Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Our story begins where we both were born, South Florida.  As youngsters we played on the same beaches, cheered for the same teams (at least most of the time), and even had some of the same friends.

We lived parallel lives- going to the same university, running in similar social circles, choosing to go to law school.

However, our paths never crossed until our first day of law school.  We were assigned to the same section and ended up having all of our classes together for the entirety of our first year.  Our whole section became close and Matthew and I became good friends (although you wouldn’t know it by his lack of smiles in some of our first pictures together).

Then came Spain.  The summer after our first year of law school, Matthew and I studied abroad in Granada with two other friends from our section.

Our first night in Granada was spent in an Irish pub named Hannigan’s and we had a great time.

It was in that corner booth that we shared our first kiss.  It was to be followed by many more throughout the trip as we began to fall in love.

Our first date was when our group headed to Morocco for the weekend.

Our second weekend date was to Rome.  It was a spur of the moment trip and we went just the two of us, booking our flight 23 hours before we left.

Our third weekend date was to a beach house in the South of Spain with a bunch of friends.

Our fourth date was to Moe’s (the Mexican place) and it was in Macon, GA.  We didn’t take any pictures of that one.

We had our first Thanksgiving together with both of our families that year since we discovered that they lived only 20 minutes away from each other.

We went to New York City for New Year’s and got to see the ball drop in Times Square.

Then on Valentine’s Day, eight months after we started dating, we got engaged!!

We were so excited, we even re-enacted the proposal the next evening for our friends who were in town to celebrate.

While planning for 14 months, we celebrated as often as we could.  Of course, as is customary, there are no pictures from Matthew’s bachelor party.

Then finally, the big day arrived.  We were married on April 5, 2009 at Ibis Golf and Country Club in Florida.  (all of the wedding pictures that follow were taken by the fabulous Gregory Paul of  Gregory Paul Photography)  Here are some of my favorites.

We chose to see each other before the wedding and it was the BEST BEST BEST decision we ever made.  It’s amazing for both the photographer and the bride and groom.  It was my favorite part of the day because it was just us and no one else.  It was so amazing to see Matthew and be able to hug him and kiss him and just talk to each other before all of the events actually started.  I loved it.

Having a first look allowed us to do our portraits without being rushed and just enjoy spending time together.

We did our bridal party pictures before the ceremony as well, and I know they appreciated the ability to enjoy the appetizers and drinks during cocktail hour 🙂

When Matthew proposed to me one of the things that he said was that we made a great team and that has become more evident after our first year of marriage than ever before.  We’ve grown up so much in the last year and our love is so much stronger because of it.

Happy anniversary baby.  I love you with all my heart and can’t wait to spend a lifetime with you celebrating what we’ve found in each other.