What Happens After "I Do"

***Originally posted to cregarstyle on May 24, 2014***

As a little girl your whole life is spent thinking about the magical day when your Prince Charming comes to whisk you off your feet and take you into "happily ever after."  Exactly 6 weeks ago my long term boyfriend (turned fiance) and I took the plunge into married life in front of our family and friends.  It was an incredible day spent with those who love us most.  

Photo from Brittany Morgan Photography

However, after months of build up, anticipation, planning, crash dieting, pulling my hair out, and prepping for the wedding the day was over in a flash.  We went on a "mini-moon" for 5 nights and spent some amazing time together.  But for the amount of anticipation and preparation that went into April 12th, not a whole lot went into prepping for April 13th-eternity.

Here we are blissfully enjoying our minimoon :)

I say that we didn't "prep" for marriage, but that isn't entirely true.  Aaron and I had been dating exactly 4 years when he proposed and nearly 4.5 by the time we got married.  In that time we had spent 2.5 years of significant long distance (courtesy of Virginia Military Institute and the United States Army), moved across the country more than once, logged insane amounts of relationship hours (via skype, facetime, in person, or on the phone), shared finances, bought a house, and become the luckiest people in the world to be the parents of a spectacular black lab-pitbull mix named Delilah.  So even though from November 30th to April 12th I may have spent more time thinking about the wedding than the marriage, it wasn't like we had never talked about marriage, how to raise our hypothetical children, and what our dreams and aspirations for our married lives would be.

People ask me all the time "how's married life?" or "do you feel like a wife yet?"  In all honesty: married life is fantastic...but not significantly different than our pre-married lives and I'm not sure what a "wife" is supposed to feel like but I still get a big smile when I refer to Aaron as my husband instead of boyfriend or fiance.  For as frequently as I get those questions, I have had to dig a little deeper to come up with some better answers.  The other day while evaluating my post I do life I did notice that some things were changing about me.  I have always been interested in crafting (hello Pinterest!) but beyond painting a few rooms in our 100% beige house (more on that later) I have never really gotten into DOING my crafts or projects.  In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Aaron and I had briefly discussed projects that have to do with the house.  We bought our house in March of 2013 and moved in May 1.  It had been built in July of 2009 and the previous owners did not see any reason to change the house from it's "builders beige" or update anything to make it more personal.  When we were house shopping it was great that the house was such a blank slate and that we didn't have to imagine ourselves making changes to someone else's personality.  However, after a year of living here things needed to start changing.

As my husband will tell you I have fantastic ideas for how to improve our home...but very little follow through.  I get all excited about a task and dive right in.  I get about halfway through (or sometimes further depending on how large of a project it is) and "take a break" which could last months or days depending on my mood.  Most people make New Years Resolutions. I think I am going to make First Year of Marriage Resolutions.

1. Finish projects I have already started before starting new projects.

2. Blog about (with photos) all completed projects.

3. Maintain a lifestyle blog that is about just that.... my lifestyle.

For #3 I think it needs some extra info.  I am not creating a DIY blog or a recipe blog or a clothing blog...or anything else.  I am doing it all!  Go BIG or go home, right?  I want to blog about my life, whether that is amazing recipes, projects I've finished, my wonderfully loving husband, my attempt to learn yoga, or my training for my half marathon.  This is a blog about my life...Buckle up.  Here we go.