War Buddies

This past weekend The Backyard Groom and I avoided any wedding planning whatsoever and hung out for three straight days with our 65,000 closest friends at the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival. This was our fourth straight ACL Festival to attend, and we love going. But even though you get to see some great shows (Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon headlined this year), there are some logistical kinks that tend to make the experience a bit of a pain too, from 30-minute lines for the Port-a-potties to Port-a-potties in general to hour long lines for food to $8 beers (coincidentally the bar line is never long) to sky-high parking prices. But for us, we generally think it's worth it.

Usually heat and dust are the major negative points of the festival, but this year, the weather went the complete opposite direction. Friday was one of those rare perfect days in Austin where the temperature hovered in the low 80s. Saturday brought out the rain and the fog, leaving us thoroughly soaked. Here's a photo The Backyard Groom took of the Austin skyline obscured by fog behind the main stage.

See all that pretty grass? Zilker Park was closed all summer for it to be planted. But after all the rain on Saturday, the grass was gone. In its place was mud. Good thing I wore wellies on Sunday, but The Backyard Groom's shoes were ruined.

A ton of people ended up just going barefoot in the mud on Sunday, and after Pearl Jam finished rocking in the free world, the mud all around the park was strewn with beer cans and abandoned flip flops.

So what does this have to do with wedding planning? Well, it reminded me of another reason why I'm so excited to marry The Backyard Groom and so sure of the future that we've been building together. We have been through a lot together, from muddy music festivals to emotional upheavals to trips to foreign countries, not to mention our two-plus years of cohabitation. After all we've seen and experienced together, we're a bit like war buddies. When I hear statistics about divorce all the time, I feel better to know that we have that shared history, and no matter what trials and tribulations we've been through, we always come out stronger on the other side.