Vow Renewal & Anniversary Weekend

So our 5th anniversary was Feb 4th, 2010. We made a weekend of it. We had, to say the least, a bad year last year. This year however has been nothing but good and happy. I am more than excited to say we got through all our issues and have really found our way back to each other whole heartedly. We started the New Year together and have been together more than ever, ever since. You really appreciate what you have and how real it is, when you have to step back from it and decide if it's what you really want. We are very lucky to have made it through the last 5 years and wanted to celebrate our newly committed relationship with a bunch of plans for our anniversary. We made a weekend of it, in fact. First off was the evening pictured above. We went to Vincent's in NYC. KC actually surprised me with reservations. The food was fabulous and it was a nice quiet dinner. We exchanged sappy cards and shed a few tears of happiness. 

Then he had another surprise idea in store for me.

We walked a semi short distance to a new storefront of one of our favorite former street vendors,  Dessert Truck . We had several yummy treats to share, the highlight being the Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding with Bacon Sauce. Amazing!  The hot chocolate lasted until the next day, and it was amazing put into my morning coffee. 

We made an early evening of it because we had plenty of plans over the next few days. The next day we had a cupcake party planned. We didn't invite a lot of people to our vow renewal so we decided to have a larger party the evening before, and what better thing to eat than cupcakes?! We made plans to meet everyone at my favorite NYC cupcake spot, Crumbs. We went to the one near Bryant Park because it was a nearby free place to hang out. Turned out we were a bit chilly so we ended up heading over to a nearby McDonald's that had an upstairs eating area. I needed a warm coffee so we got some drinks and ended up taking over the seating area. We had a great time just chatting. A lot of people I hadn't seen in a while came, and we really enjoyed getting to see everyone! 

Man those cupcakes were good! They too lasted several days as we can't finish more than half in one sitting!

This night was an early one as well. We hoped people would drop by on their way out for their Friday night fun. we got home around 10pm. We had to be up early the next day for our vow renewal ceremony and reception/brunch. We originally planned our ceremony here in Central Park, but the impending snow storm caused us to change plans last minute. The only other place we could come up with, that had meaning to us as a couple was, Grand Central Station, NYC. In this room:  

It was just as good as the other spot, it is where KC proposed to me. Not in that room, but down near the subway. So everyone met us around 1 and we took some pictures at the proposal spot and tried to find a specific spot to do the ceremony.  

We finally decided on this spot for the actually ceremony. It was blocked off on top so we just had to block the stair entrances so no one walked through. This was of no issue to me because the stairs led to nowhere and anyone needing to see from up there could wait a few minutes for us to finish before coming up. 

 It was beautiful. We had one friend video tape, one friend take pics. We had several others doing both as well. The lovely man who married us, is our best friend, Andy. he went and got ordained just to make it official. It was a lot more work than we thought too. So thanks Andy! We wrote our own vows and teared our way through the whole ceremony. It really turned out to be everything I wanted it to be.

We all piled into 3 cars and met downtown at a little French Bistro that had really reasonable brunch prices. Apparently it turned out to be a dud of a restaurant and really bad service! We had to send some food back, and NO one left full. BUT we had a great time talking and just all being together.  We spent probably close to 2 hours in the place too. Needles to say we won't be back. But finding brunch reservations for any party over 10 in NYC on a Saturday afternoon is hard!

 We also invited everyone back to the house since brunch ended early. So into 2 more cars we went, minus one couple of friends who opted out. We played some video games, ordered some wings and generally had a great time. 

I am truly thankful to everyone who came out for us for the whole weekend. it was great to see the show of support for us and for our re commitment to each other. Having had people share that with us is something we will always remember.  Our 5th Anniversary was everything, and more, that I thought it would be.  I love you, KC.