Months before our five year wedding anniversary, Henry and I had a talk about how we wanted to celebrate the special occasion. “We should take a long vacation and go traveling!” I proclaimed with excitement. My eyes sparkled. “Let’s go back to Hawaii! It’s the place where we decided to get married, so it’s the most meaningful place to celebrate the anniversary.” “Or, how about somewhere we have never been to? We can go on new adventures and make new memories.” Yes, I started to get creative… “You know? 5-year is a big one, we should definitely travel to somewhere far, beautiful, and romantic.” After throwing back and forth a few more ideas, which included jetting off to places like Canada, Costa Rica, New Zealand, etc., we decided that there was still plenty of time so we just entertained the ideas.
Then, as time passed by and both of us got buried with work, our “dream destination” became closer and closer to home. And when it was only one week before the “big day”, this supposedly grand vacation became a short weekend getaway. The final contenders were Big Bear (where we first met each other), Pasadena (where we had our wedding), and Palm Springs (for no particular reason… maybe because I wanted to go swimming and the weather is usually sunny and hot there).
Finally, we made a decision to spend our anniversary in Pasadena, starting with a visit to Pacific Asia Museum (where we had our wedding ceremony), and then a stay over at the Westin hotel next door (where we had our banquet and spent the first night together as husband and wife). It turned out to be a truly special trip and we loved every minute of it! Even though it wasn’t a long vacation at a far away exotic destination, we got to revisit all these beautiful places, and relived precious memories.
Several weeks after we got back from our trip, Isabella put together a lovely slideshow to help us remember the details of our fifth anniversary celebration. The pictures in the slideshow above were all taken by her (she was with us briefly, taking a few shots just before we hurried off to dinner). I LOVE the pictures and the slideshow so much I have to blog and share them with the world!! Thank you sis for all these!
Since I mentioned our wedding venues in this post, I thought it would be great to share some of our wedding pictures too. Those pictures were taken by the famous and talented Jessica Claire (Check out her site! She is truly unbelievably amazing!!)
Jessica knew that I love to dance, so she asked me to do a few spins for her:
Our cute and cozy ceremony site: Pacific Asia Museum
I wore a big smile on my face the whole time.
Our signature drink: pink lemonade. Both Henry and I don’t drink, so juice suits us better. I love the orchids. :-)
Isabella gave us a surprise wedding gift. She secretly interviewed and filmed our family and friends and put together a video. It was a big hit with our guests! Everyone loved it, especially loved Henry’s cousin’s hilarious skit. He did an impression of Henry. So funny I almost cried.
First dance, to the song “A Whole New World”
I often find myself thanking god and thinking how I am the luckiest person in the world. I married a very very VERY! good man. Marrying Henry was without question the best thing that has ever happened to me. He has the kindest heart and soul, and all the small things he does have made me love him more each and every day.
Happy 5-year, and many more to come! I love you BB!
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By the way, if you are curious about the beautiful song Isabella picked for the slideshow, here’s the lyrics translated in English.
Licensed song, “Mi Ancla” (My Anchor) by Mindy Gledhill
“When all the world is spinning ‘round
Like a red balloon way up in the clouds
And my feet will not stay on the ground
You anchor me back down
I am nearly world renowned
As a restless soul who always skips town
But I look for you to come around
And anchor me back down
There are those who think that I’m strange
They would box me up and tell me to change
But you hold me close and softly say
That you wouldn’t have me any other way
When people pin me as a clown
You behave as though I’m wearing a crown
When I’m lost I feel so very found
When you anchor me back down
When all the world is spinning ‘round
Like a red balloon way up in the clouds
And my feet will not stay on the ground
You anchor me back down”