A Paper Anniversary

Monday is our first wedding anniversary. It seems like such a short time ago, I can't believe it's already here. Mike and I stopped by my parents' house today to pick up our cake topper (it's cheesecake from The Cakery in SLO, and I can't wait to go into a cheesecake coma on Monday!) and our toasting flutes. As I was looking through the two boxes that held odds and ends from the wedding, I came across a manila envelope with "Mr. & Mrs. Mike & Annie Farrell" written on it, and I could tell it was the handwriting of our minister. I had never seen this envelope before today. When I opened it, I almost cried. In it were our vows that we read to each other, along with a nice print of our entire ceremony signed by my maid of honor, Melissa, and Mike's best man, his brother, Ray.

For the past year, every so often, I would think about the print out of the ceremony - and how I didn't have it. You see, our officiant said he did this for each wedding he presided over, but I had never seen it and figured he just didn't do it. I would also think about the two pieces of paper that we read our vows from, and wished I had asked him to give them to one of our family members so we could keep them. I mean, I could just print them out again, but it wouldn't be the same. But today, I found both things, safe and sound, and I couldn't be happier. The traditional first anniversary gift is paper, and I couldn't have ever asked for a better one.