Weddingbee Blog

It’s been a while, but some of you may remember reading about my wedding planning journey. You followed along as I learned to make French macarons, designed our invitations, and had a lace shrug made from my mother’s wedding dress. When our wedding day finally arrived, I couldn’t wait to share everything with you; from the way all of the reception details came together to changing into a ’50s prom dress for our first dance as a married couple. And now, as July 10th approaches once again, I can hardly believe it’s been a year!

Photo by Chloe Murdoch, of Mike Larson Photography, Inc.

Wondering what we’ve been up to? Well, our first year of marriage has certainly been a whirlwind of both fun adventures and challenging new experiences. Immediately following our European honeymoon, we packed up all of our belongings (and wedding gifts), and left our beloved home state of California behind for the opposite coast. I can tell you from experience that a cross-country road trip is definitely an interesting way to spend your first weeks of marriage…

“The Turtles,” at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee… Just one of the fun stops we made in between California and Maryland.

Thanks to living on the East Coast, we’ve had opportunities to visit so many places we’d never seen before, like our nation’s capitol!

Being married wasn’t our only new adjustment. Mr. Turtle started his first graduate program and I started my first post-college (full-time) job.

We also had the pleasure of experiencing real seasons for the first time, including thunderstorms, changing foliage, and snow right outside our window!

One of our favorite memories has been our train trip to New York City in December. (We’d both been to the city multiple times, but never at Christmastime!)

Due to my work schedule, we were unable to go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It was a bittersweet experience to celebrate these holidays by ourselves, especially since we are so close with our family, but we tried our best to have our own merry little Christmas!

Thankfully, we eventually were able to visit California to share some important occasions with our family and friends, including a very special wedding I had the pleasure of being in! (Anyone remember Bridesmaid Red? Didn’t she make a beautiful bride?)

And finally, celebrating the 4th of July in Annapolis, just a week ago.

Despite some tough challenges, including Mr. Turtle’s grammy being diagnosed with cancer, and having our landlord decide to sell our condo, forcing us to make an unexpected (and very untimely) second move, we’ve made it through our first year of marriage! I like to believe that we are both stronger individuals as a result and have a closer relationship than ever before.

Of course our anniversary has caused me to reflect back on the Weddingbee community and all of the good times we shared! I’ll admit, I did kind of speed through my recaps and promptly sign off… (At the time, I was all too ready to leave Wedding Land behind.) So I thought, why not come back for the week, just for fun… you know, like old times? (Except hopefully with a little bit of additional wisdom concerning weddings and marriage!)

How does that sound? Any questions?