As wedding week draws to a close, here’s the promised recap of how we celebrated this year’s anniversary: where we went, what we ate, what we exchanged as gifts, and the little mementos we added to our home collection.
We’re fond of honoring small photographic traditions each year. On Wednesday afternoon we headed to Richmond’s Carytown to our favorite photo booth at the New York Deli. It was Clara’s first time in a booth and she loved it so much we grabbed a second strip. Those photo strips now sit on a shelf in our dining area alongside strips from past big days, which we mentioned in Wednesday’s post.
We also have a growing collection of anniversary photos in our bedroom. On the ottoman near the mirror we keep small framed pictures from the last two anniversaries, and we plan to add a new one each year until we move the series to a wall. In the left frame you can even see us holding the cupcakes we froze from our wedding day to eat a year later — they were surprisingly good.
To continue the portrait tradition, after the photo booth we came home and braved the heat to snap a few backyard pictures, this time including Clara thanks to a tripod and the self-timer on our new camera. We especially like the shot with the wedding arch in the foreground, a sweet way to tie the present to where we began.
The evening’s centerpiece was our anniversary meal. Having recreated our wedding menu in year one and revisited our rehearsal dinner spot in year two, this year we wanted to honor our Alaskan honeymoon with a salmon dish. I’m currently working my way through Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (Sherry jokes it’s my Johnny & Jamie project a la Julie & Julia), and we chose a salmon stir-fry recipe. Kroger didn’t stock every ingredient called for, but the improvised version turned out wonderfully.
After dinner — with Clara safely asleep — it was time for gifts. Although the traditional third-year gift is leather, we both ended up choosing art. Sherry surprised me by enlarging two favorite photos from Clara’s newborn shoot with our friend Dana Duncan, printing them at 12″ x 12″ and framing them in inexpensive Ikea frames. She hung them in our bedroom where a botanical print used to hang, and I love being able to admire our little girl even while she sleeps across the hall. The colors even matched the room perfectly.
For Sherry’s gift I made a postcard-sized piece of art that maps out the many things she’s meant to me over nearly six years of knowing each other — five years together as partners. It’s part heartfelt and part playful, touching on our evolution from two singles to a family of four, the funny moment I once mixed up her name, and little quirks like how she’s usually the passenger and how our roles have changed since parenthood.
We wrapped up most of our celebrating on July 7th, but we had planned a day trip as well. With triple-digit heat looming, we postponed it until the following day when the temperature finally eased into the 90s. We drove west to Charlottesville, putting us at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains and about 30 minutes from where we got engaged. Much of the day was spent driving along the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, taking in the views and reminiscing — I’m prone to remembering exact dates and places, so there were plenty of “three years ago on this exact day we were…” conversations.
We stopped for lunch near the mountain base at Blue Mountain Brewery. It might seem odd that two non-drinkers with a baby would choose a brewery for lunch, but we’d heard good things about the setting and the food. They also present themselves as a green business, which we appreciate — there were rain barrels in view when we arrived. Sherry also admired their deep bronze-toned metal roof; we’d love one someday if they weren’t so costly. The meal was simple, made from local ingredients, and I got to enjoy wearing Clara in the Ergo carrier throughout.
Clara provided plenty of entertainment during the meal, flashing a variety of expressions that ranged from sleepy to occasionally grumpy — it reminded me of the Seven Dwarfs. After lunch we swung by my alma mater so Clara could get her first UVA onesie, then headed home to officially conclude our extended anniversary festivities.
We did make one last nod to our lemon-and-lime themed wedding the next morning with Clara’s eight-week photo, a final small celebration of the weekend. Thanks for celebrating wedding week with us — it’s always fun to pause and draw inspiration from relationships and milestones for DIY and design ideas. We’ll return to our regular posts on Monday, and in the meantime we hope everyone enjoys their own anniversaries and the many heart-warming moments the coming year brings.
Psst — want more Clara photos? She doesn’t pop up on the blog constantly, but you can click the sidebar button with her mug for lots of regularly uploaded Baby P pictures.