How We Marriage 

“Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite”

Happy Monday loves!

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend celebrating love whether it was with your main squeeze or your favorite friends!

Brandon and I are currently in Boston celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary! It’s actually today, February 15th! I, very often, reflect on our lives. Every marriage is different and though ours isn’t perfect I feel pretty dang blessed for having him. I’ll assume he will say the same about me! LOL. I thought it would be the perfect time to share something a little more personal (and sappy) about how B and I make our marriage work. I promise it won’t be long and I will thank you in the end for reading with fun facts and photos from our wedding day!

1. Compromise & Share The Work Load-In the household and in life. Even though he mostly does the vacuuming and folding of clothes doesn’t mean I should always expect him to do it. And just because I mostly do the dishes and dust the furniture he should not always expect that of me. If he knows I have a lot going on one week he will always pick up more of the household “chores” or run out and do the grocery run. Or if I know he is having a crazy week and on one night just wants to throw his work bag, clothes, shoes and lunch kit where it doesn’t belong I have remembered to just let it be! I can handle it for one night.
2. We Have Learned How To Fight- Yup, let’s just put this out there! We get into little arguments like most couples, but we have learned how to fight. There are never mean things said that we can’t take back. Don’t ever use the word “NEVER” or “ALWAYS” when fighting. Let’s not be dramatic ladies, does he really “NEVER” put the clothes away or did he just not help one day when you were in a bad mood? LOL. Our little arguments usually start with a few exchanged words, a moment of silence then we talk about why each person got upset. Usually from there we come to an agreement that we were both seeing it 2 different ways and then somehow the argument turns into a big joke and then laughter.
3. Make sure God is at the Center of your Marriage-B and I were both religious people before we met, but it wasn’t until after we were married we started attending the same church and praying together. Words cannot explain how much closer it has brought us and how much closer we are to God as husband and wife. It is the best feeling.
4. We Have Created a World for Both of Us-We both work very hard at our corporate jobs, but we are also very passionate about other things. With him it’s politics & community related events, for me it’s fashion/blogging and for the both of us it’s traveling. We try to travel as much as possible together which is definitely “our” thing, but we find time to help eachother out as much as we can to pursue our other passions. Believe it or not he is the man behind many of my photos and I will volunteer at any of his functions when he needs me.
5. Often Discuss Goals-We talk about this often. Work goals, travel goals, family goals…etc. This is so important to ensure you are always on the same page because let’s be honest these things can change from month to month. It is important to discuss and he is so much better at planning than I am so I always love sharing my stuff with him so he can help me figure out how to best execute! Haha.

I believe these 5 things are very important in making our marriage work. Okay, so now that you know how to make our marriage work LOL, let’s talk some fun facts about our past 3 years from proposal to honeymoon!

1. Brandon purposed on February 15, 2013. It was the day we closed on our house. I left to get us food so that we could have a bite to eat before unloading the Uhaul. When I got home I found Brandon kneeling down in the middle of rose petals in the shape of a heart. Before I started balling I heard “I don’t have much but what I do have I want to share it with you” then tears of joy came rolling down and that day had become the best day of my life. Oh and I must mention he was in a suit. Sneaky thing threw one on when I was at Whataburger, haha!
2. Exactly one year later we got married in California! My new “best day of my life”!

3. I’m forever in debt to our loving family and friends for spending their Valentine’s week/weekend traveling, attending rehearsal dinners and our wedding.

4. We had a beautiful wedding party of 9 Groomsmen, 9 Bridesmaids, 2 Junior Groomsmen, 2 Junior Bridesmaids, 2 Flower Girls, 2 Flower Girl Escorts and 3 Ring Bearers. We also had 18 sponsors, a Filipino tradition. These aunts, uncles, close family friends can also be referred to as Godparents. They are ones who are giving their blessing and witnessing your wedding. You can read more about the tradition here.

5. Our cake was red velvet with cream cheese filling and icing. The grooms cake had a Bald Eagle and American flag on it, double chocolate filled just like B likes it! Side note, we were planning on saving the top layer for the 1 year tradition, but maybe I woke up the next morning and ate it!

6. Some people might think we were crazy to have this many people in our wedding party, but seriously all of these people mean everything to us. We set up a table with each persons picture framed with a little story of how we met them. Also, I need to say that I was so crazy busy that week I completely forgot I didn’t finish printing and framing all of them. Two of B’s best friends (also groomsmen) totally stepped up and finished them for me the morning for the wedding! I’m telling you guys these people are angels!

7. We did first look pictures. Most all pictures were done before our ceremony which made the rest of the day so much less stressful.

8. First Dance Song? God Bless The Broken Road.

9. Best part of the day? I literally could feel the love in the air. Seeing how happy our families were, goodness especially our parents. I loved seeing my Dad for the first time that day at the church. Going through the pictures and seeing these huge smiles on my brothers’ faces and my nieces and nephews dancing the night away. Also, all of our friends who had dedicated so much time in making not only this day, but our bachelor/bachelorette parties and bridal shower perfect. They were just so amazing, having a great time not even worried that they had to travel all that way to spend their Valentine’s Day weekend celebrating us! Brandon and I are so blessed guys.

10. Okay, okay I have to mention my second best part…our Mom’s speech! I think my Mom had a 6 page speech written (LOL seriously) but every word was perfect and it was so her. My Dad got to say about 10 words and then my Mom took over the mic. So accurate. Then Brandon’s Mom said a speech that would have even made a stranger cry! Definitely memorable moments.

11. We had some dancers that performed traditional Filipino Folk Dances and even a special number by my Mom.

12. We honeymooned traveling the Mediterranean Sea. Italy, France, and Spain.

Well, thanks for hanging in there and reading my short novel! Some people will tell you that marriage is hard which I hate hearing. I’m telling you now, it’s not hard but at times it definitely is work. Just remember all of the small moments of frustration and “work” will eventually be drowned out by all the love and happiness in the end!  Love conquers all!

xo, Roselyn