She had been planning her wedding since she was a little girl. Not the marriage. The wedding. The dress, the flowers, the song for the first dance. She had spent years curating a vision board in her mind, and when he finally proposed, she felt like the heroine in a story she had been writing her whole life. The months that followed were a blur of venue tours and cake tastings and seating chart negotiations. She was so consumed by the wedding that she never stopped to ask herself a simple question. What did she expect from the marriage?

He, meanwhile, had never thought much about weddings. He assumed marriage would feel much like their relationship already did, just with a legal document and a shared last name. He loved her. They got along. They wanted the same things, mostly. What else was there to discuss? They were both good people who loved each other. That was enough.