A special night...

We had the most wonderful 3rd Wedding Anniversary dinner last night...we got absolutely spoilt!

Our reception venue, 3 years ago, was the Boatshed restaurant, South Perth. A stunning venue that we chose after going to our first wedding (after only 1 week of dating) together, that was at the same venue! We fell in love with it straight away! The restaurant is located on the picturesque South Perth foreshore, overlooking the city. It has its own little jetty also, which we used for wedding photos on the day. The owner of the Restaurant, Graeme, was so lovely to deal with, and 4 of his 6 daughters also work at the restaurant. Each and every one of them treated us so beautifully 3 years ago, and still to this day do!

When we arrived, we were the only people in the restaurant, which was lovely! We were shown to our table, the best in the house, right on the waters edge. On our table, they had put out a photoframe with one of our wedding photos in it for us! HOW sweet! They also had put covers on the menus wishing us a Happy Anniversary! It made us feel really loved and special! Compliments of Claire, one of our waitresses from the wedding, we were given a glass of champagne each and compliments of the chef, we were given a taster of kangaroo and bush chutney on little crackers! I had never had Kangaroo before...but it was actually quite nice - and sweet that the chef did that too!

We spared no expense, as we figure its only once a year! So we ordered 'sparkling water' instead of 'still water', a plate of sourdough bread, olive oil and olives along with an entrée of Sizzling Western Australian King prawns with chorizo, spring onions and oil! Delicious! We got a bottle of wine to share, from a winery down in Pemberton called Fonty's Pool - it was divine! The waiter asked if I wanted to 'try' the wine first...i giggled and said that it wouldn’t make a difference as I was no wine connoseiur! :)

We were absolutely stuffed just after having the entrée but we persisted through for our next course! Matt ordered the corn fed pork cutlet with truffle macaroni, roast apple, thyme and red wine jelly and I ordered the Chef's Fish of the day which was a lovely pan-fried snapper on a bed of wilted spinach and garlic mash on the side. JUST beautiful! We were talking so much that by the time the waiter came back to ask us how our meals were, Matt hadnt even started eating his! :)

The dessert menu came out, and by this stage - I was popping out of my dress! But...i would never give up an opportunity for dessert here! They have the BEST sticky date pudding here, but we both decided to try something different! Matt ordered the turkish delight plate and I ordered the raspberry and white chocolate plate! We shared half and half of each others plates! My favourite was the raspberry sorbet...so tangy and fresh! Also, the white chocolate and raspberry dumplings with hot fudge sauce tastes just like donuts dipped in chocolate! TO die for!!

We wanted to stay and have a coffee after our meal but there was aboslutely no room for any more food or drink at all! So we called it a night and rolled ourselves out of there!!! We took a walk down to the jetty that we had our photos on, just outside of the restaurant before we went home...it was such a beautiful and still night out!

When we arrived home, we found that our wedding photographers, Peter and Tegwyn, had posted this beautiful slideshow video of our wedding to wish us a happy anniversary! SO sweet - we have been TOO blessed! You can watch the video here and visit their website here.

So, after it all...another year has passed! It has been a wonderful year, filled with laughs, tears and changes but we are both so excited at this next wedding year and what it will bring. New prospects on the horizon, hopefully being blessed with our own little family, seeking God's will for our life, home, finances and dreams. We have been trusting in Him to guide us and light our path, and so far, we have been extremely blessed and comforted with what He is showing and teaching us!

What do you all do to celebrate your wedding anniversarys? How many years are you at now? I would love to hear your love stories!!

Much love

On this day...

3 years ago today, on 2nd February 2008, I married the man of my dreams!

We kinda have a bit of a fairytale...well, i think so anyway ;) We met on Myspace, about 4 and half years ago. Matt had just signed up for the website, and was browsing around. They had a section called "new users" and my little photo popped up! He clicked on my profile and read a bit about me and decided...I'm going to email this girl and see how it goes! Little did he know, I had been inundated with quite a few "annoying" and "disguisting" emails from guys on the site, and thus was being ruthless when it came to receiving propositions from men! I would usually just delete them straight away! But...there was something intriguing about this guy...

Reading up on his profile, we had alot of similar interests, even though we were 4 years difference in age and lived at opposite ends of Perth! We got talking on Myspace for about a month, and had exchanged mobile numbers. Matt had tried numerous times to set up a date with me, but I was always too busy with dancing [that is the truth, i wasnt putting it off!] But Matt thought i was putting him off, so he said to himself he would try 1 more time to set up a date, and if i couldnt make it, he would leave things there as i obviously wasnt interested!!!

Our profile photos when we first "saw" each other on Myspace

Well, I was available on that day to meet up with him!!! *phew* We met down in Fremantle at 5pm on September 23rd 2006. I told Matt I was wearing a pink dress so to look out for me! He was standing out the front of the Esplanade Hotel and saw a blonde haired girl in a pink dress walking toward him....but with another man! Matt was thinking, "great, she has brought another guy with her to our date!" He phoned me to check where I was, just incase it was me with that man, and I told him to turn around as I was right behind him! That moment we met for the first time was magical! I kind of cant describe it better than, it was so relaxed and felt so "right". It felt as though we had been best friends for YEARS!

We took a walk down the boardwalk in Fremantle before dinner. I was wearing stockings with high heels and it was making it difficult to walk! I remember my heels getting stuck in the gaps of the boardwalk an awful lot, and whilst we were talking I had to subtly stop every few steps and do a sort of "wiggle" of my heel to get it loose again! Matt never even noticed me doing this!

After the walk, we stopped in at a little coffee shop. My stockings were frustrating me SO much at this point as it was making my shoes slip as i walked [didnt choose this outfit too well, did it!] So, the whole time we were chatting at the cafe, i was trying to rip little holes in my stockings so that my feet could grip to my shoes! haha! I was doing it very discreetly and lady like of course! ;) I finally excused myself to the ladies room and took them off altogether! Too much hassle! I also realised i had about 20 missed phone calls from my mum, who was beside herself as i hadnt called to tell her i was ok and that Matt wasnt a serial killer! ;)

We then made our way to the Salah Thai restaurant in Fremantle, which Matt had booked us into! We had a wonderful meal and it was my first ever "Thai food" experience...chillis and all....I was very brave to give it a go, but in the end i actually LOVED it and it is now one of our favourite foods to eat! Matt had bought a bottle of wine also, Brown Brothers Moscato, and it was the first wine we had really had. It became our favourite also!

After dinner, we went for another coffee for another long chat, and then stopped in at Timezone! We played a few games in there and just before we left, we had some of the photobooth photos taken! It is amazing, when you look at them, just how at ease and comfortable we look! You wouldnt have known it was the first time we had ever met each other!

We didnt want the date to end at this point, it was about 10pm! So, we jumped into Matts car and drove up to Kings Park! We had a walk around and a bit of a smooch at the lookout circle, over the city! It was absolutely magical...and freezing cold!! Time seemed to stop here, because by the time we got back to our cars, and were heading in opposite directions home, it was 1:52am!! We said our goodbyes and as we drove off, Matt phoned me! He pulled over to the side of the road to do it too, how cute! He said: "I kind of havent been in the dating scene for awhile, so i am not sure how this works, but i dont want to just know you, i want to be with you...will you go out with me???" It was the sweetest thing ever!! And i was SO happy! Couldnt wipe the smile off my face!

Our first wedding..a week after we met. We got married at the same spot we loved it so much!

All the ladies I worked with at ALH, and all the men Matt was with in the Navy will testify to just how happy we were, and still are!! We love to talk...alot....and evidently, all we would talk about was each other!!

5 months went past, and Matt was out at sea for 2 of those months. When he came back from sea, he took me down south to Margaret River. We stayed in a wonderful little chalet on the beach and on February 15th, at sunrise, he took me down to the beach and proposed! There were gorgeous rocks jutting out into the water, so we went and sat down on them and he said, "as its nearly our 6 month anniversary, I have some photos i wanted to show you that are special to me of our time together!". There was about 30 of these photos from all the dates we had been on together! He went through them one by one, and had a little "saying" to say about each one. As it got to the last photo, he said "and this photo is my favourite one as the look on your face is priceless". I couldnt find the photo he was looking for...so he said "hang on a minute, it must have fallen out in my bag..." As he went down to "get it out of his bag", he pulled out a beautiful box with the most stunning ring EVER in it and got on one knee to say: will you marry me?!?!

From that day forth....it has been a whirlwind! A year later we were married in the most BEAUTIFUL ceremony ever [6 months of that year of engagement, Matt was out at sea!]! It was a day that was so meaningful [and HOT] and i wouldnt have wanted it any other way!

So tonight, we are back off to where we had our reception for dinner! It has become our tradition to go there on the day of our anniversary for dinner. The owner and all the waitresses still remember us there, and save us the best seat in the house. They usually bring around a bottle of champagne and some chocolates also! They are just SO lovely to us!

As I reflect on the past 3 years of marriage, there has been many ups and downs, sad and happy times, trials and tribulations...but it is those times that have made us stronger, refined our relationship and brought us closer together. Through it all, God has been at the centre of the marriage and we work at keeping it that way. He is the one who brought us together, and we owe everything we have to Him for that.

So very excited for what this year of marriage has in store for us little love bugs! God is working wonders in our lives! I will keep you all posted on all the changes along the way!

Much love [and sorry for the loong post...couldnt help it!]

Photos: Peter Edwards Photography