Top (with personal edits), Sweater Scarf: Target
Pants: Revival (Originally Express)
Boots: Kohls
In the months leading up to our wedding, J and I joked about "the change". This refers to all the things that happen after people get married: the weight gain, the laziness, the full on crazy, the skeletons coming out of the closet to play, the squirreling of food, money or small objects, the realization that the other person has weird quirky habits, sounds, smells and ways of communicating - basically all the things you desperately try to hide from one another when you are not committed for life. I am happy to report that only a few of these have popped up and its usually in hilarious circumstances.
The one change we spent a lot of time planning for was finances. It started with the wedding and very consciously choosing a "less is more" mentality. In the very early stages of the wedding planning we sat down and (attempted) to make a budget. It was a bit of a debacle but we tried again and came up with a budget that we both were committed to. My parents had offered us a finite amount of money to work with and from there we were able to really focus on the essentials: people, food, drinks, dancing. Making a wedding budget was a small window into what we would need to do when we were married. And it was great. It kept us honest, humble and happy to focus less on the millions of ideas out there for weddings and focus on other things: our ceremony, our relationship and our future.
(still getting dressed everyday...trying to ward off THE CHANGE!)
Another way we started planning our finance was by getting advice from others. One such person is a certain Dave Ramsey. We both were pretty skeptical because he seemed a bit hokey on the outset but after rave reviews from friends (and my father), we took the plunge. On a trip from IL to IA we listened to several of his audio lectures and let me just say - it changed us. Not in a life altering way but definitely in a perspective kind of way. Ramsey talks about "Gazelle -Like Intensity" when paying off debt and after hearing this, we got excited about paying our debt off and have made life choices that will allow us to do this sooner. Rather than live in a more hip area of DC, we chose to live farther out because of what we can save in rent equals the ability to pay off our loans faster - like four years faster. And it's been good. Really good.
(mmmm coffee)
Gazelle Intensity has continued into our marriage. Bi-monthly budgeting is still keeping us honest, humble but also incredible grateful for what we have. And the only squirreling away of money we've encountered is toward those pesky loans.
(close up of scarf)
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