Today is our 12th wedding anniversary. 12 years since I said ‘I do’ under a gazebo (although my sisters called it a tree for rhyming purposes in a song at our wedding party) in St Lucia. It rained in the morning and all the staff there kept saying it was ‘showers of blessing’ – and maybe they were right (although at the time I was close to punching the next person to say it!!)

I was 13 weeks pregnant at the time – which totally wasn’t the plan – it just didn’t take as long as we’d expected to get up the duff! Consequently I couldn’t take full advantage of the all inclusive nature of The Body Holiday (good job we’ve been back twice since so that I could!)

I’d met Mr P the year before in ‘Zinc’ in Birmingham.  In fact our meeting probably warrants a mention.  I was out drinking gin with friends, and he noticed my red bra strap.  He asked if my knickers matched and I showed him that they did (and still do even after 4 pregnancies and 4 lots of breast feeding!)  He told me he was going commando – I checked, and he was!  After a brief chat we found out we were both Aston Villa fans (in fact this is why we’ve subsequently had 4 kids – to keep supporter levels up!!) We swapped numbers and went on our separate ways for the evening.

After a few weeks of texting we arranged our first date.  We have subsequently both confessed that we weren’t quite sure what the other one was going to look like when I opened the front door – but thankfully we weren’t repulsed and went on our date.  (Although Mr P did tell me a few weeks later that he’d previously only been out with pretty girls!!!  I know that he meant I had brains as well as beauty – but I do like to remind him of it!!)  I found out on this first date that he’d previously been married to a girl I’d been to school with – which meant I kicked him out quickly after we got back to call my best friend from school to tell her who I’d been on a date with!!  I subsequently found out he’d had his overnight bag with him – cheeky sod!!

In some ways we are the complete antithesis of each other:

– I was a teacher pleasing, geeky, girlie swot at school – he was suspended more than once
– I got lots of As (and 1B which I am still gutted about) at GCSE – he got none
– I play a number of  musical instruments – he plays the joker
– I hate swimming in open water – he was a commercial diver
– I didn’t get done for speeding until my 30s – he had points on his provisional licence
– I hate the sand – he would play on the beach all day
– I can ski down a blue run under duress and very stressed – he can fly down a black
– I am naturally unfit but train by the rules – he ran a 10k after no training, a breakfast of M&Ms and Lucozade in the car on the way to the race and still beat me in sub one hour.

But when it comes to important things – big love for our family, OCD tidiness and a desire to help others (amongst others) – we have very similar values and beliefs.  Our life is hectic – working and playing hard together, as well as parenting 4 fabulous kids – but I wouldn’t change saying ‘I do’ on 16 January 2003 for anything.

So here’s to the next 12 (and hopefully many, many multiples of 12) years Mr Price.  Love you. xx