Our First Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday May 4 Zac and I celebrated our one year anniversary. It's incredible how quickly this year has gone by. We weren't sure if we were going to end up at the hospital on our anniversary since Zane could be arriving at anytime, so we opted not to make plans that were too crazy. We weren't going to be heading out of town and obviously being nine months pregnant wine or beer tasting was out of the question. (Ha ha.) And we didn't want to have some incredibly expensive dinner at a restaurant. (I don't have any cute dresses that fit as dresses anymore, anyway.) We talked about what to do for our anniversary as it grew closer and after realizing that this could potentially be the last full day that we both had together just the two of us (Zac works 5-6 days a week) we thought that it would be wonderful to have a romantic day at home.

We knew that no matter what we ended up doing throughout the day, at the end of the night we wanted to cut into the top tier of our wedding cake. The small red velvet cake wth buttercream frosting had been wrapped up tight in our freezer for the last 365 days.

We were happy to find that when we finally unwrapped it from the box and set it out to thaw that it had held up very well. It had only lost a few of its pearl details and still looked gorgeous and tasty.

Zac thought that it would be fantastic to recreate the dinner from our wedding. We had an amazing dinner that evening so I was all for it! We looked up the menu we had chosen from our venue and made a shopping list. The day before our anniversary while I laid in bed resting with my feet up, Zac went grocery shopping and spent the afternoon prepping food for our anniversary dinner before he headed off to work for the night. (I seriously have the most amazing husband ever!)

Zac and I spent the afternoon of our anniversary hanging out together. It was nice to have an entire day to spend with my love. For lunch we enjoyed a recreation of appetizers served at our cocktail hour. The bbq meatballs were fantastic! We pulled out our guestbook that was made up of photos from our photobooth. Guests were able to take pictures in the booth and leave messages for us. Our photographer, Tess, of Van's Studio caught the fun and excitement over at the photobooth. It was a big hit and we were so happy that we had it at the reception.  

Zac and I were cracking up as we looked through the guestbook. The faces that were being made, the costumes, and the comments are all priceless. It's such a fantastic keepsake from our wedding.

That evening, Zac started dinner and I pulled out our anniversary china we received as a wedding gift (Mikasa Love Story dinnerware found here) and our wedding toasting flutes (Waterford Wishes Happy Celebrations found here) for the occasion.

Before dinner Zac and I sat down to watch our wedding video. At 5:00pm (the same time that our wedding was scheduled to begin) we pressed play and took in the whole day. (Check out our wedding video at the end of the blog post here or our highlights video in this post here.) I can't explain how happy we are that we have this record of our wedding. It was so great to be able to watch us say our vows to one another and remember how excited we were on that day.

Dinner was AMAZING! Zac did a fantastic job recreating the meal. The salmon, the steak...everything was delicious! Zac will have to pass his cooking skills on to Zane because that is not a skill he will be able to pick up from me. When we had finished dinner we used the cake knife from our wedding to cut into our cake. The Michael Buble station on Pandora had been playing throughout our dinner. Right as we cut the cake "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" by The Temptations started. We laughed because this was the song that played when we cut the cake at our wedding. Nicely done Pandora...nicely done.

When dinner and dessert were complete it was time to exchange gifts. The first anniversary is traditionally the paper anniversary. I'm not going to lie. This had me quite stumped for a while. I like to think that I'm a pretty good gift giver but when restricted to a material I felt a little lost. Giftcards were lame and most were plastic anyways. There were no concerts or events coming up that I could get tickets for. With baby on the way buying train tickets for a trip out of town was not a smart idea. In the end I turned to Pinterest for some ideas (big shocker!). I found a fantastic idea (and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't bookmark the link!)....a gift that kept on giving. For Zac, I created a "Sunday Jar". In the jar I placed 52 pieces of scrapbook paper. On each paper there are date ideas, gifts, treats, activities, etc.. Each Sunday, Zac will be able to pick out a paper from the jar to redeem that day or to use throughout the week. The papers have things like: get a bag of coffee, go for a family walk, Daddy needs a new shirt, beer tasting date with the wifey, lazy day in bed. I was happy that Zac's smile got bigger and bigger as he read through each piece of paper in the jar. He pulled his first one, "get a new book" the following day.

Next was my turn. Zac had me stay downstairs in the dining room while he ran upstairs to get my gift. A few minutes had passed and I was beginning to wonder what was taking him so long. A few minutes after that he came down with a smile on his face and extended a hand for me to take. He asked me to close my eyes and he carefully led me up the stairs. Once we reached the top of the stairs and made a right I knew that we were headed into Zane's room. I stood in what I could only assume was the middle of the room for a few moments with my eyes closed as I waited for permission to open them and take a peek at what Zac had in store. I could hear Zac moving around and after smelling matches I knew that he was lighting candles. Soon I could hear "A Kiss to Build A Dream On" (the song we had our first dance to) and Zac told me that I could open my eyes. There in front of me was Zac on one knee, holding out a ring box, a "Marry Me!" banner hung behind him. I couldn't help but cry. Here was my husband, proposing all over again in the same way that he had proposed the first time, using the exact same banner. (I had no idea that he still had it.) (Read all about how Zac proposed here and see how he surprised me a year later here.) I was so blown away by the romantic gesture that I hadn't even taken a good look at my ring.

Zac explained that the banner was the paper part of my gift. The other part of my gift was the addition of a band to my ring that represented our first year of marriage and our first baby. He said he hoped I didn't mind that he killed two birds with one stone giving me something that was both an anniversary gift and a push present all in one. I told him he killed three birds....no Mother's Day gift needed! The ring is absolutely stunning. My poor hands are still crazy swollen and unfortunately the ring only fits on my pinky right now. I can't wait until my hands go back to normal and I can wear this gorgeous, sparkly number on my hand again. I've missed it these last ten weeks. Zac thought that I for sure knew what my gift was. As we were watching our wedding video I had made a comment about how pretty my ring was and how much I missed wearing it. He figured that I had found my empty ring box and put it together that he was adding a band to it. He was wrong. I had no idea... I just really love my ring!

We ended our evening relaxing in bed together watching a movie. I've been exhausted lately and at around 8:30 my eyes started to feel heavy. We got a good giggle thinking that we were laying in bed when at that time one year before we were getting the party started on the dance floor at our reception. Next year we'll probably be having our bedtime routine with our almost one year old.

I couldn't have asked for a better year or a more perfect anniversary with my Zac. I know that we only have more great things in store for us. I'm so lucky to have him!

Wearing His Heart On His Sleeve

Zac and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary just a few days ago. As we opted for a low-key celebration since we're saving money for the big day we also decided not to get too crazy with the gifts. So when it came time to pick out a gift for Zac I decided that although the gift was going to be inexpensive it didn't mean that it couldn't also be pretty meaningful. My sweet Zac is quite the romantic and has always worn his heart on his sleeve. I thought that our wedding day should be no different.

For Zac's anniversary gift I diy'ed a little heart out of a fun yellow and white print fabric. Inside the heart I hand stiched a 'T *heart* Z'.

This little piece of fabric is going to be sewn on the inside of Zac's sleeve on the suit jacket he plans to wear when we get married so that Zac can carry around his own hidden 'T + Z' on the big day. Zac loved the heart.

On our wedding day, not only will Zac be wearing his own heart on his sleeve, but he'll be wearing my heart as well.

Let's get the planning ball rolling.....

As soon as the announcement was made that we were engaged, I was hit with questions regarding wedding details. Having been together for 5 and a half years everyone (including myself) assumed that the wedding details would already be planned. No doubt, after 5 years I had ideas for what would make our wedding day special. The only problem was that I had TOO MANY ideas! Yes, I am totally one of those girls who had a file folder on my computer where I saved numerous pictures of every wedding detail from the color scheme to the favors. Over the last few years I've managed to save quite a collection of photos and now that we are officially engaged, the process of sorting through them and choosing only the ideas that will best fit for our big day has become quite a task. Thankfully, Zac and I have been able to set a clear path for the basic theme of our wedding which has made choosing ideas a lot easier. But before I get ahead of myself.....

 The day after Zac and I got engaged, we announced the big news to our friends and extended family. (After we called Zac's parents and went to my parents' house to fill them all in on the good news.) A few days later I met up with some of my girlfriends to catch up and celebrate over cocktails. I had already talked to Amy over the phone and filled her in on all the details, so she unfortunately had to sit through the story telling of the proposal twice more as the girls arrived and asked questions. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind.

That night Amy gave me a gift....my very first wedding magazine. I was so excited, that when I got home that night I immediately started going through its pages, admiring all the photos, and making mental notes of things I found to be particularly awesome.

In addition to the magazine Amy and Scott got Zac and I each an owl shaped coffee mug! I am so in love with them. My small obsession for owls has begun to appear in small doses throughout our house. A silver owl lives on a bookshelf, owl print photos adorn the walls, an amazing pewter owl candlestick can be found on our console table, and come Christmas time a few owls can be spotted hanging from our tree. (One of the ornaments is an amazing white and silver bird that Amy and her mom found at World Market. It goes perfectly with the rest of our Christmas decor.) So needless to say they were a welcome addition to our owl collection. I'm sure there will be a few owls spotted at our wedding.....

A few weeks later, as I was just getting home from school, I noticed a large package on our doorstep. It was addressed to both Zac and I. Together we opened the package to find a wonderful collection of goodies and this note:

Zac and Teeny,
Here's a little wedding planning care package for you. Some wedding mags and post it flags for things you like. Some Skittles to snack on while you work. Glasses for each of you for whatever beverage you desire *cough....wine and beer..cough*. If it gets too stressful light the candles and take a nice long bubble bath.
Enjoy!
-Sarah

How unbelievably sweet is that? The package was such a pleasant surprise! Thank you Sarah!!! I couldn't wait to dive into those magazine and start tagging items that I liked. The post-it notes were such a great, helpful idea.

Along with the magazines that Amy and Sarah have gotten me, I bought the Bridal Bargains Wedding Planner to help me keep track of the many to-do lists I will need to complete. I also put together a 2" binder to keep all of my wedding idea photos, vendor contracts, schedules and due dates, and other wedding related papers in order.

The wedding planning ball has slowly started to roll. It will pick up speed once the spring semester is over and graduation comes around on May 21! After that it's full steam ahead! :)



Another question to be popped.....

When it came time to decide on our bridal party, I had no question about who I wanted to stand by my side on the big day. The only question I had was "How do I ask them?" I'm sure the girls already knew that I wanted them to be a part of the bridal party but I stll thought that it would be nice to ask them in a special way.

I had fun going through ideas and looking online for fun and unique options.

Tip Junkies had this cute idea for a candy gram.

I saw an adorable homemade card on Once Wed.

In the end I decided to create something that asked the question with a personal touch. I created wine labels with pictures of each girl that said: "Another question to be popped....Will you be my bridesmaid?" To go along with the wine bottles I got the girls each a wine glass on which I etched their first initial.

Here's a little run down of how it went:

Step 1: First I needed to rid the wine bottles of their current labels. This involved filling up the kitchen sink with hot water and soaking the bottles. I decided to leave the bottles in the sink for a full day. This was mainly because I had to work all day but in the end it helped to make the labels come off much easier. Originally I thought that I would do champagne bottles since my girls and I love champagne, but using hot water made me nervous that I would have some corks popping.

Step 2 : The next step was to print out the new labels. I used Microsoft Word to design the new labels, which I then printed on Post It stickable photo paper. I chose two pictures for each label; one silly photo and one cute picture.

Step 3 : Next came relabeling the bottles. The stickable photo paper wasn't quite sticky enough. To make sure that the labels would stay put, I lined the back of each photo with double stick tape along each edge. It seemed to do the trick. The labels didn't budge once they were on.

One for Sarah, asking her to be my maid of honor.

After the wine bottles had their new labels, it was time to work on the wine glasses. Using the Cricut that Zac got me for Christmas, I cut out the first letter of each of the girls' names on construction paper. I taped each letter to the inside of the wine glasses to use as templates. Using a small paint brush, I brushed on some etch cream that I picked up at Joann's Fabrics. The cream only takes 10 minutes to settle. It washed off easily and left a nice frosted initial on each glass.

The final part of the project was to create gift bags for each of the gifts. I used the Cricut again to cut out the girls' first and last initial on hard cardstock. I glued the letters on brown paper gift bags. After adding some colorful tissue, the gifts were done. 

I decided to give the girls their gifts and ask them to be a part of the bridal party at Sarah's baby shower. It was the first time in a while that we were all together in the same place and I didn't want to wait any longer to let them know. 

It had only been two weeks since Zac and I had gotten engaged but I was still anxious to get started on planning and asking the girls to be in the wedding was the first step.

They seemed to love them! I had no doubt about their answers but it was such a happy feeling to hear them unanimously say "Yes!" These girls are so amazing and I feel so blessed to have them in my life and to be able to experience this amazing time with them by my side.

** PS. I was so disappointed in myself for not taking photos of the wine glasses and gift bags. Thankfully Miss Amanda posted a photo of her gift online....so I happy stole it. : P