The One Year Mark

Today, it has been 373 days since our wedding. I know this because of this handy little website about our stories that I created last year that came with a countdown (which is now, awesomely, a countup). So, last Monday was our one-year anniversary, in addition to being Memorial Day (which, to be honest, we completely and regrettably ignored). After one year of marriage, we absolutely still feel like newlyweds, and are excited for many more years of new surprises, excitement, and happiness together.

And now for the day itself. I wanted to have a very private, special day with just me and Matthew doing everything together, but the universe had greater things in store for me. Here's how it went:

First, we began with a delicious gourmet meal of pancakes and hash browns, obviously prepared by the hands of a professional, and served to us with entertainment provided by Modern Family, Season 1.

Can you figure out which knee belongs to Matthew and which is mine? You may be surprised!

We spent the morning reminiscing about the last year (mostly about May 28 of the last year), and then Matthew left for his four-hour internship. Giving me ample time to direct my staff in recreating our wedding reception decorations.

"Fun!" pictures

"Pretty" pictures

"Fill the big white empty wall" pictures

Still blooming after a year! JUST LIKE OUR LOVE!!!

Our colors this year are red and blue - Surprise!

The present, which came home with Matthew, turned out to be the game Twister, which I happened to mention recently as being one favorite game from my childhood that I was sorry to have lost track of somehow over the years. We totally played like three rounds that night. There were several hotly contested debates over the rules, which makes this a very passionate gift.

Our anniversary culminated with a delicious dinner that cost a fortune and took our experienced chef several hours of sweat, blood, and tears to create. Good thing the result was fabulous!

Italian Bake: Too yummy to wait to cut until your wife - I mean, le chef - takes a picture.

A romantic, private, luxurious dinner followed...

 

During which an entire bottle of grape juice-flavored-fizzy-drink (inadvertently - and all the more likely providentially - saved for exactly an entire year from our wedding date) was enjoyed.

ENJOYED, I SAY!

After dinner came dessert, fruit and dip, which we had dined on every day during our real honeymoon (there was a lot of leftover fruit from our wedding luncheon).

Not pictured: Totally unhealthy fruit dip

As to the fate of the top layer of our wedding cake, it shall be revealed in a future post.

With food, presents, and dessert taken care of, you may ask, What more could two people want? Good question, Tevye. Turns out, a lot more. For one, the anniversary festivities could not be complete without that most extravagant and traditional of romantic gestures known as THE FANTASY SUITE.

Theme: "?"

Earlier this year, we had thought of going to the Anniversary Inn (where we spent our wedding night) in Salt Lake City for our first anniversary; I was mainly intrigued by remembering how good the complimentary cheesecake was, and by the excitement of picking a wild, exotic themed room to spend the night in. Eventually, however, we decided to go the cheap do-it-yourself route. Though I teased Matthew with the idea of a Twilight-theme, it was actually pretty obvious to me what theme to pick. And that theme was.... JUNGLE/SAHARA/DON'T JUDGE. Mainly because I had lots of stuffed animals and a lot of brown blankets close to hand.

ROMANTIC

Matthew liked it, so there.

After the fantasy suite was revealed, there was one final surprise... I put on my wedding dress again, for the first time since my wedding day. It was a little difficult to zip myself up without help, but it still was a perfect fit (woo-hoo!), and Matthew was inspired enough to attempt to dress up in part of a suit coat to complete the vision.

I love how the veil disguised my short hair.

TWUE LOVE!

And so ended our first anniversary. It was a wonderful day, spent with (or thinking about) my favorite person in the whole world. Every day I love my husband more and more, and I love that we are an eternal family together forever. Here's to our being crazy about each other forever and ever too!