Three years later and we still feel like newlyweds. Laughing, loving and learning, I’m so thrilled to be married to my best friend. I love you, Matt! I’m excited to see what this next year together will bring.
Here we are then…
We're married!
…and now!
Still goofing it up as old married folks.
Here’s to many more years together!
How much of a wine snob do you have to be in order to be classified as a wino? Matt and I have a love for wine, but I can’t imagine people would say we’re snobs about it. Especially since we like to share information and good finds. In fact, for all that we know on the topic, we are just as eager to say that we have much more to learn.
Wine tasting in Woodinville for our first anniversary.
We just love the stuff – in moderation of course. Since our early dating days, we have toured many wineries near and far. Our vacations often include a trip to a local winery where we will bring back a bottle or two as a souvenir. Heck, we were married among the vines and partied in a room of candle-lit barrels.
For our anniversary, I decided to skip the traditional mode of gifting with a specific material (see an earlier post on leather anniversary gifts for her) and go with something wine related. First, I snagged these his and hers wine carafes from One Kings Lane.
I actually got these a few months ago, since I hadn’t seen something like this before. It would also make a great wedding gift, too.
The gifting continued when I snagged a few bottles of Port, a dessert wine, from work. (Yes, I work in the wine and spirits biz these days.) We both enjoy a good bottle of port and it’s something we don’t drink often, which lends to making these celebrations a bit more special. It’s also a good excuse to buy a nicer bottle than you might ordinarily buy. That can even just be a $15-$25 bottle if you are used to getting some of the $5-$10 variety.
Need a gift idea for a wino couple? We’ve loved receiving a wine trivia game and a set for a blind tasting party. Buying art for others might be tough, but we both really enjoy ours that’s in our dining room. (It was on sale for $99 at Bed, Bath and Beyond back in 2008 or early 2009.)
This year, we’ll plan on doing some more wine tastings and maybe have a nice dinner. To me, the best gift is just being together. Sorry if that was too cheesy for a Tuesday morning, but it’s true. Three years later and I still can’t get enough of this guy!
Matt and I try to do something special every year to celebrate our anniversary. For our first one, we had a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. This is the year my parents started a new tradition with us — they send us a check so that we can go out and celebrate. It is something that my mom’s parents did for them, and they wanted to keep the love going. We were so incredibly grateful for that special gift. The next year, we rented a friend’s condo in Lake Havasu, Arizona. Their gift helped us pay for the rental. We lounged around the house, had yummy food, and watched HGTV (we don’t have cable).
This year, my dad offered us something better — hotel points! They had some extra hotel points (he travels for work) and wanted to gift us with two nights away. How wonderful! We were so excited as we chose to stay in San Diego. We used to go down there a lot while my brother was at Point Loma. This was our first time down there alone and on our own schedule. While it was a wee bit bittersweet, seeing all the places we had visited as a family, it was a fantastic trip!
We were right across the street from the water -- but you can't see the beach at night!
I chose a room with a mini fridge and microwave so that we could bring our own meals. We are on a pretty tight budget, so this was essential to me. We brought hot pockets for lunches (but they ended up being breakfasts) and salad stuff for dinner.
As we drove down, we called Matt’s relatives to see if we could spend some time with them during our stay. Matt’s aunt Linda offered to take us sailing and out to dinner on Saturday. It was such a pleasant day out on the Bay. She took many of the pictures shown here, so major thanks to her!
Celebratory Jello shooters from Matt's aunt!
Linda and Matt -- hard at work!
Note: Name of beer. Name of boat.
We also spent some time with Matt’s cousin and family on Sunday. Last weekend was such a wonderful little getaway. Thank you so much to my parents for the hotel, Matt’s aunt for sailing and dinner, and Matt’s cousin (and wife and son) for lunch on Sunday! We are so blessed to have such wonderful relatives! How did you celebrate your last anniversary?
You guys all know how anniversary presents are supposed to correspond with a specific item depending on how many years you’ve been married. This marks year numero tres for Megan — and for me in July — so I thought I’d come up with a list of oh-so-cute leather gifts for the gals. Ya know, in case any husbands need any ideas … hint, hint.
Leather bracelet from Etsy seller sandinthesky ($25).
iPhone 4 case by Michael Kors ($80).
Tiffany & Co. flat pouch ($95).
Coach Madison Sophia Satchel ($358).
So the latter is a super-splurge, but it’s just a fun list of cute leather stuff. I really should have put a list of leather stuff for dudes, but this was way more fun. What are your gift ideas for you or your fella?
If you hadn’t guessed by the Frisbee wedding favors featured this week, we like Ultimate Frisbee a lot. It’s part of how we met and fell in love. So it should be fitting that we celebrate our anniversary by playing in a tournament. Granted, when we scheduled our wedding around a tournament weekend, we weren’t too popular. But if we worked around tournament weekends, we’d never be able to get married!
Anyway, the last two years we have headed up to Washington state to play in Potlatch. Last year we played with Solid Gold, a reunion team that we played on back in the day. This year, we were Polar Bears. After three full days of ultimate, we tied for third out of 93 teams. Not too shabby, right?
Unfortunately, I didn’t really take pictures. I know, I’m a bad blogger. So here’s some I stole.
Don't forget to lather up with sunscreen!
The Polar Bears
Here are a couple from last year.
The staredown? A key part in celebrating your anniversary?
Wine tasting in Woodinville.
Celebrating your wedding anniversary camping in close quarters with other people, including a super long drive cramped with far too many people in an RV — nothing says romance quite like that. Last year we planned ahead and ended up visiting a nearby wine region and staying in an awesome lodge. So, it’s not always so rough.
Thanks for celebrating with us this week!
