Our First Anniversary

In my grand tradition of posting nothing in a timely manner I give to you: our anniversary weekend trip back to the Edgefield two weeks ago.

We started by bringing our cake top out of the freezer.  I originally had no interest in doing this when we were doing all the wedding planning but Kevin is a sentimental guy and insisted on it and I am so glad we did.  It was very special to have something from that very day and seemed to bring the year full circle.  It is a really sweet (ha!) tradition and one I am fully behind now. 

The cake was actually still incredibly beautiful and incredibly delicious.  The top tier was chocolate with chocolate ganache and cream cheese filling and cream cheese frosting.  I had very low expectations for how it would taste after a year but it was as amazing as it was when it was fresh.  It helps to have had a super moist cake to begin with and then I think the fondant helped seal in some of that moisture and flavor.  We also had this beast wrapped up super tight in the freezer.   We hated to cut into it almost as much as we hated to cut into the big cake at the wedding.  But we did and took frozen slices in a cooler down to Edgefield with us to enjoy every day we were there.

The original creation.

We had four days of wonderful, relaxing, romantic vacation.  We took our time getting down there on Saturday and stopped and did a little wine tasting on the way.  Then we spent the rest of the time just unwinding and enjoying spending time together.  We didn't even leave the property until about 2:00 on Tuesday afternoon.  Drinks were consumed, pedicures enjoyed (by me with wine and Willie Nelson and the Clash - Best. Spa. Ever), food was eaten, naps and soaks were taken, Grateful Dead was listened to, more drinks were consumed, books were read, plants were purchased and new memories were added to our already overflowing Edgefield memory bank.

Wine and Kindle at 11:30 a.m. Vacation is good.

On our actual anniversary we went to the spa and had a couple's massage like we did the day we got engaged and the day before our wedding.  We then hung out in the soaking pool for awhile reliving his proposal. 

We went back to the room to exchange presents and get ready to read our vows to each other and I opened the door to this...

the same gorgeous dozen red roses and romance package that were waiting in our room when we got back from the soaking pool after getting engaged.  It was the sweetest most romantic thing and I didn't think it could get any better but then my sweetie gave me my anniversary present. 

An anniversary journal made out of elephant poo paper!!  The first anniversary is the paper anniversary and I knew he would try to stick with that theme.  He did the calligraphy himself and then scanned it into the computer and then stuck the pieces to the journal.  It has two pages that have each of our vows on it and then two pages for each year of our anniversary with the number and date of the anniversary done in calligraphy on yellow elephant poo paper.  Each year we will write what we did and put pictures from our anniversary inside.  He also gave me yellow poo paper roses.  My honey knows me well!!

Armed with our nicely bound vows we headed out to the vineyard to read them to each other again.  Shh, dork alert....for the first year we were reading them to each other on the 14th of every month.  Sappy I know.  Yearly is just fine by us now.

We brought along the bottle of bubbly we got in our romance package when we got engaged.  The other cool thing is the vintage is the year we met.  We drained that thing pretty fast.  So tasty and such a perfect place to drink it.  We even saw a bunch of rabbits bouncing through the vineyard but sadly none of them were black.  Although I was tipsy enough to give them the black power salute anyway.  Yeah, that was weird.

We reminisced about our wedding and how a year after the fact after the rush of the day has faded we would still do everything exactly the same (minor technical tweaks notwithstanding).  There were no regrets regarding time or money spent.  We put our hearts and souls into that day and even though we drove ourselves crazy with stress, needlessly at times with the amount of tiny little details we obsessed for hours upon hours over (you really have NO idea), it was 100% completely worth it (although with hindsight we would have started fluffing pom poms waaay earlier).  For the rest of our lives we will have the memory of a truly special, truly amazing day that was authentically us and that hopefully our friends and family will remember forever as being unique and special.  Now if we could just get that photo album put together.

We also marveled at the paradox of how our wedding seems like both a few days ago and a lifetime ago.  Neither of us can quite wrap our heads around that.  I can't even imagine my life before I met Kevin but we only met six years ago.  We talked about how it wasn't weird to say "husband" or "wife" anymore and how the word "wife" doesn't make me want to run screaming away from it.  I did what I had hoped to do which was define "wife" for myself and it doesn't have all those negative connotations I wrestled with so strongly before the wedding.

There was the one thing missing from our weekend.  As much as we wanted to just get away by ourselves and spend some time together, there was a little part of us that missed our people.  We were completely glad we didn't invite others because we really needed some alone time but it was still a little wistful.  Last time we were at Edgefield we couldn't turn the corner without running into someone we knew.  And now that moment is gone forever and the place feels a little haunted.  Haunted, but in a happy way.  When I look down the halls of the Edgefield or peek up the stairs to the Attic I feel not only those that lived and died at the poor farm and nursing home but ghosts of our loved ones who helped fill the grounds with their spirits.  Maybe that is what is meant by the hotel being haunted.  Yes, everyone is still alive for now but they will never all be there again and they definitely all left a little of themselves behind.  We will see them forever in our memories and will hold tight to those visions walking down the hallways or winding through the paths of the grounds.  Edgefield has always felt a little magical to me but even more so after our wedding weekend there.  

Happy first year my sweet (that is the equivalent of 5.07 Kardashians)!  I am looking forward to whatever adventures life holds for us.   I love you very much and, well, ....I fink you freaky and I like you a lot!

p.s. What the hell kind of jacked -up spell-check doesn't recognize the word "ganache?"