5 Years

Well folks, tomorrow is a big day! It marks 5 years of wedded bliss. Because Derek has to work on Saturday, we are beginning our celebration tonight. Derek has plans for this evening and tomorrow during the day, and then Friday night, I have something fun planned for us. So, with all of that going on, I figured I would do a little 5 year anniversary post today.

Thinking back on our wedding day, it was one of the best and most fun days of my life. I remember telling myself at the beginning of the day as I started to get nervous, to just enjoy the day. I won't ever get to do this again, and I don't want to not remember the day because I was too nervous. And that little pep talk did the trick.

I spent Friday night at the hotel our reception was at, and stayed in a room with my sister and my best friend from high school, Amy. I got a great night's sleep and I remember when I woke up my friend Angie texted me, and was all excited for me, and that made me really happy. The weather that morning was beautiful and I was so excited because it was supposed to rain. {Don't worry, it ended up being a cold and wet day, but at least the morning was pretty!} My bridesmaids met me at the hotel and we all had breakfast together, and spent the day getting pretty.

My beautiful maid of honor, my sister

Getting my hair did and reading a letter from my future husband

After hair and make up, we headed to the church to get into our dresses and wait for the ceremony to start. I remember singing "Going to the Chapel" with my sister and Amy as my dad drove us to the church.

Getting into my dress

We took pictures, separately, because we didn't want to see each other until I was walking down the aisle, and then had the long wait. Someone brought us subway so we wouldn't be starving, as there would be more pictures after the ceremony, and I remember being so careful not to spill any on my dress. We had lots of fun hanging out before the ceremony.

I don't have any pictures of the ceremony (well I do, just not on my computer - all these are from one of my bridesmaids, Ann) but I loved the ceremony. We had some very talented friends sing, and very good friends do readings, and even though we were up in front of hundreds of people, it was like it was just the two of us up there, laughing, smiling, making jokes. People commented on how "chatty" we were throughout the whole thing, and I love that we weren't nervous, just so excited and enjoying the day.

After the ceremony we were in a room with all of our families and the wedding party and everyone was hugging and it was such a happy few minutes while we waited for everyone to head to the reception so we could finish taking pictures. Pictures afterwards were the hardest for me. I was tired of standing, and really just wanted to get to the reception. But we made it through and got to party the night away with our friends.

I absolutely loved our reception too! Derek's one big thing he really wanted was to have a big dance floor. So when we were planning out the space, we made the dance floor as big as possible, and I'm glad we did because it was full the entire night. Everyone was dancing, and the only thing I wish is that I was able to dance a little more than I did, but being the bride you have to make sure you talk to everyone, and meet all of your husbands distant relatives and family friends, so I made sure to do that. But we did get some dancing in, and everything about the night was perfect. 

Dancing

Toasts

Cake

And since our wedding was at a hotel, at the end of the night we just hopped up to the elevator to our room. And my sister and one of my bridesmaids, Ann, snuck into the room and decorated it for us.

And a funny story after the wedding. Derek decided he really wanted some cake. I think it was around 12:45. He wanted me to call my mom and have her bring some up to us. So I called, and they were in the process of cleaning everything up and she was able to get some cake for us. So she came up to our room, on our wedding night and brought us cake. She is such a good mom. And of course Derek would not even come to the door because he was too embarrassed. But mom and  I talked for a few minutes about how wonderful everything was and we were both so giddy and happy from the day that it really didn't bother us. And Derek had cake and champagne, and we even had cake to take on our honeymoon with us! We woke up - although I'm not sure we ever really went to sleep, we were both so excited and spent forever just laying in bed talking about how awesome the day was - around 4 ish (I think) to go to the airport to fly out to Hawaii. I wish we had more time at the hotel, because our room was awesome. I would love to stay in that suite again - maybe one day :)  But that was our wedding day 5 years ago. It was absolutely perfect.

Derek, thanks for marrying me and giving me 5 amazing years. I love all of the memories we've made, and I can't wait for all of the ones we will make in the future. You're so much fun, and wonderful, and I am so blessed to be able to call you my husband. I love you!