(Disclaimer: Another post I found in "Saved Drafts." This one is from August 2008, but still applicable.)
2 days before Joshua proposed to me, we went on a date to celebrate our 1 year and two month anniversary. We saw the movie License to Wed. It was painfully hilarious! We related with it completely (okay, most of the details were not the same, but the trials these characters faced, yeah... been there... except with us it was life throwing it all our way, not a well meaning meddling reverend). Including the crap hits the fan, they're ready to quit, but then they realize that they can't live without each other. Yep, that's us.
We were friends for a year, where I had this monumental crush on him (I was subtle about it though), and as time went on he developed feelings for me due to our compatibility. We just clicked. I made myself available but waited for him to choose whether to take it to the next level. He did :-) We started off with the blissful, madly in love with each other fairytale romance, which lasted about 6 months. That's when the truth about each other crept in. Everything got tough from that point on (the double life, emotional abuse, stark reality of job aspirations, questionable loyalties... yeah, a lot more than the typical "Oh, crap, we have differences! What are we to do?!"). There's a scene in License to Wed where there's this huge make or break fight. When we saw that movie in the theater, we had already been through 2 of those earth shattering fights (and if you think I'm being over dramatic, then you just don't understand because you haven't been there, but others will know exactly what I'm talking about). Truth is, if it hadn't been for the Texas plan miracle that came out of nowhere, we wouldn't have lasted. That gave us hope for a solution to the issues.
For us, getting engaged was a glorious experience, however, being engaged was mostly a nightmare. Not because of the wedding detail nonsense (I just wanted our wedding to be simple and affordable and it was), but because of the war that was waging against us. Most everything was going wrong. Him and I both came close to calling off the wedding. The actual getting married process was also terrifying. However, once we were married we had feelings of peace and love. Our honeymoon was perfect, but definitely too short.
Movies tend to end with the wedding, especially fairytales. (Though isn't it funny when we think of fairytales we seem to only remember the pretty parts and forget the terrible battle fought right before the wedding? We seem to want our own romance to be a fairytale but some reason assume it should be without the drama. Go figure.) However, real life doesn't end at the wedding. When you're dealing with problems that threaten the wedding to not happen, they don't just go away. Movies make it out to be you make one grand decision and you're done with it, problem gone (or the villain is killed, which isn't an option in our case). Goodness, reality is you make that decision, and then the problems generally get worse before they get better! I have lost count of how many "make it or break it" fights we've had now that we're married. But as time goes by we're getting stronger and they're happening less. Well, truth is my husband is regaining control over his life (rather than his family controlling his life) and that's why we have fewer fights. But we hit such a low in the past several weeks, after we saw his family, particularly his mother, and she pushed his buttons which brought on a deluge of pain out of my husband. She rips him apart all so easily. It's truly horrific to see, like a wicked witch casting this destructive spell. While people have told us along the way that his family will warm up to us with time, I don't think they understand the truth of his family. This is one of those situations like Nephi and his people fleeing to a different land to stay safe and separate from the people of Laman and Lemuel since they only look to cause war and contention. And likewise, having to constantly keep look out for war approaching as well as preparing for those battles.
Anyway... I got side tracked there. I highly recommend License to Wed. I know it got bad reviews from the critics, but my guess is that reviewers just didn't get it. But those that have been there, they'll get it and will find the truth funny... painful, but funny. And if you don't get it, oh, well.
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