It’s so hard to believe that later this week Matthew and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. What’s even harder to believe is how things change after 5 years of marriage, and yet how some things stay the same. In a lot of ways, it feels like 5 years came incredibly fast, but then when I think of what’s happened since 2011, it seems like ages ago since our “I Dos.”
Some of the obvious things that are different are the fact that we now own a house {blessing and a curse let me tell ya!}, we’ve gone through job and career changes, and of course we now have a little bambino on the way! Those are some major life updates! Makes me wonder what will change in another 5 years…
Other things that you don’t always expect in the honeymoon phase is how your interests will be altered. While Matthew and I were never that couple to stay out late, now we absolutely avoid those situations. Before, we’d give in to pressure from our friends for late nights, but now we make other plans with them instead so that we can go to bed at a decent hour. Sleep has become a huge priority for us, and we keep praying our kids love sleep as much as we do! I think we might be in for a rude awakening though!
When I think back on getting engaged and planning our wedding, I remember that there wasn’t even Pinterest to help us. I had to gather inspiration by saving images to my Desktop, or cutting photos out of magazines. Now, so many of my friends have created secret Pinterest boards, and I also see a lot of them joining in with their boyfriend/fiancé on picking and designing the engagement ring. It’s sweet to see how that’s become a mutual collaboration.
JamesAllen.com is a company that makes it really easy and stress-free to design an engagement or celebration ring. You can design the ring you want and buy it online, knowing you’ll get exactly what you want. When Matthew and I got engaged, he just got a certificate for a ring that fit a certain criteria of 4 C’s. The truth is though that no two diamonds are ever the same; even with the same 4 C’s, one is still better. James Allen has really cool display technology that allows you to see the actual diamond you’re buying and choose the best one rather than just relying on that certificate. Not only is James Allen 30-50% cheaper than traditional stores, but they have over 80,000 certified conflict-free diamonds and hundreds of settings, so you can customize exactly what you want. I love that!
This makes me wonder how we would do things if we could have a rewind. Maybe I’d help Matthew design my ring or give him hints, or maybe I’d still want it to be a surprise. With either option I know we’d at least have more choices, along with the ability to find a ring that’s truly one of a kind. I’ve always loved emerald cuts so it was fun to borrow this gorgeous ring from James Allen for our shoot! Makes me think a special 5-year anniversary ring might be in order! I’ll have to work on the husband for that!
xox
DISCLOSURE: Thank you so much to James Allen for collaborating with me on this post. All thoughts and opinions, as always, are my own.
