I really can’t believe that it has been one year today since we have said “I do” or as you gently reminded me this morning as we sipped coffee before he headed to work, je te rends ta promesse (don’t kill me if that’s wrong, I’m still in level one of my French class). There is a lot to be grateful for in life, isn’t there?

365 days fly by faster than the familiar whirl of our Nespresso machine. God I love that machine. 

The wedding day. My gosh, I think about a “getting married in Italy” interview recently with my Gigi Griffis (a pretty fabulous blogger and guide author btw) and if we would have changed a thing about the day’s events. Maybe it’s still that newlywed feeling but I honestly wouldn’t. Even despite hurdles such as a less than ideal wedding dress shopping trip can turn into victories (you know because I probably cried about it initially). When you’re in an intercultural relationship like ours, something like a wedding might be the only time you can bring everyone together. People from three different countries (and more!) flying long distances who don’t necessarily speak the same language… however as you probably know once the drink flowed, somehow were able to communicate and share a laugh. One of my favorite memories the day of is after taking photos by San Miniato al Monte, we had a little time so we grabbed a glass of bubbles at my friend’s wine bar Enoteca Pitti e Gola Cantina by Palazzo Pitti.

Here I was, in my full wedding dress and garb crammed into a tiny seat in the back as our friend Shannon shared a “cheers” with us before we went off to do our ceremony at Villa Montalto. For a moment, it was just you and I, a bit in twilight zone that we were there in that moment together. The wedding ceremony itself, was at both times hilarious and touching. Our celebrant Cinzia was such a champ wasn’t she?

Its as if she knew us forever, reciting our vows in French and English — including some personal reflections that we shared with her during the planning process. I know I have the video somewhere (thanks Scott!) but honestly what stood out was that we both supported each other, admired one another and were almost incredulous to be together.

I can honestly say, from a girl who has had fair share of disastrous relationships where “confidence” or “security” was never a priority, that meant and means the world to me. I may have stumbled over a few French phrases during our big day but instead of being embarrassed about your new wife’s lack of comprehension, you were gentle and kind as you always are and we got to laugh about it together. It was a damn good day, the love, the laughs, the psychedelic drinks and dancing into the wee hours. We feel pretty lucky, don’t we, to have a great groups of friends and a lovely family (and a new French one too).

I am constantly wishing I could rewind time to our honeymoon in Thailand, those wonderful hot sweltering days exploring the madness that is Bangkok or temple-hopping in Chiang Mai. Koh Yao Noi was like a dream, exploring quite honestly the prettiest beaches in the world, or the 3$ meal on top of a hill overlooking a stunning sunset and bumping along in someone’s trunk back to our awesome hotel.

Fast forward to Christmas in Texas with my family where my (adult) brother’s made you bite on a joke blood capsule to play a joke on my mom. You handled it all like a champ, a dapper French engineer with a poker face. Or what about that offensive shirt you wore to our Christmas eve, all in good fun of course. We played white elephant with my entire extended family and drank um, adult substances out of red plastic cups. I have to add that a certain someone is no longer a virgin to a popular food item called “chicken fried steak,” tamales, breakfast tacos or Diet Dr. Pepper. God bless Texas y’all.

 We returned to Florence to commence our first year of marriage and at leas to me, it started as seamlessly as you could possibly imagine. In other words, nothing actually changed, except for feeling giddy every time the word “husband” left my lips and an extra skip in my step. It almost feels like I’m a kid again, playing at the game of grown-ups.

Every day, every month gets better, despite 2016’s turbulent shift around the world, we can rant for a bit and get on with it. We get stronger as a family (ginger too!), we’ve shared our deepest and darkest secrets and they no longer feel so bad. Talking about the future, well that has never felt so exciting. You and I both know that we can never be sure about anything (especially in Italy), your job, your living space, your tax bill, you get my drift…. but at least I’m sure about what we have as a couple, and that’s good enough for me. Tolstoy had a point when he said “All, everything that I understand, I only understand because I love.”

I know I would have never written anything like this ten years ago, I would have scoffed and said it was cheesy, you might think it is too. But times have changed baby, and I am no longer trying so hard to be cool, or impress anyone else. I no longer care. The insecure Georgette can take a long hike off a short cliff, those days are over. That’s also because being with you has made me an infinitely better person, which means by default this blog has improved too. You encourage me and read my posts (sounds like a little, but actually means a lot), not giving me grief as I type away into the night or blurt out ideas on what to write about when you’ve just asked me what I want for dinner.

After one year of marriage life you kinda, sorta rock my world and that’s all folks..