Anniversary Celebrations

At this point we've been married for one year, one week and two days.  We decided to celebrate our anniversary two days before the actual day since we were going to be out of town (see here and here) - I liked to call it "anniversary celebration day" because we started celebrating right away.   I'm usually our "planner" but Derek took control of the anniversary and handled everything.

Anniversaries might just rank before birthdays now - how fun it is to have all those memories from our special day come back to me and to enjoy "remembering" as well as celebrating all over again.

The day actually started off the night before - accidentally.  A new dry bar opened up close by and I decided what better of a day to try it out?! I told Derek and it turned out that he had asked the best boss/mom in the world to let me have the day off for an afternoon massage.  Both were scheduled for 1:15 at the same salon just different locations… I guess we have ESP but after some thinking (and an email for a special promotion for both for the price of one) I ended up with a spa afternoon to start the celebration with a massage then dry bar appointment. The verdict is - I am now a HUGE fan of dry bars.  My hair stayed curled and cleaned until two days later.  I also squeezed in a mani/pedi with my nail color from the wedding which worked for the anniversary and the new wedding we attended days later.

I came down for my morning workout to find a little extra decorations on our coffee table with photos from college until now and a date jar for me to pick items whenever I'd like - Derek was thinking paper :)

I was thinking paper too.  Derek got his gift at the beginning of summer, our trip was our major gift to each other and even though I was getting my gift during celebrating - I still wanted him to have a little something.  I'm hoping the ____ year of marriage to do list can be a yearly thing - we'll see if we even get anything done for this year.

When I got home from the spa day I found a flower arrangement on the counter - the same as my wedding day bouquet which I'm still obsessing over and enjoying.  One of my favorite parts of the day.

I headed in to meet Derek in the city for happy hour on a rooftop - my favorite! The rooftop was near Independence Hall so we wandered around for a bit afterwards before we headed to dinner.  (The Miss America contestants had just arrived across the lawn at the Liberty Bell on an evening excursion from Atlantic City).

 dress: nordstrom // necklace: kate spade (similar style here) // 

earrings: nordstrom // clutch: louis vuitton

 For dinner we headed up for a fantastic view of the city sky line (you can sort of see below along with our reflections) for a delicious meal and great time celebrating one year of marriage.

The food was delicious and we really enjoyed testing out a new spot.  I really enjoyed having no clue where we were going.

My last surprise of the night was that Derek had slipped away to the bakery and picked up a new version of the top tier of our wedding cake - just as delicious as before and 100% my favorite cake - I enjoyed snacking on it for the week after too.

Monday night after we landed back in from Providence, we headed over to my parents' for a Labor Day BBQ and I'm not sure if we'll do these pinterest inspired photos every year but we took them just in case so it's an option… 

The treats weren't done yet.  We also enjoyed our first anniversary wine which was a gift from the bridesmaids at my bridal shower.

Is there ever such thing as too much cake?  We still had our top tier in our freezer (quite thankful for the extra space now) so we cut into that and each had a taste - well I had it smashed in my face and then we enjoyed more of the new one as well.

This past year has been fantastic - Cheers to many more!

Don't forget to enter here for a chance to win a $300 Nordstrom gift card.  Good luck! 

Blog lovin' I Instagram I Pinterest I Twitter