Joy, stress, and exhaustion I had when I got married.

After nine years of dating full of adventures, experiences, arguments, and other normal things during this period, my girlfriend and I decided to get married. At first we had a quick civil wedding, since it was a mandatory requirement for the allocation of a mortgage loan.

That day the marriage took place in a civil headquarters with the respective witnesses and closest relatives, we did not have much money as we were saving for the down payment of the property to acquire through the mortgage loan, we decided not to make any celebration, we left the headquarters for a walk, we bought an ice cream in a nearby square and after eating it we kissed, and for that we were almost fined by a policeman for public immorality.

After going through several vicissitudes and obtaining the property with a credit approved through a bank, we decided to get married in the Church, in this case the Catholic Church, the religion that my girlfriend and I profess.

This finally fulfilled our dream of living together and helping each other in good times and bad times.

We still didn't have great economic resources but our families joined together to finance the reception, in the basement of my godmother's house, who is also my aunt. I provided the horns and sound equipment, while my mom, cousins, mother-in-law and aunts cooked the entire menu, and my co-workers helped me buy the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

The guest list was carefully selected, but since the party was to be held at my aunt's house, my cousins invited some friends, which made the menu even more expensive.

Since the day before I was already feeling stressed even though I tried to rest I could not sleep thinking about the ceremony I was very restless and I even thought that my girlfriend was going to give up the marriage because of an argument we had days before.

I thought of all the things that could go wrong at the meeting, I even didn't like the suit that an uncle-in-law lent me for the occasion.

My wedding took place on a Saturday, and it was scheduled for 6:45 pm, even knowing this I was at the doors of the church since 4:45 pm, time had never passed so slowly for me, the anxiety was killing me, my aunts, my mom and my grandmother asked me to calm down while my 4 cousins smiled and almost laughed when they saw me.

I was already sweating when suddenly the car that was bringing the bride arrived, which by tradition I could not see until she entered the church.

Once inside the church my nervousness began to drop and so did my anxiety, seeing my spectacular bride with a smile from ear to ear. The ceremony went smoothly, each of us made our respective vows and received words of encouragement from the wedding godparents.

Once married, we left the church and went for a ride around the city of Caracas in a limousine that was a gift from a co-worker whose husband was the driver and owner of the company that rents these vehicles for special events.

We toasted with champagne, and spent about an hour driving around the city with a caravan of vehicles in which the drivers were of course some of the guests.

Already on the road to where the reception was to be held, my wife and I were hungry, the champagne was already making us dizzy. We arrived at my aunt's house and were greeted by a great ovation, suddenly we heard one of my aunt's favorite songs interpreted by an idol of the Italian song of the 60's Peppino di Capri, the name of the song Champagne.

Although this music was not programmed into the set list chosen by my wife, she and I danced to the song.

Caribbean rhythms such as salsa, merengue, Latin pop and even rock were playing over the horn loudspeaker.

My mother and mother-in-law signaled us to eat the cake together, which would be offered to the guests after the banquet.

As we could, we approached the food table where we saw chicken lollipops, meat balls, chicken breasts in sauce, roast beef, and seasoned cheeses.

As drinks we observed: whiskey, wine, soft drinks and water, which would be distributed at the tables.

There was an abundance and so we did not serve much food on the plates, we proceeded to sit and chat at each table with the guests, there were some dancing and our families hired a friend we knew to serve as waiter.

My cousin's friends looked like a lot of fun, but they were also the ones who were eating the most of the banquet!

The wedding toast, which is made to wish good things to the couple, was made by an uncle-in-law and in his speech he included words of eternal happiness, love and abundance. We all toasted with champagne.

After so much talking and sharing with the guests, our body became hungry again and we decided to sit down for a while with some friends from the University to eat. At that moment the food was served and we thanked God for it.

Approximately one hour later, the pieces of cake were distributed, while my wife and I continued greeting the guests who were leaving the meeting at approximately 3:00 am. That was precisely the time we left the party and retired to a small room that served as a study for my aunt, and simply fell asleep on a sofa.

From my own experience I could tell the future spouses that in principle do not worry about the nerves that is normal, especially the first time we are taking such an important step in life. Make sure that you really understand and understand each other and that there really is love in the relationship to avoid future unpleasantness.

Eat very well before the ceremonies, because hosting is not an easy task, it requires a lot of walking and talking, activities that require energy, and of course when it is consumed by us our body asks us to feed to continue producing it and satisfy our appetite.

If possible, reach an agreement between the families to share the costs of the banquet and the party, this does not have to be so expensive or with a large number of guests. The important thing here, regardless of religion, is to celebrate the commitment between two people who are willing to share a life together.

A pleasure to share my opinion with you, I greet you from Venezuela, and thanks to the Hive Learners community for suggesting these fun and thoughtful proposals.

All images are my property and were taken with a Kodak Easy Load 35 - KE25 camera. The first image was made with the Paint 3D program.