MPP Note: I am currently honeymooning in Mexico! This is a scheduled guest post by Little Miss Moneybags for my Marriage Guest Series, while I am away. I love the picture she provided… we are exiting with bubbles as well. :) If you are a new visitor, welcome! Comments will be moderated when I return on 4/19. Enjoy!
Peanut and I have been married for just over four months. We’ve been together almost three years.
The entire weekend was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced — all these people coming together for us, traveling, taking time off work, showing up in the same room at the same time just to watch us make a promise to each other. It was humbling and overwhelming at the same time.
But two things really stand out for me. One is a moment when I was late arriving back at my sister’s place for some reason, and I walked in to find Peanut, my three siblings, two of my siblings’ significant others, and a bunch of Peanut’s friends all sitting in the living room drinking beers and tying ribbons around my pie-pop favors. This group of people who would otherwise never meet (we had four or five different states represented) were making friendships and laughing and drinking beer — and saving my sanity by finishing the favors for me. It was sort of a microcosm of the entire experience of having our families and friends come together.
But a moment from the wedding itself that stands out — well, our officiant was basically dressed like the Impressive Clergyman from The Princess Bride, and after stumbling through the entire ceremony in almost as comical a fashion, instructed us to kiss and face the crowd for introductions. “I now present to you, Mr. and Mrs…..” and then she kind of trailed off…and then stopped and didn’t even try. Now, granted, Peanut’s last name is long and Germanic and has five consonants in a row, but we’d rehearsed the pronunciation and I’d written out the phonetic spelling as well. But I guess at that point, she just gave up, and everyone in the audience realized it at the same time. My brother turned the music up just as everyone burst out laughing, and the photo my father-in-law snapped just then is one of utter joy and hilarity on the part of Peanut and myself. I’d say a case of the giggles is a very good way to start off a marriage.
I think, actually, that the sense of happiness and humor from that moment can be distilled into my philosophy for marriage: laugh together. Not a day goes by that Peanut fails to crack me up somehow, and every moment of shared laughter makes up for a dozen moments of daily life. It’s hard to be irritated at someone who makes you laugh, and almost impossible to be irritated with them WHILE they’re making you laugh. I tend to be a very serious and reserved person by my general nature, so Peanut’s ability to shake me up and give me the giggles is exactly what I need in life.
This is great advice. I’ll admit I’m a bit jealous because I’ve been with my boyfriend 5 years this May, and we’re probably not going to get married for a while. But I agree that a happy marriage — or any relationship for that matter — has a lot to do with being able to laugh together.