The Sweet Life After the "I Do's"

We have been newlyweds for thirteen days now. People ask how does it feel now that we're living the married life. I can tell you -- it is bliss.

Obviously there is no more stress from that constant overhanging cloud of planning for the wedding and getting things in order. I have also gotten to know some great people better throughout the past year, which has been a joy in itself. More than anything, we really are a family in the eyes of everyone now, which surprisingly took away a weight that I didn't even know I had.

We have been incredibly blessed -- the wedding, our friends and families who came together that day reflected and reaffirmed the values of family and love. Raihn and I originally envisioned an intimate wedding for just close friends and family (in other words, an event that wouldn't break the bank too badly). To our surprise, the event blossomed into something bigger and better than what either of us could have imagined due to all the love, contributions, and support we received from our family and friends. From the bottom of our hearts, Thank You.

A favorite quote of mine is by Lao Tzu, "Being loved by someone deeply gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." On the day of our wedding, I felt the truth in his words. For me, seeing our families come together, accept each other, saying "You are family now," really showed me what kind of people we come from; that with all of life's drama and politics aside, what really matters at the end of the day is who we walk our lives with and how we treat one another. Being loved by family, and of course by my husband, gives me strength to keep pushing the boundaries to be a good, decent, person... to be better, if not my best. Loving them gives me the courage to push beyond the realm of what is comfortable and easy for me.

Although I would love to recap every little detail of the wedding, here are some photographic highlights instead :)

There is no combination of words I could put on the postcard

And no song that I could sing, but I can try because this is your heart and this is

Our dreams and they are made out of real things

Like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving

Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart, like

Why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it's so hard?

It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving

I'll tell you one thing, it's so much better when we're together

Mmm, so much better when we're together

Yeh, we'll look at the stars when we're together

Well it's so much better when we're together

Yeh, it's so much better when we're together

All of these moments just might find their way into my dreams tonight

But I know that they'll be gone when the morning light sings

Or brings new things for tomorrow night you see

They'll be gone too, to many things I have to do

But follow these dreams might find their way into my day to day scene

I'd be under the impression, I was somewhere in between

With only two, just me and you, not so many things we got to do

Or places we got to be, we'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeh, so much better when we're together

Mmm, we're somewhere in between together

Well, it's so much better when we're together

Yeh, so much better when we're together

I believe in memories because they look so,

So pretty when I sleep

And when I wake up you look so pretty sleeping next to me

But there is not enough time

And there is no, no song I could sing

And there is no combination of words I could say

But I will still tell you one thing

We're better together

We so much better when we're together

We so much better when we're together