We said we'd walk together, baby, come what may . . . *

This morning I did something crazy  . . . I looked at my wedding pictures.

Why?  Because it's our 5 year anniversary  :)

Oh, you mean why is that crazy?  Because I've never looked at them before.

Although I think it's a typical newlywed thing to excitedly check out the pictures(or at least newly-married-woman thing), we just never got around to looking at our wedding pictures.  Not for any sort of weird reason, it just kind of happened.  Our wedding was a put-together-quickly affair, and between us we had 3 cousins who are professional photographers and took fantastic pictures.  They each gave us cds of their shots, and we didn't have a chance to look at them right away (and we had, after all, just been at the wedding---it was fresh in our minds and we didn't really need reminding of what it looked like).  Then time slipped away and it started to seem funny that we weren't very attached to the pictures, and we would say "maybe on our x anniversary we'll take a look at those pictures."

So 5 years it is :)

And in honor of our 5th anniversary, I invite you to our wedding . . .

The background: 
Dave and I have been together since the tail end of 2004.  At the very end of January 2006 we thought "Hey, the spring is a good time to get married.  Wanna do it this spring?"  and got engaged.  We are low muss, low fuss folks and tried to figure out how to put together a wedding that was us- that would mean not too big, not too fancy, and with as little stress as possible . . . but still a nice party.  And we wanted a quick engagement, so we picked April 8th as our wedding day---less than 3 months away. (I had to spend some time convincing people that no, I was not pregnant, we just didn't see the need for a big engagement.)

The big day:
After my hair appointment, Dave and I got ready at home together.  I had found my wedding dress at Ann Taylor (right off the rack, nice and easy) and his shirt had a hole in it, which he didn't notice until the day of (luckily, it was on the tucked-in part).  We caught a cab downtown and I remember not wanting to have to "make an entrance"  (which is kind of unavoidable if you're the bride and groom) and thinking "Thank goodness I don't have to walk down an aisle."   All-eyes-on-me is not my fave.

We found a great restaurant on the lower west side that I found in a list of "ideal rehearsal dinner spots in Manhattan".  They had a private enclosed terrace area, where we had a cocktail hour prior to the ceremony.  We had a playlist on the ipod in some corner, and hung out with our nearest and dearest . . .

After the cocktail hour, we headed inside to the restaurant's attached, private side room . . .

 . . . which had been given a slight personal (and amusing) touch with blown up black and white pictures.  Over the main table were two of our favorite pictures of us together, and on the side wall were childhood pictures:

Everyone took their seats . . .

(There was a copy of the readings and vows at each seat  . . . you can never hear at these things, and I'm a read-along type of girl)

And looked at the pretty flowers . . .

(I love flowers)

After everyone sat, we stood in the corner of the room with a lovely minister and had a little ceremony . . .

Our readings (done by our siblings) were fantastic.  A Bruce Springsteen song (If I Should Fall Behind), a Bob Dylan song (All I Really Want to Do) and a children's book (Consider Love by Sandra Boynton).   We said our vows  . . .

  . . . and then it was done  :)

Then we got to sit, talk, hug people, mingle,and relax . . .

and celebrate!

Oh, and the cake!  A few weeks before the wedding we walked by an adorable bakery that had fun cakes.  Really fun.  They made us think of Dr. Seuss, and we wanted one :)  We later found out that our cake person had been on those Food Network cake competition shows---it's a lucky thing that we happened to walk down her street, because our cake was adorable (and delicious). . .

So here we are, 5 years later.  A great 5 years, and a great team.  We've walked together, and we've helped each other stay in stride, despite some unexpected turns in our path (this line makes more sense if you listened to the Springsteen song).  Thanks for being a great partner, Dave :)  Happy Anniversary!

PS.  The hands down, absolute best picture on all of the cds was . . .  (drumroll please) . . .

The Elmo was my nephew's . . . the face?  I have no idea.  But this is spectacular.  We should have a caption contest or something.