five year anniversary!

I sort of can't believe this, but today is Chad and my five year anniversary! So, in honor of that very exciting milestone, I thought I'd share our makeshift-wedding-video with you guys.

The back story: We hired a fabulous photographer for our wedding, but decided against a videographer -- I was worried that it would be too intrusive to have both, and really wanted to focus on experiencing the day as much as I possibly could. But, a few days before the wedding, I started having serious second thoughts -- video is a totally different medium than photos, and what if I wanted to see those real, live moments in the future?

So I created a backup plan: at the rehearsal dinner, I gave my little Flip camera to my friend Loran, and asked him to capture some of the big moments -- walking down the aisle, our first dance, cutting the cake, etc. And he did an amazing job! The camera quality wasn't great (I would have given anything for an iPhone 5 in those days!) but he captured all those moments so I can remember them forever.

And about 18 months after our wedding, I finally turned those little clips into this video:

I've probably watched it a thousand times since then -- it's so wonderful to be able to relive that special day in a tiny way.

Five years later, I realize that our wedding day was just a day -- a wonderful, incredibly special day, but still only one single day in our many-year marriage. But it was the day that we pledged to share our lives, forever, in front of all our family and friends, and that's something incredibly special. Even if it was just one single day.

Everyone always says that marriage is work, and of course it is -- but it's also, by far, the single most wonderful aspect of my life. In this huge world with billions of places and people and things, I feel so lucky to have found this person who makes me better every single day, who cares about me and our dogs and our son so deeply, and who never fails to make me laugh, cheer me up, or fill me with the most intense gratitude for our wonderful life together.

So happy anniversary to my amazing husband. Five years down, at least fifty more to go.