2021: four years down,
Forever to go. ♾️
Okay y’all, every year on our wedding anniversary I usually write little snippets of my gratitudes for each year’s anniversary of our wedding on IG. This year, I’m implementing a new tradition. A Journal Post. Don’t worry, it will only be a little sappy. Okay, fine, I shouldn’t be making promises. Eitherway, I wanted to write a bit about this year’s anniversary. It will be a bit different as we can’t travel or go to a “fancy restaurant”. But this year, I am extra extra extra extra grateful for this marriage. (4 extras for 4 years, yep)
Snap from our “first look”.
2020 was a rough one for a lot of people. There are memes floating around the internet about how if you made it through 2020 with your partner, you add 3 years instead of 1. That was pretty good. hah. For us, 2020 came with it’s set of challenges, but we have been getting closer and closer each time passes in our marriage. And 2020 is not an exception in that sense. We have gotten closer this past year more than any other years. I think it would be true to say that Juan and I’s relationship progresses really slow, and you know what they say, slow and steady (wins the race). We met and became friends in our early twenties and not until we are in our late 20s we entered into a relationship with each other. I know this to be true: timing is everything. We often spoke about how if we had gotten together even a couple years earlier, we might have not made it here, where we are now. And I can’t think about that too much without feeling heartache. It is impossible to imagine walking through life with someone else. Not because it won’t be good with other people. Realistically, there’s no such thing as “soulmate” in the sense Hollywood movies, fairy tales, yada yada would like us to believe. And, I think we are both wise enough at this point to know what kind of relationship will last and won’t for us. No, none of those reasons. The reason is simple: I love our life together.
It isn’t perfect, but it is ours. I, for one still gets excited to find new things about each other. Things I don’t even know about myself. Things he doesn’t know about himself. We make damn sure we tell each other how much we love and appreciate one another everyday. We respect each other’s wishes and boundaries. And most of all, we strive to grow together.
We made a promise early on in our relationship to never go to bed angry at each other. Four years of marriage in, 6 years of living together, 7 years total, we have not broken that promise.
We can’t celebrate the way it’s “normally” done, but I’d like to walk through memory lane for a bit of our wedding day. I’ll only share a few pictures of our wedding each year and this year I want to focus on family. We wouldn’t be who we are without them. And this will quench a bit of homesickness for our families as well.
Us and Our Parents on Our Wedding Day - February 8th 2017
Our wedding party.
Our wedding was held in Cali, Colombia. Where Juan grew up part of his childhood. He was born in Boston and then lived in Bogotá for a bit before they settle down in Cali, Colombia. Neither of us (Juan and I) ever thought much about weddings especially for ourselves. So we didn’t have any idea of what we want truly until we got engaged and said “now what?”. We had to sit down and sort out what we wanted out of this wedding party. And the answer was simple: immediate family. We made a practical decision to have our wedding in Colombia rather than Indonesia. Because, well, I should mention, my dad has 15 siblings. I am not doing 300+ family wedding in Indonesia. No, no dice, I’m not strong enough for that.
I can’t talk about our wedding without gushing over Mamita (Juan’s mom). She planned EVERYTHING. Obviously, when we decided to do our wedding in Colombia, it would be tough for me to be planning the wedding. So Mamita graciously said, she’ll plan everything. And PLAN she did. I’d also say, she executed everything so beautifully. I have literally nothing to change about that day.
The planning begins like any other weddings, we look for a venue. Mamita was looking around and asking questions about what we wanted. We quickly settled on an outdoor day wedding celebration. We had a guest list of 18-21 people. Our wedding was a very small intimate wedding, like an elopement. She found a spot that was bare and made them into the beautiful spot we got married in. Yep, she brought plants, decorations and Juan’s uncle hand folded 1000 origami cranes to hang on the beautiful big tree over the little deck. All of the plates were custom hand painted plates. (yes, I know, not sure how she’s able to source that. She’s just amazing.)
Yes, this is all Mamita’s planning, sweat, tears, gorgeous table settings and overall genia creativity. She had special ideas that required her to travel all around the city of Cali and then outside of Cali with Papito. They were driving around to find the perfect items for decoration. She’s detail-oriented and definitely know what she wants for the decor. She is absolutely amazing and isn’t she beautiful?
Sweet Papito and his huge grin.
My parents travelled 12,460 miles from Jakarta, Indonesia to Cali, Colombia. They brought gifts for Juan’s family. I watched my parents bond with Juan’s parents and extended family. The memory warms my heart. My dad prepared a speech in English so that everyone would be able to know how he feels about our union. My mother, she bonded with Juan’s mother even though neither of them speak the same language. They bonded through food, smiles and kind gestures. It was truly lovely to see our families come together to celebrate the both of us.
My parents / my dad has to look at the camera the whole time Bradford was snapping pictures.
In our parents we see both the struggles and beauty of 30+ years of marriages. We hope we can work and play in our marriage the way they do. We hope we can love each other and to not let go when things get hard. We hope for 30 and then 40 and 50 years together. We are so so grateful and so gosh darn lucky to have our families. Ok, enough sappy stuff. I’ll share more pictures now. Actually, One last sappy thing, I am never tired of seeing these pictures. They brought back memories instantly and makes my soul so happy and content.
Mateo recited a poem about butterflies and then proceeded to bring out the surprise box of butterflies for us to release. I was extremely surprised in these pictures below.
Nico, Juan’s middle brother sang us a special song he wrote for us.
My brother who traveled from Dallas to celebrate with us. I love you, kid.
See below for a sequence of event where he was telling Juan and his brothers (Mateo and Nico) that in Indonesian “Adik” means little brother. They then roared with laughter because… well “a-dik”. I know, juvenile and funny. It is so lovely that I can still hear their laughters in these photos.
I love that we get to share our precious unforgettable moments with family. I am glad we decided to have a wedding, Juanpa. So grateful we have these beautiful pictures to walk down memory lanes. Te amo, Juan Pablito. Happy Anniversary. ♾️
All Photos by Bradford Martens 2017.