On December 26th, 2015, my boyfriend asked my father for my hand in marriage. The following day, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. From that moment on, my life was full of everything wedding. What flowers should we chose? Would we write our own vows? Who is going to pay for all this?

As I began to look for a dress, the idea of spending THOUSANDS of dollars on something that I would wear once was mind blowing. There were hundreds of options and that was giving me all types of anxiety. After searching for months, I found THE dress and I was ready to go from a single lady to a wife!

Our wedding day was everything we wanted! The time was full of laughter and well wishes from friends and family. The next day, as I watched my wedding dress lay over the back of the chair, I wondered if I would ever wear it again or would it live in the back of the closet, never to be seen again.

Traditions are important to me, so as our one year anniversary grew closer, I was searching for a tradition that would help memorialize the day. As I looked through my closet, searching for a dress to wear to dinner… I saw it! My wedding dress, shoved in the back. That night, I pulled the dress over my wide hips and large belly, where a 32-week old baby lay sleepily in my womb, and danced around the room. This was the tradition I was searching for! We ate and laid in bed as we reminisced about the day we exchanged vows 365 days before. After that night, the dress went back into the closet as I counted down the days to wear it again.

On our 2nd anniversary, our son was here to celebrate with us. It was the sweetest honor to wear my dress and capture the moment with my son in my arms. Caiden watched in awe as his mother danced around the living room in a fancy dress; the lights from the tree lit up the room as we danced until our legs hurt.

This past December, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Three years of choosing to love each other day after day. By the time I got home from work, my son was getting ready for bed. I ran to my closet, threw on the dress and went into his room – it was late, but there was still time to dance.

My hope is that my son will continue to look forward to the one day per year that his mom will pull her wedding dress out of the closet, pull it over all the new curves she has learned to embrace and dance until she can’t anymore. My wish is that my son will value the commitment my husband and I made on December 4th, 2015; promising to choose to love.