Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.

“I can’t believe we forgot the picture,” I told my wife after setting up my camera and tripod. Earlier this week we found ourselves racing around the house, getting dressed up and heading out to take a photo together in celebration of our anniversary. Every year we do this on or just before our wedding date to recognize the importance of another year of loving one another in the books. Every year we hold a frame containing last year’s photo, so we have a cool timeline going all the way back to our wedding photo.

It’s a concept we first saw my cousin do, and it’s now a part of our wedding tradition, too. Except this time, we left the frame containing last year’s wedding photo at home, miles away from where we had set up for this year’s shot. Clearly, our photography session wasn’t going to work out as planned.

It didn’t take me too long to realize our gaffe was a perfect metaphor for marriage. Sometimes you can plan and prepare for what life may bring, and you can still stumble and struggle a bit before you get it right. What’s important is that you’re stumbling together. That’s exactly what happened earlier this week, and if I’m being honest, is happening more and more lately.

I think it has to do with having a baby. Our minds are so often pulled in several directions at once, that it’s the little things that cause the most problems. When you look at our photography session attempt, we nailed all of the hard stuff. Get dressed in fancy clothes (without wrinkles)? Did it. Get baby dressed in matching attire? Done. Find camera, tripod and SD card with room for photos? Complete. Arrive at location and execute a brilliant set up? Perfect. We only missed the critical part of the anniversary tradition: holding last year’s photo.

Thankfully, we didn’t let this hold us back. When Sera realized our mistake, we laughed it off and began strategizing how we can do it all over again the next day. Alone, we could have felt defeated, but together, we were comforted. It was just the reminder we needed heading into our three-year anniversary.

Of course these reminders are all over the place when you think about them. Just today I’ve made plenty of thoughtless goofs. On our way to day care, I turned way too early and it resulted in probably an extra 10 minutes of driving to drop Gracelynn off. When we lit our unity candle, I let burning wax drip onto my thumb. While parking at our dinner date, I didn’t leave enough room between our car in the next car, so Sera couldn’t get out. In fact I’m just now re-reading this and seeing that I misspelled my own daughter’s name earlier in this column! (It should be Gracelyn, not Gracelynn.)

I joked with Sera that because we are one in marriage, I took on her traits today — the only conclusion I could come to for why I was so out of whack. The truly miraculous thing is she still loves me when I have an off day or two, and I’m right there for her when she has one as well. That’s what we committed to three years ago, and that’s what we hold as truth today.

So while our third anniversary has clearly demonstrated we are far from perfect, it’s been a wonderful renewal of our love amidst the chaos of life. On our anniversary, we woke up before the sunrise, got dressed in our fancy clothes, found Gracelyn’s matching onesie, grabbed the camera, tripod, SD and last year’s anniversary photo, and headed to a new location to take a few photos just after the sun began to rise over the park where we set up. It was the earliest time of day we have ever voluntarily been up together in our three years of love, but it was well worth it to continue our tradition. This next year of marriage will surely have its oddball moments, but it is in those mistakes that we find the real joys of marriage: love, companionship and support.