A Decade of Love

December 28, 2009 - December 28, 2019

On December 28, 2019, Eric and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary with our convalidation of marriage.

When Eric and I got engaged, the first thing we talked about was what we wanted our wedding day to look like. The biggest question within that: church or no church? Eric and I both grew up in Catholic families and went to Catholic school from preschool through senior year of high school. Eric even went to a Jesuit college. It was not a question if we would receive the sacrament of marriage, but a question of when it was the right time for us to do so. And to be as frank and honest as possible, the thought of a big church wedding made me nauseous, quite literally. I’ve fainted on more than one occasion in a church/during a religious ceremony. I avoided having the typical sweet sixteen because I knew I couldn’t stand at the front of the room to read out 16 candle speeches. There’s countless memories of dance recitals and cheerleading competitions/tryouts where I froze on the spot like a deer in headlights. If I haven’t proved the point yet, imagine having that innate fear plus the anxiety of your wedding day on top of having “all eyes on you”: a true recipe for disaster. Just the thought of standing at the altar in my wedding gown for an hour in front of a church full of people made my knees buckle.

Thankfully, we each had a sibling who had a short wedding day ceremony outdoors/outside of the church, so the shock from our families was minimal. But we did promise, specifically to my mom, that we would have a small church ceremony with just our parents and siblings separate from “the big day.”

At first, the idea was to get married at a church down the shore on the Sunday after our wedding. But in the craze that is wedding planning, we only completed one of our pre-canna meetings. As the wedding weekend approached, that idea quickly became one of a dream. The next idea was to have the ceremony on our 1 year wedding anniversary, August 3, 2019. But once again, our first year of marriage flew by in a blur, and we weren’t ready. Finally, life settled down, and on one of the last nights of warm weather, we sat on the back deck of our shore house, called our friend Father Larry on speakerphone, and said “okay, it’s time,” to which he just responded with his one-of-a-kind big jolly laughs. We picked back up with our pre-canna meetings and set the date, our 10 year dating anniversary.

As word got out of what we were doing, what originally began as just a small and intimate ceremony with our parents and siblings became so much more. We were, and still are, truly blown away by our loved ones who once again wanted to be apart of our day. With just a few weeks before the event, we opened the invitation so that whoever wanted to be there knew that they could.

It was a beautiful day in December. Our hearts were full, and neither of us could stop smiling. We can’t thank our family and friends enough for the endless love and support you have constantly given us. In our home and lives, you mean everything to us.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

Photography: Vanessa Joy Photography

Hair: Hair by Matthew

Makeup: Gabrielle D’Amato Makeup Artistry

Florist: Soho Flower & Garden