I'm A Newlywed No More
Yesterday was Bobby's and my one year wedding anniversary.
In high school, I remained convinced that a Big Wedding was the way to go. You know, the ceremony (not in a church, though, as Bobby and I are both agnostic) and a big reception with all the traditions: the first and last dances with various family members, the small dance, the garters and bouquets...all that. But, as reality and later life set in, we came to the realization that such things cost a lot of money. And, perhaps, more importantly, take a lot of time.
So last autumn, shortly after moving into our apartment, I took a half-day from work, went to register us for marriage with the courts, and took the most convenient Friday available, which happened to be November fifth. Unromantic? Perhaps. But in retrospect, I would not have done it any other way.
My wedding day seems so vivid to me. It seems like it was just last week; it was a year ago. So many women I've talked to tell me that you never remember your wedding day. If I had to have an unromantic court wedding and remember mine, that's okay with me.
I remember buying my dress; sitting on the floor with my husband, eating breakfast, on the morning of the fifth; talking on the phone with one of our best friends, calling to congratulate, getting ready; getting irritated with my dad for taking too long with things; having millions of pictures taken; swearing not to cry at the altar and doing it anyway....
Yes, that's my husband Bobby and me (although we weren't yet married at this point). I swore that I wasn't going to where red on my wedding. 90% of my clothes are either red or black. Of course, you can see that I wasn't successful in my insistence of not wearing red...well, actually, it was called "burgundy," but close enough.
And the point at which the intent not to cry failed....
And the first kiss--as husband and wife, that is! ;-P
For our anniversary, we did a little bit of everything that we love to do. We started the day with a hike. The weather in Baltimore has been unseasonably beautiful; it is about 80 degrees F right now and was yesterday too. So we hiked alongside the Patapsco River, where runs the railroad line that passes through Ellicott City. We've hiked these tracks numerous times without ever seeing a train; yesterday, finally, we saw a freight train. What noise! But it was very cool; as indication of what simple, dorky people we are, I exclaimed, "Wow, this is a good portend for the rest of our anniversary!" and Bobby agreed.
We had enough time in the afternoon to chill out, meaning that Bobby watched some hockey and Dawn caught up on her email and LJ comments from Posting Friday. For supper, we went to Timbuktu, the restaurant where we had our reception dinner last year. It is one of the nicer restaurants in the area and last night did not disappoint. They're known for their seafood, which makes Bobby happy (they are consistently voted as having the best crabcakes in Maryland) and have good pasta, which makes Dawn happy.
A year ago....
Dawn and Bobby and their cake, at Timbuktu. And....
Dawn and Bobby having drunk too much champagne! :D
Although I was not as bad as my mom, who was making disco noises at this point, at the other end of the table, much to the amusement of the two friends we invited, Evan and Potter, who did a fine job of egging her on and tease her about it to this day.
If you're masochistic to wonder what Dawn looks like in her normal dowdy-hippy clothes, without makeup (because my wedding was the last time I wore makeup, aside from the stage makeup I wear for skating shows):
That's me at the wedding dinner that my parents had for us a few months later. I don't have any good up-to-date pics of Bobby, since he started playing hockey again and got hott and ripped. I could chase him around the apartment now with the digital camera, but frankly, I'm too lazy.
After dinner, Bobby and I took a stroll around Ellicott City. We did that after our reception dinner, on our wedding night. I remember that it was cold that night; we kept going into the antique stores to warm up and browse around. Last night, it was warm, and we had to walk past the Tiber River Tavern to see if any "faces not human" appeared in the windows to us. No luck. (What romantics we are! Hunting poltergeists on our first anniversary!) Afterward, we came back the apartment and talked. We talked about his job and our futures and lots of other Deep Things (tm). After that, we went to see North Country. (Excellent movie, by the way; go see it!! The hippie-feminist in me loved it.)
Then we ended our anniversary night by coming home, drinking champagne, and eating the wedding cake that's been hanging out in our freezer for the last year.
(Two funny stories: The champagne was acquired from my underaged sister-in-law. She got into some trouble and my in-laws found a bottle of Asti rolling around in her backseat. Oops.... They confiscated it and gave it to us. Since it's the same champagne that we drank at our wedding, we've saved it for our anniversary. She keeps asking after it, so now I can tell her that we drank it. Thanks, Erin!
And this was actually my first real piece of wedding cake. I had a taste at the wedding, of course, but not much more. As you can see from the pictures, the cake was rather large for a wedding party of twelve people. So we had literally three boxes of cake left over.
Our friends Potter and Evan stayed with us the weekend of our wedding. [Although, naturally, we kicked them out for our wedding night! ;-P] They arrived late on Saturday, and Evan was hungry, so we told him, "Have a piece of wedding cake." After all, we had three boxes. The next day, after they left, two other friends came over to watch the game with us. I offered them a piece of cake, went into the kitchen, and couldn't find it.
Evan ate almost our entire cake. I was quite angry.)
Now, though, I know that it was good cake. Finally. After a year.
Bobby proceeded to get drowsy from the champagne and so went to bed around 2 a.m. Which allowed me to get 1,483 words done on my NaNo story, bringing me to 15,645.
All in all, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.
Funny thing, when I was young, I thought I'd never get married, thought I'd never fall in love. Or, maybe, I would fall in love--but who would reciprocate love with me?
At the age of fourteen, Bobby and I met. As two of the silliest, most eccentric people in our nerdy magnet school class, we became fast and natural friends. It took my then best friend Lily to point out to me that our behavior around each other was flirtatious; it took that realization to make me see that I had feelings beyond friendship for him.
Through a strange series of events involving nosy friends and quite the shy couple, we ended up together at the last dance of our freshman year of high school. That was almost ten years ago, and we have been together since.
I wonder constantly: How did I get so lucky?
Ironically, Bobby also doubted that he would ever get married, but here we are. And I can't imagine--nor do I want to imagine--life differently.
In high school, I remained convinced that a Big Wedding was the way to go. You know, the ceremony (not in a church, though, as Bobby and I are both agnostic) and a big reception with all the traditions: the first and last dances with various family members, the small dance, the garters and bouquets...all that. But, as reality and later life set in, we came to the realization that such things cost a lot of money. And, perhaps, more importantly, take a lot of time.
So last autumn, shortly after moving into our apartment, I took a half-day from work, went to register us for marriage with the courts, and took the most convenient Friday available, which happened to be November fifth. Unromantic? Perhaps. But in retrospect, I would not have done it any other way.
My wedding day seems so vivid to me. It seems like it was just last week; it was a year ago. So many women I've talked to tell me that you never remember your wedding day. If I had to have an unromantic court wedding and remember mine, that's okay with me.
I remember buying my dress; sitting on the floor with my husband, eating breakfast, on the morning of the fifth; talking on the phone with one of our best friends, calling to congratulate, getting ready; getting irritated with my dad for taking too long with things; having millions of pictures taken; swearing not to cry at the altar and doing it anyway....
Yes, that's my husband Bobby and me (although we weren't yet married at this point). I swore that I wasn't going to where red on my wedding. 90% of my clothes are either red or black. Of course, you can see that I wasn't successful in my insistence of not wearing red...well, actually, it was called "burgundy," but close enough.
And the point at which the intent not to cry failed....
And the first kiss--as husband and wife, that is! ;-P
For our anniversary, we did a little bit of everything that we love to do. We started the day with a hike. The weather in Baltimore has been unseasonably beautiful; it is about 80 degrees F right now and was yesterday too. So we hiked alongside the Patapsco River, where runs the railroad line that passes through Ellicott City. We've hiked these tracks numerous times without ever seeing a train; yesterday, finally, we saw a freight train. What noise! But it was very cool; as indication of what simple, dorky people we are, I exclaimed, "Wow, this is a good portend for the rest of our anniversary!" and Bobby agreed.
We had enough time in the afternoon to chill out, meaning that Bobby watched some hockey and Dawn caught up on her email and LJ comments from Posting Friday. For supper, we went to Timbuktu, the restaurant where we had our reception dinner last year. It is one of the nicer restaurants in the area and last night did not disappoint. They're known for their seafood, which makes Bobby happy (they are consistently voted as having the best crabcakes in Maryland) and have good pasta, which makes Dawn happy.
A year ago....
Dawn and Bobby and their cake, at Timbuktu. And....
Dawn and Bobby having drunk too much champagne! :D
Although I was not as bad as my mom, who was making disco noises at this point, at the other end of the table, much to the amusement of the two friends we invited, Evan and Potter, who did a fine job of egging her on and tease her about it to this day.
If you're masochistic to wonder what Dawn looks like in her normal dowdy-hippy clothes, without makeup (because my wedding was the last time I wore makeup, aside from the stage makeup I wear for skating shows):
That's me at the wedding dinner that my parents had for us a few months later. I don't have any good up-to-date pics of Bobby, since he started playing hockey again and got hott and ripped. I could chase him around the apartment now with the digital camera, but frankly, I'm too lazy.
After dinner, Bobby and I took a stroll around Ellicott City. We did that after our reception dinner, on our wedding night. I remember that it was cold that night; we kept going into the antique stores to warm up and browse around. Last night, it was warm, and we had to walk past the Tiber River Tavern to see if any "faces not human" appeared in the windows to us. No luck. (What romantics we are! Hunting poltergeists on our first anniversary!) Afterward, we came back the apartment and talked. We talked about his job and our futures and lots of other Deep Things (tm). After that, we went to see North Country. (Excellent movie, by the way; go see it!! The hippie-feminist in me loved it.)
Then we ended our anniversary night by coming home, drinking champagne, and eating the wedding cake that's been hanging out in our freezer for the last year.
(Two funny stories: The champagne was acquired from my underaged sister-in-law. She got into some trouble and my in-laws found a bottle of Asti rolling around in her backseat. Oops.... They confiscated it and gave it to us. Since it's the same champagne that we drank at our wedding, we've saved it for our anniversary. She keeps asking after it, so now I can tell her that we drank it. Thanks, Erin!
And this was actually my first real piece of wedding cake. I had a taste at the wedding, of course, but not much more. As you can see from the pictures, the cake was rather large for a wedding party of twelve people. So we had literally three boxes of cake left over.
Our friends Potter and Evan stayed with us the weekend of our wedding. [Although, naturally, we kicked them out for our wedding night! ;-P] They arrived late on Saturday, and Evan was hungry, so we told him, "Have a piece of wedding cake." After all, we had three boxes. The next day, after they left, two other friends came over to watch the game with us. I offered them a piece of cake, went into the kitchen, and couldn't find it.
Evan ate almost our entire cake. I was quite angry.)
Now, though, I know that it was good cake. Finally. After a year.
Bobby proceeded to get drowsy from the champagne and so went to bed around 2 a.m. Which allowed me to get 1,483 words done on my NaNo story, bringing me to 15,645.
All in all, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.
Funny thing, when I was young, I thought I'd never get married, thought I'd never fall in love. Or, maybe, I would fall in love--but who would reciprocate love with me?
At the age of fourteen, Bobby and I met. As two of the silliest, most eccentric people in our nerdy magnet school class, we became fast and natural friends. It took my then best friend Lily to point out to me that our behavior around each other was flirtatious; it took that realization to make me see that I had feelings beyond friendship for him.
Through a strange series of events involving nosy friends and quite the shy couple, we ended up together at the last dance of our freshman year of high school. That was almost ten years ago, and we have been together since.
I wonder constantly: How did I get so lucky?
Ironically, Bobby also doubted that he would ever get married, but here we are. And I can't imagine--nor do I want to imagine--life differently.