Last week my husband and I celebrated Valentine ’s Day all week – you could say it was our week of love.  Each day, we had to give each other a small but thoughtful gift, 5 gifts in total.  I don’t know what it was like in the beginning of your relationships, but I remember lots of romantic gestures in the beginning.  Thoughtful gifts without reason, dates beginning with bouquets of flowers and extravagant dinners.  10 years later, the scene has changed a little.  That doesn’t mean romance is gone, it’s just shifted.

I think the best part of it was realizing that even through the un-fun parts of life, through the moves, job changes, children and general chaos that often fills our lives – I don’t want time to turn back.  It’s fun to reminisce about the beginning but there was a lot of un-fun there too.  There’s no such things as a perfect relationship and as with any good thing, it takes work.

The best part of right now is knowing that we’ll always be there for one another, no matter what life brings.  It’s the comfort in the commitment.  I hold the knowledge that given the choice, we would both do it all over again.

And to prove it, Josh re-proposed to me over the Christmas holiday.

For the past two years, I have been unable to wear my engagement/wedding ring set.  The reason why is an entirely different story of not being properly educated by your jeweler and trying to save a few pennies.  I’ve been wearing a random piece of jewelry on that finger, switching it out depending on the day and simply imagining what wearing a ring on that figure is supposed to represent.

My old ring had lots of sentimental value and while I wanted something wearable, I was struggling with the idea of giving it up.  I remember the day he first proposed, the day a wedding band was added and while I know I shouldn’t be so attached to “things” – I am definitely a person that associates items with memories and this one held a lot of memories.

Knowing all of this, my husband had it reset.  He used the same stone and worked with a local jeweler to simplify a design that I could wear for years to come.  He also purchased an estate wedding band to pair with my “engagement ring”.  Then a couple days before Christmas, he asked me out on a date.  We took a walk to see a really pretty Christmas tree that my mom had mentioned was in the venue that we happened to host our wedding reception at (and we’ve often visited from time to time). Once inside, he got down on one knee with my new ring and asked me to stay his wife – all with Cory Weber hiding nearby capturing the entire thing. He (Cory) then stuck around for a few more photos and we had the engagement session that we’d never had years earlier.

Photography: Cory Weber Photography | Proposal Venue: The Old Art Building in Leland, Michigan

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin

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