Happy Mother's Day

Today is a day to recognize all the moms out there! I feel very fortunate this year to not only celebrate my mom but my mother-in-law too! I'm also in that stage of life where my friends and family are starting to become mothers so I get to celebrate those special women as well.

You could say I get my photography gene from my dad - he was and still does always take photos and he especially took a lot of photos of my mom when they were dating and traveling. Seeing as my mom typically doesn't like to be the center of attention, she sure put on a good face for all those photographs my dad took of her. She is a lover of the understated celebration and I definitely get my love for celebrations from her. So while I like to show appreciation and love for my mom each day, it's nice that there's a specific day to make her the center of attention.

One Year

Robin and I started dating five years ago but we've known each other since high school. It's not like we were high school sweethearts. And it's not like we were good friends who grew up together. No, we didn't really know each other at all. All I knew was that he was tall, funny, played squash and dated one of my good friends back in grade 10. Before even meeting each other, both of us had sworn off serious relationships - he was traveling too often to keep any relationship and I was enjoying being single after being in a long relationship. Our story isn't some fairytale, magical encounter either - I had actually tried to set him up with a girlfriend who had recently broken up with her boyfriend. That night she wasn't interested in him so I kept him company since I had asked him to come out and after talking and dancing and talking some more he kissed my forehead (that infamous forehead kiss that makes a girl melt!) At the time I didn't want to admit I liked him. He was this guy I knew from high school! I couldn't believe it. It was over a month until I saw him again and then we went on our first date. I guess knowing of each other helped the dating process because we talked about all the things you shouldn't talk about on a first date, we got each others jokes, and we just got each other. That day I gave up any hope of staying single and he did too - we knew we had found someone pretty amazing.

Fast forward five years and we've traveled to seven countries, moved in together, got engaged, got married, raised that little pup we both love, and had endless amounts of laughter and love. Trying to remember what life was like before him is hard. I feel like we've been together forever but at the same time like we just started dating.

Today marks our one year marriage anniversary. It's not only one year of being with my best friend but it's five years. Each day I think about how lucky I am to have this guy to call mine. I'm so happy that I found my person - the one who is my perfect match, my compliment and my soul mate. Today, I celebrate that those five years ago I took a chance, jumped right in and fell for that guy from high school.

Our Wedding

In just a couple days we will celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. Before writing this post I went through all our guest book entries and was immediately flooded with emotions and gratitude for everyone who made our wedding so special. The words written are so filled with love and sincerity that I couldn't help but smile as I read them. Knowing how much our friends and family love and support us makes our relationship that much more meaningful.

We decided to get married in Barbados. A simple ceremony by the beach with our closest friends and family followed by a fun dinner, dancing, cigars on the beach and then clubbing in town. I remember wishing that it would rain that day just to cool down as it was the hottest day during our time there. Getting ready was easy and relaxing (we didn't get married till 4:00pm so we had all day to relax). The days and weeks leading up to our wedding I had been an emotional mess. I cried the day before we left for Barbados. I cried on the airplane. I cried when we got there. I cried when we got our marriage certificate. But on the day of our wedding I tried really hard to hold it together. When my dad and I were waiting to walk up to the alter I had a moment where I was alone with my thoughts and it came to me that I was marrying my best friend and in that second I couldn't breath I was so overwhelmed with emotion. I quickly forced myself out of it and didn't cry again until I was listening to the amazing speeches by my best friends, family and husband.

We had opted not to do a "first look" and also made sure not to see each other all day (we were restricted to different areas of the resort) so when we saw each other for the first time we both had goofy, excited smiles. Our ceremony was simple and quick. We wrote vows ahead of time that we each repeated and we had some funny laughs throughout it. Once the "I dos" were done we had a little cocktail hour with a steel pan player, lots of rum punch for our guests and we took photos on the beach with our bridal party. One of my favourite moments was after the cocktail hour my husband and I jumped into the room where he got ready just to make sure we had everything and we had a moment to say "hi", give each other a hug, and then a high-five. The reception was held in one of the resort restaurants. It was so beautiful with high ceilings and open air windows. After dinner we started the dancing and when it was time to vacate anyone still wanting to party with us was invited to the beach. We had cigars, more drinks and made our way to a club in town. After partying the night away we headed home around 3am and finished off the night with a stop for some street meat! It was the perfect celebration and when we returned home we had a mini stay-cation/honeymoon touring the Prince Edward County wineries and then a huge reception party with everyone in the Toronto.

PS: You can read about our engagement here, our planning here, and my shower here.

These wonderful photos were taken by Gina Francesca Photography