Friday Favorites: One Year Anniversary Edition

Happy (rainy) Friday ya'll! I feel like this week has absolutely flown by... has it for anyone else?!

Anyway, I'm linking up for Friday Favorites wtih Heather, Jill, and the Virginia Bloggers.


Seeing as Sunday is my one year anniversary (!!!), I'm doing a special edition of my Friday Favorites.

(First of all, how is it even remotely possible that I've been married a year?!)

So, marriage. It's still weird for me to say I'm married. Not because I'm not proud of it (I am!) but because marriage seems like SUCH a grown up thing and I still feel like I'm 18 trying to find my place in this world some days. If you would have told me five years ago I'd be the first of my friends to say I do, I would have laughed uncontrollably in your face. I wasn't really dating, had no intention of settling down, and was enjoying my final year of college (a bit too much!).

But then.... Peter came into the picture. We had been friends before but suddenly, things started taking a different direction. And to be honest, at first, I was kind of annoyed. ha. I had no intentions of getting tied down... like, none. Zilch. Zero. But the more we talked and got to know each other, the more I started falling for him. And finally, one day, we both admitted we had feelings for each other. Unfortunately, that was the day he left for camp in Pennsylvania for the summer. Ha. Go figure, right?

And to be honest, that camp was the best thing that could have ever happened to Peter and I. We spent all summer long talking and getting to know each other. There was no pressure. I can remember looking forward to every night--we talked about any and everything. So when he finally did come home for the summer and we finally went on the first date we'd been talking about for quite some time.. it was... easy. Don't get me wrong, I was nervous and totally downed a shot of tequila to calm my nerves but still--we sat and talked for HOURS that night and everything just clicked.

The rest as they say, is history. 

And almost a year ago, we tied the knot. Our wedding day was one of the absolute best days of my life. Up until that Friday, I was stressed beyond belief but once we got to the rehearsal dinner with all of our friends and family, it was the most fun weekend I've ever had. 

We drank, we laughed, we danced, we drank some more, we laughed some more... all weekend was just.... incredible.

drunken madness!

Any our wedding day? I know a lot of brides have talked about how rushed and stressful it was but man... mine was the most relaxing day I think I've ever had! Everything was planned, all of the details were taken care of.. all I had to do was show up in a white dress. ;)

The first thing I did on my wedding morning? Run, of course. Our wedding date was 10/4 so I figured I'd better not run 10.4 miles and went with 4.10 instead. Close enough, right? I remember thinking very clearly on the treadmill just how much my life was going to change in the next 24 hours and really savored my last little bit of 'me' time for a while.

And after that? It was go time. Hair and makeup, packing, scrambling to make sure we grabbed everything from the hotel to take to the venue and then arriving... and waiting. We arrived about 4 hours early so the photographer could take some pictures and get set up and it was the most fun time ever. My bridesmaids and I had a blast. We played hangman. We took pictures. We danced. We took shots. It was so much fun. I'll never forget it.

All of the sudden, it was 4:45pm and it was time for Peter & I do to our first look--which I'm beyond thankful we did. I loved getting to have some alone time with Peter right before all of the hoopla. I can remember walking down the steps behind him and being so nervous! But as soon as he turned around and saw me, everything was right with the world.

Just like that, an hour later or so later, we were pronounced husband and wife and danced the night away with the people we love most. It was the most magical day and everything I hoped for and more.

A year later and I still feel the same way about Peter and our relationship as I did that first Saturday in October. But you know what? I'm not here to say that marriage is all rainbows and butterflies and ours certainly is no exception.

I think when it comes right down to it, marriage is a lot like running. In the beginning, you can do no wrong. It's all you want to do when you wake up and all you think about when you go to sleep. Your legs are fresh, it's something new everyday, and the runner's high is out of this world. But then, once you become a seasoned runner, you realize that not every run is going to be a good one. There will be mornings you wake up and the last thing you want to do is get out of bed, put on running shoes, and log 10 miles. But even on those runs, in the end, it's so worth it. I never quit running after a bad run.. I always come back to running because it's one of my biggest passions. Good times and bad.

Just like our marriage.

Of course there are days we want to kill each other but nothing in life is perfect and if our marriage was perfect, it would be FREAKING boring. You know? :)

And plus, all of the good times FAR outweigh the bad. Just like running.

I don't remember the bad runs, I remember the magical ones. I remember the 1:36 half marathon, I remember the first time I ran a sub 22 minute 5k, heck, I even remember the first mile I ever ran!

I'm so grateful for my relationship with Peter and everything we've done so far and everything we still have yet to come. It's a beautiful thing and I'm so blessed for the man I've been calling my "dawg" since day one.

Here's to many more years and many more miles.

Happy Anniversary, dawg.

Sarah