Category Archives: anniversary

Vow Renewal: Getting Ready

MPP B&R Vow Renewal6

Welcome to Love Week at A Compass Rose. If you will remember Love Week in 2013 fell over the week of our 10th Wedding Anniversary. I just got back all the photographs this month from our photographer, Miriam, and wanted to share it with you this Valentines Day week. I have so been looking forward to recapping over all the details of the big event. The last recap I did was back in November with some sneak peek photographs of Ryan getting ready in his suit in Vow Renewal: The Groom. Today I share the images from when I was getting dressed.

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My 10th Wedding Anniversary – 02.08.13

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Today my husband and I have been married for 10 years. It has become the most important anniversary milestone in our twelve years together and our ten years of marriage. It is a realization in itself that we have been married this long but there is no denying the fact when I also remember that our oldest is now eight years old. Time really does pass you by. I recently was given a wedding dvd from one of our wedding guests after I told them we had lost our wedding dvd in a move. We watched it last night with my sister and it was remarkable to see just how young we were only a decade ago. It almost seems like a whole different world we were living in as newlyweds.

We we currently still living in the ‘bubble’ of my conservative christian university in the days before my husband joined the military. I had my parents’ relationship, a couple who raised their children overseas and loved travel, as my vision of marriage. I think it is safe to say as newlyweds we both had a more fantasy view of what our life together would be like throughout our marriage. I had no foreshadowing of the hardships to come our way. The stresses of military life, starting a family and raising children, being far from family without a support system, the sudden loss of a parent, and how it would all affect our marriage. On top of it all it became hard to name a couple I knew that were still married amongst our military friends and acquaintances, and more easier to name those who called it quits.

In the end my husband and I stayed together, moved abroad together, and have begun a whole new life for our family as expats in England. Life has never been sweeter. Yes life has still been hard and we still find our moments of stress. However we know that we have each other. Being married to your best friend and experiencing all the ups and downs together as partners is what has made our marriage stronger.

I am so happy to begin another ten years with Ryan and to continue our life overseas. Though we are no longer those naive newlyweds in their early twenties, we have both evolved into the people we are today. I love my husband so much for who he has become and who he is to me. Something I mentioned in my vows a decade ago. Today we are getting ready for our Vow Renewal ceremony here in Snowdonia, Wales. It is been a long anticipated event that we now share with a few family and friends. It is not our ‘happy ending’ but just another new happy beginning to the next chapter of our love story.

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Caveau des Oubliettes in Paris

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While we were in Paris my husband took us to a jazz club on the night of our 9th wedding anniversary. It became the best club experience I have to memory and today still holds that that title. Caveau des Oubliettes is a 12th century prison located in the Latin Quarter across the river from Notre-Dame. Beneath the subterranean vaults it was linked many centuries ago with the fortress prison of Petit Chatelet. The description of its history includes ‘complete with dungeons, spine-tingling passages, and scattered skulls, where prisoners were tortured and sometimes pushed through portholes to drown in the Seine’. As an Audrey Hepburn fan it made me feel like I was in her film, Funny Face.

When we arrived I was not exactly sure what to expect and followed my husband through the ground floor entrance to a windy stone stair case to the basement level. The passages were narrow and people were not confined to just the tables and chairs set before the stage. Some where at the bar and others standing or sitting on the stairway, listening and watching from around the wall. The cost of the drinks were a little pricey but not having to pay a cover charge for that experience leveled it out in my mind. If you love music I highly recommend checking out this scene.

While our 8th Wedding Anniversary that we spent at Pelham House in Lewes had topped all the rest, this night topped them all. Caveau des Oubliettes will most definitely be on our list of places to visit when we next return to Paris.

52 Rue Galande 75005 Paris France‎

Pelham House in Lewes, England

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We have just eight weeks left until our 10th Anniversary Vow Renewal in Snowdonia, Wales. It has crept up a lot faster than I had expected. Needless to say there is much to get done in preparation for the big milestone in our marriage. I am really excited to be able to do something so fantastic because our anniversaries have not always been so lush. There was our first anniversary that was spent on a cow farm in Thailand. Yes, being in Thailand that summer was a very exciting opportunity but the day of was a little less romantic than expected. Thats another story for another day. There have been anniversaries that due to the military and other circumstances we were not even together to celebrate. Since we have moved to England every anniversary has been amazing and we have found ways to make each one special. For example last year we spent our 9th anniversary in Paris, France after having visited my home in Napoli, Italia.

The first year in England and our 8th wedding anniversary I orchestrated without Ryan knowing. He had been back in the US to work on his visa to come back to Brighton with me. While he was away I found a town close to where we lived that had several beautiful bed and breakfast options. I chose Pelham House in the historic town of Lewes, where Bonfire night on November the 5th is huge! Ryan did not know that were were doing anything special for our anniversary but I had told him to meet me in town after I was done spending the morning at work in the salon. We got on a bus and he gave me a puzzled look as I bought one way tickets. Actually I think he joked if we were going to be walking back. Which could have been the truth as we do a lot of walking and country walks here in England. When we got to Pelham House I told the front desk that we were checking in and let him in on the surprise. It was a really fantastic two days of seeing the town of Lewes, the gardens, the castle, and Anne of Cleaves house. Here are some of my favourite captures from where we stayed in Pelham House:

For more information about Pelham House:

http://www.pelhamhouse.com/

25 Weeks and Counting Down

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Looking for date night outfits, I was inspired by the dress I wore at a wedding five years ago.
Keeping with the blush and pinks with the fascinator for the English in me.

Sweetheart Floral Dress | Nude Heels | Swarovski necklace | Rouge Coco Shine | Fascinator

On the second of August, 2013 my husband and I will have been married for ten years. This weekend will be eleven years since we had our first date. A third of my lifetime has been married to Ryan. So much can happen in ten years. We have been through more than I would wish on anyone to have to experience. So much thrown at us that it almost tore us apart irrevocably. Sadly in our military community we witnessed so many divorcing and calling it quits. Yet having come through it all it has made us closer and stronger than ever before. So in twenty five weeks time my husband and I will be reaffirming our love as we renew our vows. Every week I will be blogging a ‘Wedding Wednesday’ post as we count down to the big day.

My husband and I in Paris last summer for our 9th Anniversary in the city of Love.

Though not taken on the day, we had been married 5 years at this wedding we attended.
This was my ‘Sex and the City’ Carrie inspired ensemble.
The fascinator was a DIY that I made myself out of a broach and feathers.

‘He wore black and I wore white’ – Nancy Sinatra ‘Bang Bang’

I have set a new years resolution for myself and though it be February, I do not see it too late to start one. I aim to take so many more photographs where Ryan and I are both in the frame together. Looking back through old photographs to post for this blog I realized that we have so many of just one of us, while the other person took the photograph. My goal is to better document our love for us to cherish and look back on when we are truly ‘old and gray’.

The lack of couple photographs aside there have been many anniversaries and huge chunks of time where we have not been together due to the military and other circumstances out of our control. I do not like missing important dates or being apart for long time, let alone an evening. I really do cherish every moment we have together for life is uncertain and far too short.

One thing that I have definitely learned in the last ten years is you cannot let the words and actions of others come into your marriage and break you apart. You have to be team. If you let other people, be they acquaintances or family, speak ill of your partner or do things that could cause friction and stress you have to block them out. What I love so much about Ryan in this moment in time where we are today is that he blocks out the toxicity of others and holds me close with so much love.

* Photographs belong to Bonnie Rose and cannot be used without written consent.

** Wedding photography by Angela Alexander.

*** Fashion & Beauty images from polyvore.com