends to get caught up...but it's stable and strong. I know I keep using that last word, but that's exactly what comes to mind when I think of how our relationship has developed over the last couple of years.

The cool thing about being married is that we're both young, and even though we have a pretty good idea of who we are as individuals, we still have so much ahead of us. Our careers aren't established quite yet, we're still in that in-between phase but we're almost there, and it seems we're getting there faster because we have each other. Jose's heard back from a few noteworthy law schools already, and any day now we hope to hear back from the couple of "dream" schools he applied to...luckily, Jose's the type of person that usually gets what he works for. Why does this happen? There are a few reasons, here's one of them: When most people would consider something an impossibility and therefore never try for it, he doesn't even think of giving up after starting what others didn't even consider beginning. This is a quality that's made him not only a good student, but also a loving husband.

It's just a matter of time (very little time) before we figure out where we'll be living this time next year. It seems like we're always waiting for something good to happen, thankfully our patience usually pays off :).