Married for 1 year!

It was exactly 1 year ago that AR and I had a blast celebrating our marriage with our closest friends and family members in Singapore. One year! Where did all the time went? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were dating then we got engaged, then there was the wedding planning and of course, the big days themselves.

I will never forget the moment when our pastor pronounced us husband and wife.  Or the beautiful Perth reception we held for 57 people closest to our hearts. Our two tier wedding cake-one Chocolate Mud and the other Carrot Cake. And why we chose those flavours. Chocolate because we love and Carrot because that is the one cake you ALWAYS buy for me when I am ill. Not forgetting our first dance, when we suddenly went into our own little world and cherish that 3 minutes when we danced together.

Nor can I ever forget our Singapore wedding celebrations. How intimate it was to share the moment with everyone. The joy that our families had as we served tea to our relatives. The emotional church ceremony where we gave thanks to God and to our parents for raising us. The fun we had at night, at our banquet and then partying in the bar till 2am in the morning.

How about the Malaysia leg of the celebrations. The grandness of it, the speeches and oh, not forgetting the warm welcome the family gave to us while we were there. 

So how is married life? friends asked...

In this one year, we learned so much about each other than we did dating. Perhaps like all couples, we thought we prepared well. After all, we attended way more than the required 3 sessions of pre marital counseling. We had countless chats about our direction in life. We spoke about our families, careers, children and of course finance.We prepared for the worse, we came out with scenarios and discussed what we will do if that happened.

Come the day when we call ourselves Husband and Wife, it was more than a name change. Yes, the above helped but the reality was much harder than what we anticipated. We learned that marriage is a choice. a DAILY choice. Where we choose our partners in life instead of consulting with them last.  We learned that it is so easy taking each other for granted just because we have signed on the dotted line- and we have to remind ourselves that we are very blessed to have each other. We learned that forgiveness is necessary and saying sorry is essential.We learned that love is to be shown in so many small ways. And yes, it does accumulate.

We fought, we cried, we laughed.

So we learn how to love.

Married life? Is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It taught us how to grow up, to never take for granted how marriage is a gift. A gift for life. I enjoy having hubby having his arms around me in the morning just as I am waking up. The lunches that we have on Sunday afternoons. The walks we take. Decisions we made together. Celebrating each day as we have this gift that is worth us fighting for. This whole year, not only did we pull off the wedding celebrations, we planned the most awesome 3 weeks Europe honeymoon, traveled to Melbourne, road trip from Adel to Mel, renovated our home and worked hard.

In one year, we achieved so much-only because we are together with God. It's because we vowed that together we will achieve more. This coming year will be a bigger one. Because we are stronger, because we have the will to make it better.

Happy 1 year Wedding Anniversary AR- and many more to come!