One Year

David and I snuck away last weekend to celebrate our first year married. As cliche as it sounds - I can't wrap my head around the fact that a year has already slipped by. In May we actually celebrated 11 years together - and he still manages to give me butterflies. This time last year we had grand dreams of spending our anniversary in Paris (in our dreams!) Instead we went to one of our favorite places. We drove up to Mammoth where my family has a cabin and spent the weekend, just the two of us. It was heaven.

{Twin Lake, Mammoth Lakes}

We spent an entire day biking around all of the lakes, went on a sunset horseback ride, and had a lakeside dinner. I couldn't think of anywhere I would have rather been.

On our way home we drove off the highway to the Bristlecone Forest. It's the home of some of the world's oldest trees. Some even argue that the Methuselah Tree is actually the oldest tree in the world. The best part about our detour is that there wasn't a single person around. We stopped on the side of one of the dirt roads and had sandwiches for two.

While we're on the subject of anniversaries, I had to share these two gifts we received. Both are so incredibly thoughtful and are a great idea for anyone special you may know with an important anniversary coming up.

The first is from our dear, dear friends Kathy and Micky. They were the one's that gave us our very first wedding gift here. Micky was the officiant at our wedding that married us. To say they are important people in our lives would be an understatement. On the morning of our wedding, Kathy snatched up the paper from the day. She's been saving it and wrapped it up for us for our anniversary. It's such a simple, thoughtful gift. I love knowing that I'll be able to look back and read about what else was going on that day.

Our second gift was from my Mom & Dad and has a little bit of a back-story. Growing up , probably starting at the age of 7, my Mom pulled out an old demijohn bottle as a place to throw extra change. Over the years it slowly filled. It's where hot lunch money in elementary school, quarters for arcade games in Jr.High, and laundry change in college all came from. We always talked about what we were going to do with the money once it was filled. The jar is finally a few weeks away from being completely filled and my mom has decided that whoever is closest to guessing the correct amount in the jar gets to choose an activity the entire family can do.

The Friday we left for Mammoth we had a jar with a small pile of change in the bottom waiting on our doorstep. David and I now have our own change jar to fill.

David - Happy Anniversary. I love you always. zo

We've Been Featured!

Hi Everyone - I hope you're all having a great start to your week! David and I received some exciting news last week.....our wedding was featured in Ceremony magazine this quarter!

We feel so honored to be included in their magazine. It was fun to relive that day again and seemed especially fitting since Monday happened to be our sixth month anniversary (WHEW we made it!) No - we don't really celebrate our month to month anniversary. : ) I know I've already shared most of these photos but here they are they are in magazine form.

{My favorite pic is still of the bridesmaids crying : )}

They've Arrived!

Thank you all for all of your sweet comments on Bixby & Ball. It's definitely the scariest thing I've ever done. But, if I don't try it I'll never know! On another note...we have received the first of our wedding pics!! I know I didn't share a lot of the details of the projects I did for our wedding - but you can see a lot of them here!

These are all via Stephanie William's blog. She and her husband Issac are amazing, talented, and so incredibly fun to work with! Check out her post on our wedding and the rest of her talent here.

Honeymoon Part I

I know it's been far longer than the two weeks that I said it would be - but it has been A LOT harder to get back to life since returning home. Here's what I've been up to:

I got married. And it was probably the most fun night of our lives. Everything went perfectly. And even the parts that didn't, (our cake apparently had a little bit of an accident in transit and had a crack in it - I looked at it, as a cutting guideline) didn't matter.

David and I had to decide between having a videographer and having a photobooth for budget reasons. We went with the photobooth and we're so glad we did. We had to drag people out at the end of the night. We made the background (shown below) from an old pile of fencing that we found in my parent's backyard. My mom made those bunting flags. They ran along the whole perimeter of the garden. These are the only pictures we have right now but I thought they'd be fun to share!

{Groom & Bride}

For those of you wondering how the pick-your-own yellow bridesmaid dresses turn out - here they are. My sister unfortunately could not be found for this particular picture, so we have one missing bridesmaid. (PS I'm the one in white!) : )

After getting married, it was off to Italy! We landed in Rome and headed straight to the Amalfi Coast. Hmmmm who thought we'd end up somewhere near the water?? It was absolutely stunning.

{Amalfi Town}

We stayed in Positano, which is just south of Amalfi Town, but still part of the Amalfi Coast - confused?

We stayed in a hotel called Hotel Royal Prisco. It was run by the most kind couple. They run the desk, handle the luggage, concierge suggestions, and even make the most delicious breakfast in the mornings (on your porch if you'd like!) It honestly felt like we were a guest in their home. We had the most incredible view from our balcony!

{Positano at Dusk}

Here's another view of the town at sunset.

I don't think we had one bad meal in Italy. We ate pasta twice a day most days and washed it down with gelato. No wedding dress to worry about fitting into anymore! : ) Because the whole town is built into the cliffs, all of the restaurants have amazing views!

{Dinner in Positano}

Before heading back to Rome, we spent one night in Capri (the small island right off the Amalfi Coast) The big attraction on Capri is the Grotto Azurra - or Blue Grotto. It's a HUGE cave filled with water with a tiny opening. The opening is only wide enough for one small rowboat, and those sitting in the rowboat have to lie down to get in. Inside, the bottom of the ocean is bright white sand. The light through the small opening hits the water just perfectly and creates this unreal glow of bright blue. David and I had heard that the Grotto gets absolutely packed. There's a huge line to get down the cliff just to get on a boat. Inside the grotto there are typically about 12 to 15 other boats, and you're usually in a boat with about 10 other people (and yes, you all lie down together to get in.) We decided to go a half hour before the grotto opens, thinking there would be others waiting. We were the only ones. The first boat showed up to set up and asked if we wanted to just hop in and take an early peek. Of course we jumped at the opportunity. So with not another soul around (besides our boat guide) we got a completely private tour of the Grotto Azurra. Our boat guide even sang us Italian love songs. Besides our wedding itself, this could quite possibly be the most romantic thing I've ever experienced!

{Inside the Grotto Azurra}

We had so much fun on this leg of our trip - the food, the architecture, the view, and the people were incredible.

After Italy....it was off to Greece!

To be continued....