Today would have been my 14th wedding anniversary. It’s sometimes a reflective day. Thinking back, I’m pretty proud of myself for having such a nontraditional wedding and engagement – and life, really. Ha. I’ve always been a more nonconventional type person. Society “norms” just don’t make sense to me if they don’t make sense to me. For example, when we got engaged my former spouse asked what ring I wanted. And I said I didn’t have interest in rings. I don’t really like rings (or jewelry, really), so I thought of her getting me an engagement necklace. I thought maybe I’d wear it more often, but I found that I didn’t. I felt like she and I knew we were engaged, and I didn’t need a ring or necklace to shout that out.
We had a Renaissance themed wedding. I wore a black and red dress, and you know what, it was beautiful and awesome. I never had interest in the traditional white wedding dress.
We also didn’t exchange wedding rings. Like I said, I’m not a jewelry person, and my former spouse didn’t have interest in a wedding ring either. We decided to have a handfasting ceremony to symbolize our union. However, the woman who married us was pretty insistent that we exchange some sort of jewelry. So, in addition to the handfasting ceremony, we opted for each having a part of a yin yang necklace – she having the yin half and me the yang half, and when they are put together they make a whole yin yang symbol. I thought that was a really cool idea.
Some of our family were not super psyched about some parts of our wedding, but that didn’t matter. We both loved our wedding ideas and didn’t let other people’s opinions stop us from doing what we felt was right and best for us.
Even though we got divorced, we are still very close friends – another thing that’s a bit unconventional.
I’m just grateful I’ve had the courage to live my life unconventionally. It has *not* always been easy. But it’s ultimately been worth it, living in authenticity and integrity!
Kari Storm 
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