Yesterday was the big day no one but me and Mark knew about --- we ran off and got married at city hall!  For weeks, I've been holding my tongue whenever I talked to anyone I care about, dying to spill the beans but knowing I'd better not.  At night, I fought off nightmares where my friends and family forced me into dresses and veils and churches.

I'm the one woman in a thousand who never dreamed of her wedding day, who disavowed the notion of a church and state sanctioned relationship.  But after three and a half years living in each other's pockets, we decided to throw a big party for our friends and family --- kind of a commitment ceremony.  And that got me thinking, so I took a look at our taxes and realized we'd save $500 by signing the sheet of paper.

We set the date for the day after the solstice so that even I could remember when our anniversaries roll around.  I also like the symbolism of the light returning to the earth.  And, of course, there's the fact that we had to get married before the end of the year to get the tax break. 

Yesterday we set out, picture IDs in hand, to the county courthouse.  But ten minutes from home, Mark got cold feet.  Read more... (Like my cliffhanger?)

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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