Greetings, all and none. If you're new to my blog, come stay for the fun.

For those of you who don't have the faintest idea who I am, my name is Jed (though I prefer to be called AU), and I'm a solver of problems, a teller of stories and a newlywed. Call this a reintroduction, call this a rehash, just don't call this a comeback. Well, technically it is, but you get the point.

It's been a month since I last posted here, ever since I took a hiatus from being married and all. So, I decided to check in just so people would still know that I'm alive.

I wanted to post something to commemorate the first month of being married, and to also put a cap on this miniseries of mine, so apologies if this isn't up to par with my usual posts. Seriously though, for the new people reading my posts, please refer to the entries before Cordial Chronicles to see what I'm all about. I'm trying to ease my way back in before I post regularly again.

A Wedding in Retrospect

JED & LIANNE PRENUP from filterpan on Vimeo.

Overall, the whole day was near perfect. But, don't believe me, some people say I'm biased. Guests have come up to us commending this supplier or that supplier, all the while they've forgotten to thank us for the free food. To them I say, "you're welcome by the way."

Seriously though, our hearts are full because of the outpouring of love and support here and offline. While the wedding wasn't the STEEM-powered affair I would've liked it to have been, we were able to earn enough money to make up for the costs. Heck, we were even able to make a profit! So much so that my wife and I decided to get married every year. There you have it, it's now etched in the blockchain. As a wise man once said, "no backsies."

I wish I had the raw pictures to upload, but our photo/video supplier has yet to give us a copy. If you want to browse a few, you can search for the hashtag AUnLIone (because without LI Hive account@randomli, AU is none) on Instagram.

My then-fiancee and I had our preps at the reception area, albeit in different casitas. She had hers at the biggest one, while I had mine at the second smallest one. As you can surmise, I don't have anything to compensate for ;) As you can also surmise, my wife's casita was the hub of activity during the wedding day, while I sat back in the lounge chair, chowing down on my breakfast, sipping coffee and waving at all the vehicles that pass by. From what people have told me, hair and make-up people, florists, coordinators--basically everyone and their dog. That's how it goes, I guess. Nobody really cares about the groom. But, I digress.

We weren't allowed to say our vows during the ceremony, because reasons, so the videographers just filmed it and included parts of it in the Same Day Edit video. Fortunately for everyone, no one intervened and the ceremony went by without a hitch. You see, I've held almost every position in weddings prior (yes, I even became a wedding car driver one time), so being the center of attention was new to me.

Right before the ceremony, I shook hands and kissed babies. Basically, I was a politician, minus the empty promises. I defuse nervous situations with humor, so I went from pew to pew (churchs pews, not lasers) doing stand-up routines. Our guests were 98% relatives, so I was more relaxed than I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong though, I was happy nervous, and not in the runaway groom kind. The atmosphere was electric, and the seats were filled in a matter of minutes. So, the coordinators gave the musicians the go signal and we kicked the festivities off by marching to this...

I'm going to be honest with you for a second, I'm a shallow crier. People have often teased me for it, so I knew enough to prepare. The night before the wedding, I watched videos to induce tears so that I would be all out when the time came and all the cameras were fixed on me. Unfortunately, when my flower girl niece walked down the aisle holding a "Here Comes the Bride" sign, I just lost it. Everything after that went by like a blur, and the next thing we knew, we were already at the reception.

With the whirlwind of events, we didn't have time to practice our performance. So, right before the reception started, we set aside our entourage and practiced a makeshift performance. Thankfully, we were able to nail something passable, but I feel like people are just being kind. I don't want to bore you with the details, so I'll just include the SDE video here:

JED & LIANNE SDE from Taavi Films on Vimeo.

Too bad my surprise ukelele performance wasn't included there. I'm sure there are people who managed to take a video of that, but you would need to pay me to get me to upload that gem. The whole reception went almost as fast as the ceremony, and the next thing I knew, I was carrying my wife through the door and off we went to do what bunnies do.

Cohabitation So Far

Married life is both exactly what I expected and exactly what I didn't expect. We've been together for five years as boyfriend and girlfriend, and yet we have never lived together. It takes a lot of adjustment sharing your life with somebody, and thanks to my Steemit friends, I knew enough to expect the unexpected. While we've continued a hot streak after a month, there have been times where we got into some misunderstandings. Open communication is key, and every conflict could be straightened out by talking things through. We might not know where things should go where, but we're learning to adjust to each other every day. It's a work-in-progress, and we're willing to put in the effort.

I've said too much, I'm afraid. Well, more than what I can handle right now. Apologies as I catch my breath from all this cardio we've been doing. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.