Nine and counting.
Smallsteps asked us in the car which was more important, a birthday, or a wedding anniversary. I said it depends, because her birthday is more important, but my birthday is less. And also, at the end of the day, the date of marriage is less important in my opinion than the day a couple decide to be a couple, which isn't the wedding day. However, that day likely isn't remembered, so a wedding anniversary is the stand in marker.
Is it a wedding anniversary, or an eloping anniversary?
We eloped.
While we were engaged, for reasons that mostly surrounded the cost of an actual wedding, we decided to do it in secret. We bought a dress (not a wedding dress) that I altered to fit properly, had a small bouquet made, and took our own photos of us out in the country. They are all taken from a low angle, because I didn't have a tripod.
And the photos were taken a couple days before we were married.
They had to be, because we needed to print them out and make the cards that we would send to friends and family as an announcement, before we flew off to Milan for a honeymoon. Well, we turned a trip we had already booked into a honeymoon, because soon after, my wife was starting a new job that was going to take a lot of her time and energy, so we wanted to get this formality out of the way prior.
While it sounds a little sad to do it this way, because there were no friends or family to witness it, it was also in some way more special also. Yes, it was far cheaper with a lot less stress, but we got to do things together and have those secrets. We organized everything needed within a couple weeks and got married, dressed up, at the magistrates office in front of strangers, who were wearing shorts and crocs.
The juxtaposition added value.
Before the "ceremony", we had a professional take some photos, because my wife had one a prize for an hour with photographer, and she convinced him to do wedding photos. But, they weren't very good in my opinion, so while we have them, no one has ever seen them.
As it is a weekday, we didn't do anything special, other than go and have dinner together at a restaurant we like, while Smallsteps spent a few hours with her grandparents. While I did get her quite a different gift, it hasn't arrived yet and she has no idea what it is. But, I did suggest that once every month or two, we do something different together, like playing padel, or going to a shooting range, or perhaps archery. Ina year, we would have shared experience with a half dozen or so random activities and perhaps we might find something that we would want to continue together.
Next year is our tenth, so we might have to do something a little more special than dinner to mark the occasion, and we were thinking of maybe doing a weekend trip somewhere, like Rome or London. I asked the waitress what she would do for a tenth anniversary and she said that her dream would be to go rock climbing at some challenging rock face in Spain. While she climbed, her husband could be at the bottom belaying.
I guess that is a couple's activity also.
Taraz
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