The paper wedding.

All you need is trust and a little bit of pixie dust… (James M. Barrie)

A and I had our big fat Italian wedding with the Greek, American, Austrian, Philippino-sides of both our families only a few months ago. But by the law, we have been married for a year already. A long, wonderful, amazing, incredible year full of new experiences and opportunities to grow as a couple and as individuals.

But when we woke up the day of our paper wedding, about a year ago, it was quite a magical day. Neither A nor I did want to make a big deal out of the legal ceremony, because we wanted to keep the personal stuff for when we would have our families and friends witness the wonderful and amazing actual wedding day, some months down the road, with us. But then again, it wouldn’t be A if he wouldn’t try to make even the smallest of instances into a big deal. That’s just how he is and that’s what I love him for. Needless to say, there was baking involved and getting things ready, making sure everything is stored correctly, the champagne is chilled and all of that on the morning of the paper wedding.

In the last twelve months I had to answer two questions more often, than I ever thought I would. Number 1, How is married life treating you? Seeing as A and I have been living together for quite some time, before we got married (I know, shocker!), honestly, it’s not that different from before, only, even better times infinity. Questions number 2: How do you pronounce your last name? Many people already had difficulty with my maiden name, but throw some Greek in there and you get some off-the-hook pronunciations.

We ran into the whole name-pronunciation-difficulties at the courthouse when the judge tried to pronounce every syllable in both our names with the utter most enthusiasm wrong. And yet, she beamed with pride every time, she thought she did it right. A and I, being polite not wanting to interrupt her and correct her, were standing quietly next to each other in our beige ensembles, both trying not to laugh too hard as she wrongly pronounced us husband and wife.

As we left the courthouse we were greeted by a bunch of people from the Activity house, who were holding Norwegian flags, because they said, that a wedding is a celebration and that it shouldn’t go unnoticed. And it didn’t. Not a single day goes by, when I wake up, knowing how unbelievably lucky I am, being with my wonderful husband.

Many people say, that it is just a piece of paper, that it is just a regular day, that nothing changes, but in the last year, many things changed. I fell even deeper in love with my husband (didn’t even know that was possible) and I am proud to call myself his wife, although I usually introduce myself only by my first name, as I find it way too time consuming having to spell my lastname every single time.

And what else changed? Well, although many people find the thought of having to be with only one person for the rest of their lives insane, I find it some what comforting. I love the idea of stability, I love that I can come home to A and I love that he is there to support me. So I say, whether or not you do believe into the institution of marriage, find someone or something that makes you feel happy, makes you feel content and enjoy every single moment of it.

I will say this though, I don’t think I want to go through all the paper work I had to endure during our engagement again (it took me nearly 8 months to get my name on my driver’s license changed!), but the paper wedding was one of the best decisions I ever made.