What a Year! Relive the Magic.

Today Tiffany and I celebrate our first anniversary in marriage, and what an amazing year it's been! We just went to dinner and talked and laughed about what a great time we had in Chicago that weekend with all of our friends and family around. It was such a special time for us to be able to see everyone together like that; we will always remember it with a smile and a laugh.

But, don't think it was 'perfect', oh no, it was far from 'perfect'. Time for the "Did You Know?" portion of the evening....

Did You Know:
1) Zach was incredibly stressed out the entire pre-wedding all the way until he and Tiff finished their dance.

"That was the most stressed out I'd ever seen Zach," recalls Tiffany.

"It was the pressure of the dance; the debut of the choreographer's brainchild, the purest expression of the artist's mind, not to be taken lightly, you know," responds Zach.

"Whatever. Freak."

2) The DJ played the wrong song for Tiffany as she walked down the aisle for the ceremony! The instrumental of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" was the song designated for the bridesmaids as well as Tiffany's walk down the aisle with her father. Unfortunately the DJ thought Tiffany should have her own song, and fast forwarded to the next song, which was Captain and Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together", which was supposed to be Zach and Tiffany's exit song. That explains why Zach was desperately whistling at the DJ from the front to cut the music.

"It was perfect," comments Tiffany, "I was so nervous to walk down the aisle with my father that when the wrong music came on, I just started laughing and instantly relaxed."

3) There were some casualties prior to the wedding. Tiffany's mom, Paula, generously offered up her dining room as a pre-wedding staging area, and we housed about 20 fish bowls and 20 small containers holding the beta fish. Well one sleepless night prior to the wedding, Zach went to check on his fish, and lo and behold...

"We had a jumper..." said Zach with a grimace. "some crazy beta fish with fins and a dream. He had leapt out of his cup onto the dining room table. When I ran to Tiffany screaming for help, she laughed and reminded me whose idea the fish had been. Then when I went back, the fish had jumped from the table down onto the floor. And, certain he was dead, I dropped him into the toilet and flushed, only to see him start wiggling around again just as he started swirling down. That was one tough fish. Disney should make a movie about the little fella."

4) Finally, Did You Know that the reception was only supposed to be beer and wine?!? It remains a mystery to us how it was that all the other alcohol began flowing, but once it started, people were downing it like a bunch of breakaway Mormons.

Anyway, the point is that Tiffany and I were lucky enough to have all of you there to celebrate with us, and whatever else happened, planned or unplanned, only served to add to the color of our wedding. So thanks again to all of our family and friends, we love you and miss you!

And now, in a shameless gesture of self-promotion, here is the link to our wedding dance. And before I take all the credit, thank you Kimmy for helping us so much with the dance up at the cottage!

http://mindobserver.com/tiffzach/TheDance.htm

p.s. here we are one year later, valiantly attempting a self photo in the mirror of our Shanghai apartment. A little fuzzy, but you get the idea!