How have we been married a whole year already?! With everything going on in the other areas of our lives (like new jobs for us both and lots of friends getting married), it seemed to fly by while also feeling like it lasted a hundred months. We didn’t really have time for a long trip away, so we decided to head up to the mountains of Cherokee, NC for our first anniversary. We wanted to take Ollie with us, so we booked a pet suite at Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and Casino for a couple nights and drove up late on Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, we had breakfast at the hotel before driving down to the main strip of town to walk around the shops. We found a Native-American woven blanket, some vintage flair pins, and a geode rock to break open back at home before stopping for a quick bite to eat and heading back to the room. We took Ollie on a long walk around the property in the late afternoon, letting him run through the grass and sniff the creeks and accidentally stand on the only grass marked off-limits to him. Once he was good and tired, we headed back to the room for a quick family nap and showers before dinner.
Since it was our anniversary, Eric had called ahead to the Ruth Chris Steakhouse in the casino for a dinner reservation. He asked me to be ready an hour early though, so that we could pop by the bar for drink beforehand. So fancy. The staff knew what we were celebrating but the table decorations, champagne and raspberries, and dessert were such sweet touches on top of a wonderful meal. Our server mentioned that we had to gamble a little since the traditional first anniversary gift is “paper” – ha! – so we hit the casino for a little while before changing our shoes and taking Ollie for one last nighttime stroll.
We needed to go into Chattanooga to pick up some leftover wedding stuff that was still in my aunt and uncle’s storage unit (one year later…), so we decided to drive a few more hours West and stop in town for a night on our trip. We reached out to Jaime with Our Ampersand Photography for some anniversary photos in town, and she suggested meeting at the upstairs of the abandoned Knitting Mill downtown that she had access to. I called up Christy at May Flowers and asked if she could make me a flower crown out of the same types of flowers that she used for the wedding and she tied it with leftover ribbon from the wedding. I wore my rehearsal dinner dress and Eric and I both wore our wedding shoes for a little personal throwback in the photos.
In addition to being an incredibly gifted photographer, Jaime is really fun to hang out with and brings out the best in people. The three of us had a blast climbing around the old building and the photos are something I will treasure forever (and plaster all over social media and my house). We’ll probably use one for our holiday cards next month too, so I think this could turn out to be a conveniently sweet tradition for us! It would be awesome to look back in 10 or 20 years and see nice photos (not just selfies) of us together every single year around the same time. After some quick visits with family, we made the drive back to Charlotte with enough time to unpack and do laundry before heading back to work.
Even with our years of history before our wedding last October, it feels nice to have a year of marriage under our belts. Some of our friends that recently tied that knot asked at their wedding – does anything feel different now? Every couple is unique but for us, there weren’t any secrets waiting to be uncovered after the “I do’s” since we had always been so open about everything. We had so much time to discuss it before we got married. The main difference we feel is the outward legitimacy our year-long status has afforded us from other people. Eric has given me the respect of a spouse for almost ten years now, but the people at the gas company or the dentist’s office feel different. Most stop treating me like I’m trying to steal my boyfriend’s identity when I’m doing something on behalf of both of us, and some even now let me call the shots to an annoying level that’s borderline mothering. I still giggle when I’m called Mrs. Pendergrass though, so I feel quite happy to embrace the halfway mark of our “newlywed” phase with the person who knows me best, and can make his own flipping dentist appointments.
I love you Mr. Pendergrass. I’m so happy to be your wife.
