The greatest day of my life, thus far, was our recent wedding.

It’s difficult to write those words because the world is truly in shambles right now with COVID-19 and racial injustices. I realize that COVID-19 is new, but racial injustices is nothing new to our society, unfortunately.

However, like several others, I want to focus on love in times of darkness and uncertainty. What a time to get married (that’s sarcasm!).

Our venue cancelled on us. Society is filled with unrest. Any groups of five or more have been frowned upon. People whom I thought were close to me, abandoned our day. The odds seemed to not be in our favor and our vision for our perfectly planned day was not coming to light. However, isn’t the meaning of love truly living through every obstacle thrown your way; sticking together no matter the circumstances. I cannot adequately express the partnership that I share with my husband. I don’t know of another couple that shares the bond that we have. Let me explain.

My husband and I never fight. Yes, I get annoyed with him and he gets “frustrated” by me. However, we never get unraveled. We never lose respect for one another. When you think of love, I’ve never felt this way nor have had love like this until him. He has never hurt my feelings, made me cry, left my side, nor has he ever had ill intentions towards me. He has always had the purest of intentions for me and our relationship. He is truly one of a kind. I am beyond blessed to have a love that continues to grow each and every single day.

When we are faced with a decision, we are on the same page 99.99% of the time so you can imagine tough decisions like postponing our wedding and choosing to elope was a simple one. We decided to take control of our day and make it the most special moment of our lives, thus far.

Now, let’s talk about that day.

We rented a penthouse in the middle of the city where we met, ordered flowers, rearranged the living room to stage up our location and created a magical ambiance for our union to become husband and wife. We wanted to make the day as special and close to the real experience as possible. I bought a dress (much simpler than my ceremony gown), had my hair and makeup done, and had our photographer capture the day. My best friend officiated and her boyfriend was our production guy, and our families were tuning in via Zoom! We took the reins and really made it a special experience. We made it work! I could not have done it without my husband – he made the experience so much fun!

The only thing missing that day was my dad walking me down the “aisle.” That was an extremely emotional moment for me because I had no one to “give me away” to my husband. And if you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you know how much my father means to me. The good news is that he was ecstatic when I told him the news of hosting a quarantine wedding. Since he falls into the highest risk group and lives in a county in our state with the most confirmed cases, it was never an option for him to join the quarantine wedding. However, he shared with me that it didn’t matter to him and that all he was focused on was me marrying my forever partner.

Then, it was time to start.

I walked out to meet the love of my life. Our favorite song playing in the background, him waiting for me and seeing him light up watching me approach him. It was truly magic. I was so emotional, tears were falling from my eyes before I ended my procession. We both couldn’t hold the tears back when exchanging vows. My husband is not emotional at all. So, to see tears fall down his face was a true testament of how special this moment was for him. I found a man who said that it’s a privilege to spend his life with me. That, in itself, is the greatest gift I’ll ever receive. To build a life with someone who knows the true meaning of love and a partnership. I hit the jackpot!

The point here is this – not only did we just live through one of the best moments of our lives, but we did it on our own terms. We persevered through an unforeseen circumstance and handled it with such grace. That was a true testament of how we will be able to handle any obstacle that comes our way with poise – life is full of them so it’ll be inevitable.

Though the last few months have been some of the most chanellenging for not only myself, but for the world, it has shown me that we are equipped for any/all obstacles that come our way. We joked that if we can live through quarantine, uncertainty and heartbreak for the world, we can do anything.

I feel so honored and lucky to have found a man to truly walk through life with. It’s true what they say that as long as you have a strong partner by your side who loves you more than anything, you can get through anything. We are going to create the best family together and conquer the world with love.

I’d like to end this post with an excerpt from my vows.

“Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.“