A Year Derailed

2020 started off great for us! We were way ahead of all of our goals for the year. Our finances were in a great spot, we were way ahead on the wedding planning, and we were diligently searching for the perfect spot to start our first nest, our first home.

For the past two years, or so, we have been diligent in planning and preparing for each step in our lives. It felt great having an idea of the direction of our future! We decided it would be in our benefit to plan out our year by filling out dates with the most important commitments we’ve made: our wedding and our friends’ weddings!

The first thing we needed to do was celebrate her birthday! We decided on a simple celebration: a staycation. We planned to visit one of our favorite restaurants, then have cake with family. Afterward, we’d retreat to a hotel and spend the rest of the night watching television (Ghost Adventures and game shows).

Following her birthday, we had three things to do in March: attend a wedding expo, open house our venue, and attend one of our friends’ weddings. The expo was pretty fun, but not necessarily worth it. The only really cool things there were the cakes and seeing our venue manager (we were super stoked because she recognized us, despite having only met us once months before).

The weekend following the expo was our venue’s open house and we were absolutely overwhelmed with excitement! One of the things we were (and still are) most excited about with our venue — aside from the lush greenery that covers the entire area, the lake, the gorgeous pavilions and all the wonderful accommodations — was the food! Our venue does an annual taste test to help couple’s decide on their menu. Everything lived up to our expectations. It was all delicious! We were left wondering why, if they can make such delicious food for a large scale event, other caterers couldn’t for even small weddings. We had a hard time choosing what foods to include in our menu and we chose things that we didn’t expect to want.

The final event we had planned for March was the much-anticipated marriage of a couple of our friends. These two had been dating for years and last year, the finally got engaged! Their engagement was a lot of fun, and we had a hand in helping him propose. Their year of engagement was a little rough for them, so knowing that their wedding was finally right around the corner gave all of us a lot of joy. Unfortunately for them, Covid-19 had already spread well into their city and they decided that it would be in everyone’s best interest to postpone. While most places started shutting down, the business we were in started getting hit harder than ever. For the next three months, we’d be working overtime daily. Great for our finances, but the stress on our emotions and body quickly became apartment (not to mention the lack of rest we were able to get).

We were informed in March that our friend’s wedding in April had similarly been postponed. So, the month of April was pretty much open for us as well. Which worked out pretty well because we were able to dedicate the majority of our free time to moving into our first apartment together! We were teeming with excitement, but that quickly faded when we realized the apartment we applied for wasn’t the one we were approved for. At some point after our application was completed and fees were paid, the manager decided to change the apartment without informing or asking us. Thankfully we were able to get into another apartment that was more toward our liking later that week, but the shady handling and nonexistent communication left us with a terrible lack of trust with the management of the property. Beyond that, the apartments were significantly less well maintained than the ones weff initially toured (which may be par for the course, but still doesn’t sit well with us).

Thankfully, in May we had two things to really look forward to: the first anniversary of our engagement and the 4th anniversary of our relationship! Although it’s not hard for us to find reasons to celebrate, these two were massive celebrations for us. Neither of us had, prior to our relationship, thought that something as amazing as this would be in our future. Every time we reflect on our time together and love for one another, we end up captivated by a whirlwind of love and boundless admiration. This year, to save money for our wedding, we decided to plan a little staycation in our new apartment. Much to our amusement, the world made the decision for us, given that any of the places we would ordinarily travel to were on lockdown.

June was a different kind of month. Places were starting to open up and corona seemed to be a beast on the verge of being tamed. We managed to take a trip out of the city and enjoy some time in the mountains. It was gorgeous getting to escape from the daily toil. We had a grand time, but toward the end of our little vacation, we found ourselves with a new feeling that we’d heard of, but not experienced ourselves: being ready to get home. We think we finally felt this emotion, because we finally had our own place to go home to together. We realized the feeling quickly faded after we got home and gave a little tender loving care to our garden, thirsting under the grueling heat of the summer sun.

Next up was July. Work started to slow down, but it was short lived. Despite the lowered (back to normal) hours at work, we found ourselves feeling more and more that the company we worked for was expediting a transition toward something we detested. After we started looking for new work, she ended up getting a promotion. Finally, all of our hard work has paid off for at least one of us! While she decided to stay, I continued looking for new opportunities elsewhere.

While I kept looking for new work, we started talking about the issues we were seeing in our state: everything is closing down again and the reported cases of Covid-19 continued to rise. We talked for hours about everything going on and ended up coming to the same conclusion that thousands of other couples did: we must postpone. We couldn’t see ourselves asking people to risk their safety to come out to our wedding. We didn’t want anyone to take the risk, so instead of letting them decide, we decided to simply postpone to celebrations by a year. We continued our plans to have a small, official ceremony so that we would be legally, truly, and wholly married (which was our top priority anyways). Hopefully the world would make a turn for the better and people would be able to join us at the later date.

Along with August came a new position at a new company. It came with a pay bump, but the work would be pretty similar: warehouse work, a ton of physically demanding labor, learning new processes and procedures, etc. I was nervous and unsure about what to do, but with the encouragement of my fiancee, I made the decision to take the risk and jump ship.

September and October came and went without much change in our personal lives. We were both adjusting to our new positions. I was getting paid less frequently, but at a decently higher rate (which was nice, but I prefer having smaller intervals between pay periods). We continued preparing for our small ceremony during the time we weren’t working our butts off.

Finally November came. The month we’d been looking forward to for a year and a half. The month we decided to get married. This day brought with it chills, nerves, and a high I didn’t know I could achieve. On the 7th, we wed. It wasn’t big or showy, but it was overwhelming for us. We took a short honeymoon at one of our favorite destinations and made plenty of memories (some of them good lol). We rounded November off with our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and it was pure bliss.

December came and we celebrated our first Christmas together. The entire month was especially awesome because we were married. We got our first Christmas tree, as a married couple; picked out gifts for each other, as a married couple; put up decorations as a married couple; and finally celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple! Everything seemed so much more magical than normal. Maybe we were still riding the newlywed high, or maybe there was much more to it. Either way, it was a blast.

Wild. Absolutely wild has every month been. Even just recollecting these past seven months shows us just how crazy the world has been and how hectic our lives have been, despite the fact that we glossed over most things and completely neglected to mention a majority of the smaller or quicker events that transpired. We sit here now with one wish for everyone: please be safe and respect the safety of others.

Until next time!