People often say the first year of marriage is the hardest. Fortunately, I would have to strongly disagree.
My husband and I just celebrated our first year of marriage on June 22—and honestly, this past year has been awesome. I once heard someone say that their wedding day is the day they hope to love their spouse the least, and that every day following that, their love will just grow deeper. On my wedding day I couldn’t image that I could love my husband more, but I do. He is everything that I need and everything that I have ever wanted.
We are lucky; I know that. I know a lot of relationships fail, and a lot of newly married couples have various problems and maybe questions or regrets as to why they got married. Besides being lucky that we found each other, I think the fact that we got married later in life and that we spent years being friends first has helped shape the strong foundation that our marriage is built on today.
We met while working at a bar in downtown Chicago. We spent every Friday night bartending together, and a relationship was eventually built. We spent years being friends and working colleagues, and then one day, we decided to give “us” a try. It was one of the best decisions that we ever made. We were together for four years before we got married and definitely had our share of our ups and downs. There were times when I thought we weren’t going to make it, but we always would. We would always talk through our problems, communicate, and figure out a compromise that would allow our relationship to move forward.
He proposed to me in Cali, Colombia, on January 3, 2010. It was one of the most romantic moments of my life. Cali is where his family is from and on the second day of meeting them and being in the country on my first visit there, he took us all up to Cristo Rey (a large statute of Christ that overlooks that city of Cali) and proposed to me. It was purely magical.
We got married on June 22, 2012, in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. We had always wanted a destination wedding and were so fortunate to be able to have a lot of friends and family join us. It was an amazing day and vacation with our loved ones.
Reflecting on this past year, I am more in love than ever. For those that hear the first year of marriage is the hardest, don’t get discouraged. For many this may be true; for us, I am very fortunate that it was different. I know some years are going to be tough. Some years are going to be great. I just hope what we have built our marriage on (LOVE, trust, communication, and having FUN) will help sustain us through the bad times and help us keep a daily reminder of why we are together and in love.
Written by: Lindsey Balcazar is the account executive for West Michigan Woman magazine.
