Patrick and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary yesterday. We have a bunch of trips coming up this month so we wanted our day to be low key and relaxing, and oh it was!
We cooked an elaborate breakfast, sipped on mimosas, went for a bike ride, watched a long movie, and then geared up for a big fancy dinner at home.
The two of us decided to recreate our favorite meal that we had while on our honeymoon in Italy.
Spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, mussels, and a caprese salad. I think we did a pretty good job.
Our honeymoon was truly a DREAM. I can’t believe we were able to go and see and do as mush as we did. Believe me we were both so exhausted leaving at the crack of dawn for a 12 hour flight right after our wedding. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen asleep on more public transportation in my life!
We spent a few days relaxing on the beach, but most of our honeymoon was spent sightseeing and eating. Lots and lots of eating. We were in Italy after all. 😉
We spent a week on the Amalfi Coast, a few days in Florence, and a few days at a vineyard in Tuscany. For our Anniversary dinner, we wanted to incorporate a little bit of each part of our trip into the meal.
The main dish, the pasta & mussels, was inspired by this little restaurant we ate at right on the beach in Positano.
That fried stuff you see in the picture… I’m still not even sure what it was! It was pretty good though, but really what fried food isn’t?
And that view? I could have sat in that chair for the rest of my days, eating all sorts of strange and unique Italian things and would have been as happy as a clam.
Or a mussel, in this case.
Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.
Mussels & Pasta in Italy.
Mussels & Pasta in Texas.
We had a pretty legit cookbook. So there wasn’t too much room for error.
Also this cookbook has fun stories about the towns along the Amalfi Coast, so it could also double as a coffee table book if you wanted to.
Proud chefs in the kitchen after cooking this much anticipated meal.
We couldn’t have done it without our little golden haired assistant, of course.
And a little fashion for you, if you’re into that:
You can’t see it at all in these pictures but I’m wearing the Ijada Stitched Shift from Anthro. Which is now on MEGA sale, I might add. This may be my favorite dress for the summer, it’s super lightweight and easy to throw on to dress up or down.
Or you can always wear it with no shoes on, cooking in the kitchen…take your pick.
And finally, the table is set!
To try to make it special, we ate dinner surrounded by maybe one too many lit candles. Which led to great discussions about what people did before electricity….
Then the meal was followed by a few bites of the top of our wedding cake, one year later.
Pretty glamourous, huh?
Well, it did survive a FedEx trip all the way from Memphis. Thank’s mom!
Honestly, Patrick had to literally STOP me from trying to eat the whole thing. It was so delicious! One year old and all. I’m glad he did, I may not have been feeling all too well today otherwise.
And finally, here is a shot of our cake in it’s original form, topped with magnolia flowers and leaves. We chose magnolia flowers because they are the state flower of Mississippi.
Why Mississippi you ask? We got married on my uncle’s farm in Mississippi, which is only about thirty minutes from Memphis, TN, where I grew up. It was really fun to be dancing our wedding night away with all of our friends in the same spot where I used to sit in the grass and play with my Barbies as a kid.
And now our first anniversary has come and gone, and we are officially newlyweds no longer. It has been the most amazing and eventful year and quite frankly….I just love being married to this one!
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