Flashback Friday: First Anniversary

from Meghann:

One last 2012 flashback, which was really a celebration of a big event that happened in 2011...

We were back in the States during our first anniversary this summer. After talking about it, we figured the best way to celebrate would be to spend the day in the town where we met and (7 years later) had our wedding - Annapolis!

Lunch at McGarvey's, the place where we met many moons ago in 2004. So many memories here - getting engaged, our wedding after-party, first married Valentine's Day lunch, pre and post Navy football game beers, and many other times of just dropping in together or with friends. We even came here the day after our wedding before going to see 4th of July fireworks (we were married on the 3rd - hello/hola built in holiday!). 

There was crab dip, of course, and a couple of Aviators (their signature brew).

Annapolis is a gorgeous town any time of year, but she was looking extra lovely in the summer sunshine and decked out for the 4th of July.

After lunch, we wandered over to Pusser's to sit on the water, watch the boats go by, and sip on Dark & Stormies. 

That night we went out for sushi at Joss (one of our favorite restaurants, cannot get sushi like that in our little Spanish town), then rooftop cocktails, and what is a first anniversary without champagne and cake? I had been thinking about that red velvet deliciousness since the day after our wedding last year. The bakery provided us with a freshly made cake topper, if you were wondering how our cake held up, so it was perfect. 

We also exchanged gifts and opened cards from friends and family before going out.

The reason that we don't have more snapshots, is because we treated ourselves to an anniversary photo shoot with the lovely and talented Krista of Krista Jones Photography. It seemed perfect for our "paper anniversary", photographs to commemorate our first year of marriage taken in the town where we met.

Oh yes, I definitely put the dress back on!

The photo shoot, and the entire day, was so much fun. We loved our wedding, but honestly it was a bit overwhelming, while our anniversary was such a relaxing day filled with things that we love.

Also if you're a married lady, highly recommend an anniversary shoot...or just frolicking in your wedding dress while eating cake and drinking champagne. It feels pretty amazing. If you're not married, don't let that stop you from putting on a fancy dress and doing the same thing!

Oh, and if you want to watch our wedding film sneak peek (like we did about a thousand times on our anniversary) here it is:

Meghann and Graham from United Wedding on Vimeo.

Can't believe it's been a year and a half...still gives me chills!

Uno

One year ago today, we put the matrimony in HolaMatrimony. 

Home es...

We are home from our (belated) honeymoon! Paris and Mauritius were amazing and we will be doing a post soon (after we go through over 1500 pictures and get settled back in at the casa) but it got us thinking about something. Where is our home? It's a simple question we get asked all the time, but it's getting harder and more complicated to answer.

The longer Graham is in the Navy (almost 8 years!) and the more we move (too many times to count!), the more difficult it becomes to define where "home" is. We can go home to the States and also home to Spain. There is the place where we were born, where we're from, and where we live. And there are many clichéd ways to define home:

Home is where the heart is.

or

Home is where you hang your hat.

And of course, in this lifestyle, the ever-popular:

Home is where the Navy sends you.

The truth is we have a collection of places that are special to us. Here's a quick rundown of some of the places where we have hung our sombrero, where the Navy has sent us, and/or where our heart is.

East Coast comida

Our last post was mostly about our friends and familia that we spent time with in the States and a little about the comida that we ate while we were there. This post is all about the food. There are so many dishes we can't get and restaurants we can't get to while living in Spain. We tried our best to check all those off the list while we were there (and sí, Meghann actually had a list of food and restaurants). So, here's photographic documentation of our Maryland to North Carolina culinary tour. This should also explain why we've been trying to get to the gym as much as possible since we got back.

So, so happy that we were back during oyster season (we were both raised to believe the "months with an 'r' rule"). A fresh-from-the-Chesapeake-Bay dozen on the half at The Narrows are the perfecto way to start brunch. And on the left you can see their seared scallops with strawberries and balsamic reduction.