First Year of Marriage Recap + What I Would Change About My Wedding

Wow! I cannot believe it has been one year of marriage. Everyone says your first year is so tough, but honestly it hasn’t been hard at all for us. I think a few factors made our first year easier than average.

1. We’ve known each other for so long. A lot of the people I know get married after only knowing their significant other for a few months. Jared and I were together 5 years before we even got engaged and 6 when we got married. We knew pretty much everything about each other.
2. We had to rely on each other. Since we started our marriage off in a completely new city, we didn’t have anyone else to rely on. I couldn’t have my dad come to change my oil or my mom help with dinner. We only had each other.

First Year of Marriage Recap

Don’t get me wrong we had our squabbles but they were minimal and likely hunger related. lol! Reading the book Five Love Languages really helped us learn more about how to be a better spouse. Click here to read my full thoughts on this book.

Overall, it was a wonderful year of growth, exploration, and laughter. We traveled to St. Lucia on our honeymoon and then to Memphis, Nashville, Augusta, Charleston, Hot Springs, Dallas and of course home to Fort Worth. We were able to explore a brand new city together, make new friends and build a community here. We also started our family with our first furry child, Beauregard. Overall it was a big year for us, but I can’t wait to see what God has in store next for us.

Now that has been a full year and the wedding is long and we’ve eaten our year old cake (it was meh). I thought I would reflect on somethings I would have changed about our wedding.

What I Would Change About My Wedding

1. Our DJ: My biggest regret about our wedding was our DJ. I wish I would have done more research on WeddingWire prior to booking her. She was older and not as fun as we would have hoped. She also would very sarcastic and unprofessional. If you are local to FW shoot me an email and I can tell who not to book.
2. Registry: I would have been a little more thoughtful when registering for everything. Thinking back I shouldn’t have done the whole China thing, because who really uses it and I would have rather had something passed down from my grandmother. (One thing I did learn is your average guest is going to spend $30-$50, so add a bunch of those gifts to your list!)
3. Invitations: I’ve already mentioned this in this series, but invitations are definitely one of the things I would have put more time and effort into.
4. Involving My Bridesmaids More: I am a VERY independent person, so when it came to planning I knew what I wanted and I knocked it out. I also didn’t want to be a burden on anyone, so I rarely asked for help. I think looking back on it I would have loved to have them more involved in the process.
5. Surprise Father-Daughter Dance: One thing I really wanted to do was a fun father-daughter dance. My dad is TOTAL dance dad and did many of silly dances at recital…we pretty much crush it on the dance floor. We both really wanted to do this, but with moving a few weeks before the wedding it just didn’t happen.

Make sure all your dream come true on your big day, by using WeddingWire. The one thing I wish I would have researched more on WeddingWire was my DJ. I just rushed the process and wanted to check the box off and ended up being a total mood killer on the dance floor. I can’t speak highly enough of this site. The resources are endless and it saves so much stress and money with their budgeting tools and apps!

This post is sponsored by WeddingWire, but all opinions are my own. Posts like this make Thrifty Pineapple possible.