Our First Anniversary : Let's Sail Away Together

Hello, world! We’ve made our big move to New Jersey and there’s so much to catch up on! The hubs was stolen away soon after we arrived, kidnapped to Rhode Island for the past nine days while I have been living in an empty apartment with nothing but one suitcase of clothes, an uncomfortable air mattress and two confused pups. No TV, no internet. Just my iPhone and skyrocketing data charges. Thankfully today our apartment finally got hooked up to the world wide web. But before I fill you in on everything that has happened since we packed up and left Florida, I want to share a few more stories from our St. Pete days… Starting with how G and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary!

Right after we got married and moved across the country, the hubby and I thought it would be wonderful to take a cruise for our one-year anniversary, since it is so easy to do so when you live in Florida. But we didn’t start planning or budgeting for such an excursion and before we knew it our first year was almost up! Having just returned from a long, expensive California trip in February and March and with our big Jersey move on the horizon, we decided it would be more practical to plan a low-key staycation. G took two days off work—Monday, May 18, our actual anniversary, as well as the following day—for us to celebrate.

On May 18, we started the day with a delicious at-home brunch. G made a chicken sausage and veggie frittata and we toasted to each other with mimosas in our hand-painted lavender wedding flutes. 

We then exchanged gifts. 

The traditional theme for a first wedding anniversary is paper, which I gave the hubs a heads-up on, just in case he wasn’t aware. (He wasn’t.) While we have two beautiful wedding albums (including this Shutterfly album), we didn’t have any of our wedding photos hanging on the walls in our home. Not even any in tabletop frames! So I printed out a bunch of my fave shots and placed them in three collage-style frames that have a beachy, rustic vibe—a perfect fit for the style of our wedding. For one of the frames I calligraphed part of the lyrics to our last dance song, Sara Bareilles’ “I Choose You.” I also finally put the frames from our wedding to good use, swapping out the Instagram sign and escort/favor table signage for photos of us.

I was nervous what G would think of my gift, since it was more of a gift for our home than just for him, but he loved all the frames. And when he unwrapped the one with the calligraphed lyrics, he exclaimed, “Whoa!” And then, a few seconds later after reading the words, timidly asked, “This is our wedding song, right?” Haha. Yes, honey. Our last dance song. Men.

G, on the other hand, did get me more personal presents, just for me: a luxe leather clutch to hold my pens and a chartreuse zippered leather journal (paper!) that says "winks & whims" for my calligraphy, a summery coral-and-turquoise necklace, and a beautiful lavender-scented candle, since one of our wedding colors and flowers was lavender. All so very thoughtful!

We relaxed together for a bit before getting ready for the evening, which started with a rooftop drink at The Canopy and then popping over to Annata to grab a charcuterie plate to-go and another glass of wine while we waited. Of course, the service there is always impeccable so one glass of wine at the bar turned into receiving a sample of another wine, an amuse bouche and, when they learned we were celebrating our anniversary, complimentary glasses of bubbly. 

We would have loved to stay at Annata longer but, alas, we had to guzzle and run to meet up with the night’s main event: a sunset sail on Tampa Bay.

I had never been sailing before, and neither had G, but being in the Coast Guard has kind of made him lose appreciation for the novelty of boating. Whenever I suggested a sailing cruise in San Diego he balked, saying “been there, done that.” Fortunately I was able to convince him to do it for our anniversary, and it didn’t hurt that I presented him with a killer deal with Simple Sailing on LivingSocial. While there was a possibility of having two other couples join us on the sail, we lucked out—we had the boat all to ourselves. Three cheers for celebrating on a quiet Monday!

The views from the boat were gorgeous and the sail was calm, peaceful and romantic, even though we did chat it up with Captain Scott quite a bit. During our three-hour cruise, we sipped bubbly, nibbled on our charcuterie, helped pull the lines to let the sail in and out, and snuggled on the bow, our feet dangling just above the water. A pod of dolphins even swam up next to us a few times to say hello, which was a truly special sight. We then watched the sun set, dipping below the St. Petersburg skyline, before turning back to shore. It was a magical evening.

(Gratuitous sailing and sunset photos ahead!)

After our sail, the hubs and I walked back to Beach Drive for a late dinner at one of our favorite St. Petersburg restaurants, Cassis American Brasserie. I had the herb-crusted grouper, G chose the sea scallops, and we shared a basket of fries because they are too good not to. We sat outside, enjoyed the almost-summer air and talked about our time on the water.

With (sadly) no room left for dessert, we headed home full and happy. But don’t worry, we had our fill of sweets on day two! Stay tuned… (and, as always, thanks for reading!)

Update: Here's the link to the Day 2 recap.

Adjusting the Sails

Life has been stressful lately, to say the least. In preparing for our big move to New Jersey, things have not gone smoothly. In fact, it seems that everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. We had major problems with the movers, problems with selling my car, problems with finding a place to live... and a few more hiccups here and there. Last week felt like one massive migraine. This week, G and I are slowly starting to turn this stormy ship we're on toward safe harbor (Coast Guard pun intended) and I am trying to be optimistic (not my strong suit) that things will truly get better soon. The movers are coming today—they're expected any minute now—and our life in our St. Pete one-bedroom apartment is half undone, waiting to be boxed up. The movers are set to return tomorrow to load everything into the truck and then the four of us, pups Jasper and Cali included, will be on our way up north. The hubs and I have plans to stop in Savannah and D.C. before we make it to Union City, our soon-to-be home base, on Friday, though we won't have too much time to explore. But I'm hoping to make the most of our mini-road trip, and hoping that we'll feel happy and relaxed by the time we get to the Garden State.

(Louisa May Alcott quote print 

by Lisa Congdon)

Featured!

Exciting news! Our wedding photographer just emailed me to let me know that our wedding is featured on Artfully Wed today! Perfect timing I guess, seeing as we just celebrated one year of marriage. You can check out the feature, which includes a few words from me, here.

Wedding Wednesdays : My Fave Wedding Day Memories

In celebration of G and I's first anniversary as husband and wife, I thought I'd take a stroll down memory lane and share my top five moments from our wedding day, plus one "best-worst" honorable mention.

The first look.

Even though the straps of my heels kept getting stuck to my dress, which kept getting stuck on nails in the wood deck, the first look was a wonderful (if comedic) moment. G’s reaction was a bit quieter than I expected it to be. When he turned around he just smiled, and then tried to hold back the tears. While we only had a few minutes alone, I think those few minutes helped calm our nerves and it was nice to be able to actually talk to each other, compliment each other, hug and kiss—the things you can’t really do during the ceremony!

Words with my dad.

Right before the walk down the aisle, I had a few precious minutes alone with my dad, who was just a big teddy bear on my wedding day, so emotional and nostalgic. Worried about my hair and my dress, I asked, “Do I look OK?” My dad didn’t miss a beat, replying that I looked like a supermodel. Later, during our father-daughter dance, he had me blubbering like a baby as he recalled his memories of me, as a baby. It was beautiful and perfect, even if I was ugly-crying the whole way through. 

Walking down the aisle.

As my father walked me down the aisle, to the Goo Goo Dolls song “Come to Me,” the scene before me was mostly a blur. It happened so quick! But I do specifically remember seeing my friend Stephanie absolutely beaming with joy for me. Next I saw my soon-to-be husband, wiping away tears as they fell from his eyes, despite having already seen me in my dress—proving that first looks do not in the least take away from the seeing-your-bride-walk-down-the-aisle experience.

The ceremony.

G and I wholeheartedly agree that the best part of our wedding day was the ceremony. It was so important to me that the ceremony be personal, meaningful and really reflect the significance of what we were doing—pledging to love, honor, support and cherish each other, forever. That’s why I took on the task of writing the ceremony, including a hand fasting ritual and a wine blending ceremony, and carefully selected two readings, one sweet and one funny. The pinnacle moment, however, was when G and I shared the vows we had written for each other. A close runner-up was when my groom slipped me a tissue just as our officiant-friend read the words, “These are the hands that will wipe away the tears from your eyes…” Perfect timing!

Our second dance.

While our first dance, to Train’s “Marry Me,” was certainly special, I felt infinitely more comfortable during our second dance. To kickstart the reception, the DJ put on John Legend’s “All of You” and our friends and family quickly joined us on the dance floor, making us feel less like the ice sculpture the reception revolves around and more like part of a great party.

The best-worst moment: 
When my hubby & his boys "broke" the dance floor.

It’s a year later and I don’t yet find this as funny as people assured me I would one day, but it was definitely a memorable moment that guests still talk about! G had already gained a reputation for his enthusiastic moves and one-armed push-up to the Isley Brothers song “Shout!” but he took his fame to a whole new level during our wedding reception. Now, it wasn’t really his fault, but as G and his groomsmen jumped up and down on the lower deck, our dance floor, one of the planks began to bend and bow. It didn’t actually crack and no one got hurt (thank goodness) but the lower deck with our sweetheart table was basically off-limits after that and the dance floor was moved to the upper deck. Suffice to say, we weren’t thrilled, but we have an interesting story to tell and some fun photos from what is now his most infamous “Shout!” performance.

(Photos by heidi-o-photo)