Today Mr Bond and I are celebrating our 5th wedding Anniversary. Of all the songs I painstakingly choose to be played at our wedding, the only one I really remember is entering the Marquee to “Walking on Sunshine” and it still beings a smile to my face when I hear it. This year we will be celebrating long distance as he still has a couple more weeks before his job up north is completed which is not ideal but given the choice between him being home for our Anniversary and being home for Christmas with his family, it’s a no brainer. We have planned to go out to dinner on the weekend though and it will be great to go out and have a meal together all by ourselves for a change! I don’t talk a whole lot about Mr Bond specifically on this blog but I thought today was as good an excuse as any to share some of our wedding photos and maybe say a few nice things about him.
Looking at these pictures they show us looking exactly how I remember feeling on the day. Full of smiles, laughter and love. We laughed through the whole ceremony probably out of a combination of nerves and excitement and despite my adding a few pieces of unnecessary fluff to the readings, the whole thing was over so quickly. Before I had even got back down the aisle I had managed to squash red rose petals along the bottom of my dress and by the end of the night I had a whole glass of red wine spilled on it (soda water gets it right out) and a hole in the organza from some over jealous dancing. I spent most of the reception dancing barefoot and after a couple of drinks during the photos, I only managed to have one glass of champagne once we went inside, I didn’t need it, I was too busy enjoying myself to stop for drinks. Mr Bond however, was kind enough to shout all 80 odd guests a Double Dead Lizard (double vodka, coke and grenadine), and he made sure not to waste any that were refused!
Mr Bond and I were friends years before we became a couple, there are good and bad things about knowing someone before you are romantically involved, but I love that we know each other for the people we really are, despite seeing how daggy we were in those awkward teenage years. Mr Bond is my best friend and we always call each other mate. We make a good team because we compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. He has a way of calming me down and helping me to see logic when I am in a flap about something because he rarely gets stressed. I keep things on track because I am the organiser and in his words ‘the smart cookie’ of the partnership. That is not to say that there are not times when we drive each other mental, but generally once we have roared at each other like a pair of lions aired our differences, the fight is over and quickly forgotten.
I am only a newbie in this marriage business so I am not going to pretend I am any kind of expert. But some of the best relationship advice I was ever given was from Mr Bond’s father who said that you have to forget all this love crap, you have to like a person to be able to spend the rest of your life with them. I have to agree with him, and I understand what he meant more now than I did at the time he first said it. Once all the initial infatuation has subsided, you need to be able to sit and have a conversation with the person. You need to be able to like them enough to negotiate your disagreements, understand each others personality quirks and support each others dreams.
I would like to think that Mr Bond and I have had success in all of these areas and I feel lucky to be able to say that after 5 years of marriage and over 11 years as a couple I still like and love him very much.
What is the best relationship advice you have been given? How long do you think you have to be married before you can start handing out advice to others?
