Married.

We joked a lot over the last 18 months that we were only getting married for the pictures. Actually, that the wedding was for the pictures. Because every girl needs some of those. We figured that since we've been together for so long, the wedding would be the exciting part and the marriage would be no different than dating.

I've spent a lot of hours that would have been better allotted towards sleeping (and blogging) working on this wedding.  By the end, I'm sad to say, it got the better of me. To my past and future brides...I feel you. I've told more lies about how-I'm-doing in the past few weeks - trying to convince everyone that the stress had not gotten to me while at the same time nervously pulling out all of my carefully grown out hair. I think it might have been obvious that I wasn't being honest about my mental state, but I was suffering from a severe case of wedding brain, so I can't be sure. If our relationship could survive planning the wedding, I think the only thing that could break it apart is sharing a Kindle on our honeymoon. But let's hope that if we survived the 10 years before getting married, our marriage can last more than 10 days. I'll keep you posted on that one.

I guess the thing that surprised me the most, aside from the fact that I made it through the whole of our wedding day without shedding a single tear, is that once it was all over and everyone asked me what my favorite moment was, I could think of nothing better than just being married. It's true that your wedding goes by in a blur, and I do remember some of the sweet moments - our first look, saying our vows, our first dance, the awesome toasts by our wedding party. But although those things were wonderful, it all pales in comparison to my excitement at coming home everyday to my brand new husband. I like to remind him of this by randomly yelling "HUSBAND" every hour on the hour like the cuckoo clocks that drive him insane. Oh, and I also make him call me wifey. He's just as happy as I am about being married, I'm sure ;o)

So at the end of it all, I'm glad I didn't get married just for the pictures. Because having my best friend next to me every day in real life is even better than looking back on the memories of our wedding, even though I'll treasure them forever.