This has been the most ama­zingly beau­ti­ful day of my life, and the memo­ries we crea­ted today will last a lifetime!

We got married! Yip­pee! (If you haven’t seen it already, check out our wed­ding blog at Miche​lAndSyl​vie​.com)

I am in a state of abso­lute joy today. I couldn’t be hap­pier. After all, I got to marry my very best friend, a man I actually love han­ging out with. A man who ins­pi­res me and makes me laugh. Michel ama­zes me with his sharp inte­lli­gence and bri­lliant crea­ti­vity, and his abi­lity to see the good in everything and ever­yone cons­tantly floors me. I mean, he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.

Simply put, we were meant to be together. He is my soulmate.

I was terribly worried that I would start crying during the cere­mony and be una­ble to con­trol myself once the tears began. See, I don’t shed tears very often. In fact, my uncanny knack for swa­llo­wing tears has almost become legen­dary amongst my friends. “Syl­vie just doesn’t cry, no mat­ter what” seems to be the known rule. But, there’s a rea­son I stay in such care­ful con­trol over my emo­tions. Once I start to cry, I just can’t stop! It’s like someone tur­ned on a fau­cet and refu­ses to turn it off!

So, I was ner­vously anti­ci­pa­ting star­ting the water­works right there during the cere­mony. In fact, Michel and I sort of plan­ned the cere­mony around the pos­si­bi­lity that I would be crying too hard to make any long speeches or vows!

I was pretty proud of myself for kee­ping it together when I wal­ked down the aisle and stood next to my groom. It wasn’t easy. As I approached him, I saw that his face was wet with his own tears, and I was imme­dia­tely cho­ked up. I quickly loo­ked away for fear that I would start crying before anyone said anything! And I care­fully avoi­ded loo­king at his face for too long. I was, quite simply, so bliss­fully happy in that moment that tears were threa­te­ning to begin right then and there.

I hand­led myself pretty well, up until our offi­cant utte­red the words that hit me like a sledgehammer…

“in sick­ness and in health”

As my loving groom loo­ked me deep in the eyes and said “I will” to that spe­ci­fic vow, I fell apart. He and I were the only peo­ple who knew what those words truly meant for us, and he knew exactly what he was com­mit­ting him­self to. This was not a vow that either of us took lightly, and we weren’t a starry eyed new cou­ple with no clue of what was coming around the cor­ner. We KNEW that we were about to truly put that vow to the test.

And the man I love more than anything was kno­wingly, willingly, gladly vowing to stay by my side and sup­port me in my sickness.

He was saying “You don’t have breast can­cer, sweetheart…WE have breast cancer”

Well that was more than I could take, and the water­works tur­ned on full force. The rest of the cere­mony was a bit of a blur, as I was fully con­cen­tra­ted on trying to rein in my wildly out of con­trol tearfest!

By the end of the cere­mony, I was finally in con­trol again, and able to kiss my new hus­band without blub­be­ring, and as the offi­ciant announ­ced us as “Mr. and Mrs. For­tin”, I was (and still am) the hap­piest woman in the world!

I’ll have can­cer tomo­rrow. Right now, I’m having cake!