Hi, Hive! It's been six months (WHAT?!) since I wrote my
farewell post and I wanted to pop back in among the Farm generation (as well as Miss Parisian and the newly Mrs. Pyramid, still reppin' the Honeymoon gen!) to touch base with you all.
For those of you who may not remember/know us, the Palm Trees are sort of in the "high school sweethearts" category, with a twist: we grew up across the street from one another. Mr. Palm Tree hated me, I desperately wanted to be liked and accepted by the boys in the neighborhood. We reconnected in high school and with the exception of
one strange year, we've been together ever since.
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| all photography by Limelight-Images, the best wedding photographers EVER, unless otherwise noted |
We were married last May by my awesome ciffer (cousin + best friend), who became ordained solely to marry us. We had amazing weather, a great day with our kickass wedding party, a short-but-super-sweet and personal ceremony followed by a pretty rockin' party, if I do say so myself, that lasted until the wee hours of the morning.
You could also catch up using my
Recap before the Recaps post for all things pre-wedding and our actual recaps start with our
rehearsal the day before our wedding.
I've missed the Hive so, so much - interacting with readers and fellow blogger Bees put a truly special touch on my entire wedding experience. I'm so grateful for the community as a whole and for the ability to be able to pop back in and say hi!
Not much has changed in the past year, truthfully. I'm still working as a Wedding and Event Specialist at a local university and Mr. PT is still getting his computer engineer on for our local hospital system's cancer center. My schedule is really hectic (lots of late nights and weekends) so it can get tough and annoying for the two of us in terms of trying to get in some quality QT, but we make it work. I truly think that being together for nine years prior to being married has helped us avoid many of the more common and dreaded First Year Problems. We're big communicators and know so much about each other - and, perhaps most importantly, we're always open to learning more and we understand that we, as people, are always changing. We are more in love and ooey-gooey than ever before, he still gives me butterflies and we still love to go grocery shopping and laugh until we cry (or sometimes just cry) together.
We had originally planned to repeat our
honeymoon (
Couples Negril in Jamaica, for the record: cannot recommend enough) but decided to hold off due to finances and other events going on this year (including being a
co-matron of honor in Miss Parisian's wedding this fall!). We were able to take a trip to NYC in early March, during the university's spring break, to visit friends, though, and considered that our early anniversary trip. It was Mr. PT's first time to NYC and we had an absolute blast.
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| personal photo | tons of cats in the East Village - Mr. PT was in heaven! |
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| personal photo | at a Tiki Lounge in the East Village, again with a cat. |
Last Sunday was our actual anniversary and we decided to make a day of it. We went grocery shopping (natural for us) to prepare for a hangout we were hosting on Memorial Day and then we fancied up and had a great day out in the city.
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| personal photo | we had amazing weather |
We went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for an early dinner. We were given a gift card by Mr. Palm Tree's colleagues last year as a wedding gift and we're not really fancy people, so we hadn't had an opportunity to use it. We both agreed that our anniversary was a perfect occasion for it and we had an absolutely amazing time and left so full and content.
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Our awesome waiter, Marcus, was so fantastic. He knew it was our first anniversary and gifted us both a complimentary champagne toast (which made me cry) as well as a complimentary dessert to share. We were both so touched and awed by the service as well as the amazing food.
Our day didn't end there, though. We exchanged gifts at home before we had left. In keeping with the 'paper' theme of the first anniversary, I gifted Mr. PT a personal drawing:
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| personal photo of the drawing in a frame | the one and only kickass Mrs. Roadtrip put this together. It's a drawing of our first dance photo, with our four kitties and the background has the lyrics to our first dance song. |
I wanted to give him something cute and whimsical, but something he could also take to to work with him and want displayed. He was super touched and loved it.
Then, for his gift, he presented me with a pack of Chinese wish lanterns and said, "I figured we could write 'Mr. and Mrs. Palm Tree' and the date and then maybe 'first anniversary' on it before we set it off with a wish. . .this way when it lands, maybe someone will see it and think, 'oh, good for them. I hope they had a good day.'" Cue the freakin' waterworks, Hive.
So, after dinner we headed up to Mount Washington (an area of the city with great overlooks/killer views) with our year-old slice of cake and our lantern.
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We were getting ready to set it off when a family next to us expressed excitement and congratulations for us. They offered to take a picture of us with it.
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We had lit it and were hesitating about releasing it and the family cheered us on with a hearty chorus of "let it go!" so we did and together - with our friendly family - watched it sail away in the sky.
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| personal photo | Can you see it? |
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| personal photo | Still there - what freakin' perfect weather we had, honestly. |
We watched it until we couldn't see it anymore and got ready to leave. The mom of the family said that she loved the idea and planned to use it next year. She gave us each a large hug and expressed her best wishes, telling Mr. Palm Tree, "you better take good care of her - she's special." My eyes most certainly were not dry as we walked back to the car.
We had tossed around the idea of going to the Drive In that night but decided to just got home, get comfy, curl up and catch a movie on Netflix. It was the perfect day - as I said earlier, we definitely try to spend a lot of time together but it's so rare that we have an entire day that's just for us. It was so amazing and it was a great way to reminisce on the past year and look forward to the rest of forever.
I miss you all, Hive, and am so glad to share this small update on the Palm Trees. I'm still around now and again, binge-reading posts and keeping up on all things wedding. I love this community and don't think I'll ever fully separate myself from it. ;)
Until next time!
xo,
Mrs. Palm Tree
