Tomorrow, the 10th Of October marks our 13th Wedding anniversary.
Each year I am blown away firstly, by how fast time seems to fly by. And secondly by, how much, each year I love my hubby a little more. No kidding. I seriously love this man more now than I did when we first got married. Time + Love♥ is a funny thing.
13 years ago I was 19 and he was 21. We were just two kids who fell in love and got married.
We
Looked like kids! I often get incredulous stares
to this day when I mention how long we have been married or the fact we have two kids aged 10 and 8. Seriously-can people not see what I see? Can they not see the laugh lines around my eyes and the grey hairs sprouting in my hair line?
oh don't get me wrong, I hope they don't!! I love it when we get told we don't look old enough to have 13 years of marriage behind us, never mind two children! I
used to dislike it when I was newly married and just wanted to be treated like a woman and an adult, not a little girl trying to play house. Now, I embrace it. I'm 32 with the 33 year mark closely on it's heels and hubby is 34. And now more than ever I appreciate what we have.
I look back and see the huge milestones we have crossed together, the ups and downs, the loved ones we have lost and grieved over, the friendships lost and gained, the two most amazing children we have been blessed to have and the many, many happy memories and moments we have shared and treasure and I would never ever, swap it or change it for anything in the world.
I am a better person because of this man, who accepts me, flaws and all and loves me anyway.
Who gives me so much in every way, for me, for our family.
And as cheesy as it sounds, I mean it when I say, "he completes me".
Without him,I am really only half a person, and that is not even the better half.
So, yes, this is soppy post, but I am allowed to have one soppy post this special day, because this time, every year, I am swamped by memories of our wedding, and everything that brought us together and everything after.
♥♥♥
For this year I wanted to do something fun and different as a surprise gift for him, for us. We didn't have a professional photographer at our wedding, We couldn't afford one and so
we got a friend to take photos and I love how they came out. But now, 13 years later, I thought it would be great if we could have that extra special touch to celebrate how far we have come, and just how much our marriage means to us. It is about our love for each other and all we have been through. To have something to look back on and say when we have been married for 26 years "look at us then, so young and so in love!"
So I set about finding a photographer. I didn't want just "anyone". I wanted someone I felt I could connect to on a personal level, who could interpret my needs and the feeling I wanted to be portrayed in our photos. I looked for ages. I found a lot of local people but they were either too costly or not "my style". Then I stumbled upon
Tiffany. and I fell in Love. Not with Tiffany! ha ha, but with her work, her amazing photography style and the way her words flowed on her blog. I could sense the warmth and ease and maturity coming from this young woman.
I eyed her gorgeous work for a long time, (and if you are reading this Tiffany, now you know! I stalked you for a while!!) I started looking at photo shoots online, wedding photography, engagement photography and couple shoots and I was convinced that Tiffany would do a fabulous job. I just loved her style and I could sense her love of vintage things, of REAL things, like me. No pretenses, just real and open and honest and to me that showed through and through in her blog and her work.
From the moment I got in touch with Tiffany we seemed to "hit it off" over email, we shared ideas and suggestions and she got where I was coming from with my ideas and what I wanted from the shoot.
So yesterday was the big day. It was all a surprise for hubby, I had told him to keep Saturday open and to bring with suspenders and his hat and a change of shirt!
*The suspenders are explained in a bit* {I don't want to know what he thought!}
So we took our kids to a friends house and at 3:30pm I drove him to our local reserve. I parked and opened the boot and there was a picnic basket and the scrabble game...I could sense the disappointment...so I said that in about 20 minutes we were both going to meet someone whom we had never met and she was going to give us something we could look back on for years to come and then the puzzle pieces fell into place and he knew! He was very happy about it of which I am relieved!
So we sat on the grass on that beautiful day, a hot, sunny day with not a breath of wind and enjoyed a glass of wine and some strawberries....
{If you are still with me Tiff, {may I call you Tiff? hee hee} we saw you and Ross walking up the road, I said to J "That must be her, she has a huge camera slung around her neck and she looks like the pretty dark haired girl I saw on her blog" So we watched the two of you walk up the road and then I thought, maybe it wasn't you and that seeing it was 10 before 4pm, I better let you know we were there. So I texted you and soon after that, we were walking towards each other and I saw I had been right!}
There is something amazing about meeting a person for the first time that you got a "sense" of just from email or correspondence. And Tiffany was just as she had come across to me...warm, genuine, sincere. Her hubby Ross came with to help her carry things, and lift her onto his shoulders for some of the shots! The gentle banter between the two of them and their chattiness towards us, just relaxed us and put us at ease. Ross being quite a comedian too!
Here are some of the sneak peek's Tiffany had on
her blog, with editing to do still, I should have the rest of the pictures in about a week and a half's time. {they look better on her blog, cos they are bigger, otherwise just right click on the photos and view in a new tab}And if you can, look at her other photos! just Gorgeous!}
The shoot was fun, and a memory in itself! Thank you Tiffany {and Ross} for everything and helping to make our anniversary a memorable one!
*oops nearly forgot to explain the suspender bit! We showed up in casual clothes and Tiffany did shots of us and then I got changed into a red polka dot dress, fake pearls and heels and for hubby I brought with a dressy white Shirt, the suspenders he was told to organize and his hat. The idea was to do a "The notebook" themed photos-1940's vintage themed after the movie I LOVE.
I found this amazing dress that was perfect and the suspenders had a bit of red in too which fitted perfectly! I saw the idea on
this photo shoot*
And to my hubby....
♥Happy Anniversary♥
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