Claire and Cindy, cheeky aunties

Annie, Emma and Sara looking badass if you ask me

Elspeth and Andy

It's been almost a year since Alex and I got married on the bridge in Wakefield amongst most of our closest relatives and friends. We'd kind of overlooking our anniversary until about yesterday. It was swept up in other things: working, Father's Day (I've suddenly got TWO fathers to appreciate on Sunday and in one town, too), and maybe a bit of indifference on both of our parts. But we love the excuse to dress up and go out, so we usually succumb to such events. Our approach to our wedding was somewhat similar. It was swept up in the anticipation of the birth of our first child, in forty hour work weeks, and, well, some indifference. Neither of us felt like a wedding would represent much that we hadn't already vowed or knew or believed in. But as we started planning a little tiny ceremony it grew as we realized for reasons we probably didn't really understand that it was important to have a wedding. I don't think I fully understood why we were getting married until after our wedding, although I did think about it a lot before hand. I didn't want to speak empty words to Alex up there on the altar, I mean, bridge planks. But I think the wedding was less for us as a couple as it was for us as family. Not just Alex, me and Sebastian-the-fetus, but for everyone. There was something really nice in our love and commitment to each other being openly supported, acknowledged and celebrated by those who attended. I think it was the enthusiasm of our family and friends that really made the wedding special. When they got wind of a wedding (which I think we originally imagined with one or two Montreal friends at City Hall or something) they insisted on being there. I realized it was as important to them to bless us into this union as it was for us to let them. I'll never forget how my childhood friends Annie and Emma came (somewhat last minute) from Europe and Vancouver and how my beautiful aunties came (even more last minute) from BC, or how my mother-in-law graciously planned and hosted the entire reception. So this year I'm looking forward to spend some time just with Alex, a calmer, less distracted acknowledgment of our marriage than last year. And on Sunday, our anniversary, Father's Day, we'll naturally be all together, the way it should be.