Second Anniversary Gift Ideas

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Here we are, two years married next week. It's kind of hard to believe it! On Saturday, we'll have been engaged for five years. It's so sweet to look back and see how far we've come, and how much we've grown together and as individuals.

We really like sticking to the 'traditional' wedding anniversary gifts, but this year it was hard: cotton and china?! Those are kind of both girly options in my mind, so I was really struggling. I tried for a week to get Christopher to skip the gifts this year, but no such luck. I finally found him something really cool {and not on this list!} that I think will surprise him.

When I thought about cotton, I first thought about nice Egyptian cotton sheets. A gift for both, but one that could be given by either party! You can never have too many sets of sheets {especially with pets, and I've heard the same with regards to kiddos}, so this is an obvious choice. But I was looking for something a little unusual.

For the men, a new button down shirt is always a nice gift, especially a cotton shirt by Cotton Brothers to really stick with the theme here! You could even get it monogrammed for a touch of personalization. For a unique gift, you could get a custom cotton-themed wall hanging like this one with your initial, name and the year you were married. It's nice to give gifts that will be seen daily! For a more subtle unique gift, you could double dip with the cotton and china theme and fill a porcelain vase or pitcher with some long stemmed cotton bolls to display somewhere in your home.

Going the china route may be easier if you registered for a pattern or two when you got married. There's always new additional pieces to the classic collections like my family's Old Country Roses, and besides, you can never have too many place settings! I'd love to get a few more pieces from my Christmas pattern, the Spode Christmas Tree Gold Collection. Who cares if our anniversary is in April?!


Are you a newlywed? Check out my first anniversary gift guide here.

Marrying McAfee | Let's Party!

Oh the wedding reception...one of the most fun parts of the day. After dinner, the music cranked up, and everyone hit the dance floor. We had a friend from college {DJ Hurricane Herman, what what!} DJ our reception, which allowed for a lot of personal touches and requests. He definitely played to the crowd and got a lot of people moving, which was important to us. 

We took one break from the party to do the traditional bouquet toss, or throw in our case, and the garter toss. I surprised my maid of honor Kirstie by throwing the bouquet directly at her as a surprise. It was so funny. And Christopher surprised me by having hands full of ice when he went to retrieve the garter! I was so hot that I didn't even feel it for a few seconds...it just felt wonderful and cool on my legs, but it got icy, fast. 

Both my maid and matron of honor gave heartfelt and memorable speeches. Christopher's best man Elijah was deployed on our wedding day, but he had two great men step in to fill that place. A few weeks before the wedding, I had messaged Elijah to kind of put the idea out there of a surprise speech if it was at all possible. He was able to record his thoughts and our DJ played it for everyone to hear, much to Christopher's surprise. I'm so glad we were able to do that, and include Elijah in our special day from afar.

My Phi Mu sisters also did the traditional wedding cheer, and I was so proud of myself for remembering to bring my candle from the candle-light ceremony announcing our engagement in the Phi Mu house three years prior, almost to the day! I'm so thankful we were able to get a picture with our fabulous photographer, a Phi Mu herself.

 

Throughout the reception, I could tell that our friends were getting feisty and were creating quite the getaway car. We were scheduled to leave through a tunnel of sparklers at 10:30 p.m., but about 10:15 p.m., I hit my limit. I was exhausted, hot, and just ready to be alone with my husband! So I headed back to the getting ready space, and literally laid on the couch for five minutes while the sparklers were handed out to the remaining guests. When Christopher finally made it back to the room, he asked, "How's my little introvert doing?" He knows me so well, and knew my "socializing limit" had been met!

We spent a few more minutes by ourselves with our photographer and videographer soaking in the last seconds of the day before heading out through the front door through a beautiful tunnel of sparkles. After pulling Saran wrap {and condoms...boys...!} off the car, pushing out dozens of balloons out of the seats, and stuffing my giant dress into the car, we were off! We rode back to our house to change and grab our luggage before heading to Savannah for the night. I think we both couldn't stop smiling all the way home, and kept saying how it was truly the best wedding ever.

Thank you for following along while I chronicled these memories! But no worries, the wedding features will continue, as I have the honor of featuring a few friends and blogging buddies and their wedding days. If you're interested in your wedding being featured, shoot me an email at piperellice at gmail dot com.

Also a huge thank you to all of our family and friends, near and far, who made this day the best day of our lives. We love you all!

Marrying McAfee | First Dance & Cutting the Cake

When planning the wedding day's events, I so desperately wanted everything to go smoothly of course, but also cohesively. It was really important to me to make sure my guests felt engaged and involved, and to minimize the amount of wait time if possible. There's always some wait time of course, but having a structured cocktail hour alleviated some of that.

Our picture session as a couple coincided with the cocktail hour, where guests enjoyed fruit, cheese and crackers as well as our signature drinks: pink cotton candy and champagne for me, and a Tom Collins for him! Once we were done with pictures, we had the grand announcement of our wedding party by our awesome DJ, followed immediately by our first dance to Shania Twain's "From this Moment" and the cake cutting to Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion."

Christopher and I did not do the cake smash...getting messy is never my style. Our cake was a delicious wedding cake with raspberry preserves in the middle and buttercream icing. As soon as the cake was cut and the traditional toast was done, we began feeding the guests so they could fuel up before the party truly began!

The funniest moment of the cake cutting definitely came with Niki, my matron of honor, went to pop the champagne for us, which for some reason had never been iced down. I had specifically picked a special bottle of Piper-Heidsieck champagne for us to enjoy on the day of in our monogrammed ice bucket. When she pulled the cork, it exploded all over the place due to the heat of the day. I love the expression on our faces from that moment! 

Photos by Ari Merrit Photography

Marrying McAfee | The Littles

For our wedding day, we included two very important "littles" in our lives as our ring bearer and flower girl. The little ones in weddings are always my favorite part: I love the tiny versions of the outfits they wear! Both of our young attendants took their jobs very seriously throughout the day, with our ring bearer Jax cutting loose at the reception by dancing with all of the girls!

He is what I like to refer to as my "little boyfriend," and was very sad to let me get married. One of my favorite surprises of the wedding weekend was the set of rules he wrote for Christopher to follow, which Jax's mom Kim read during the rehearsal dinner. I keep the framed list on top of my jewelry chest in our bedroom for easy reference should Christopher need a little reminder now and then!

10 Rules for Marrying My Piper

written on April 7, 2015 by Jax

1. Smooch

2. Be kind

3. No food fights

4. Wear deodorant or else you'll be stinky on your armpits

5. Take care of my Piper

6. Protect my Piper from danger

7. If the power goes out, make my Piper a fire and get flashlights out and lanterns and sleep with her

8. Lots of hugs

9. Give her flowers

10. Wash her hair and body when she needs help

And most importantly, love my Piper as much as I do, forever.

Jax :)

Marrying McAfee | Mr. & Mrs.

I've been slacking a little this week on blogging due to feeling a little under the weather after a super long, super fun work weekend. But yesterday marked four months of being married! And hopefully CJM will be a fully licensed pharmacist by the end of the week. It really is still a very exciting time in our lives, and I'm loving it.

After the wedding ceremony and family pictures, my groom and I took some time by ourselves to regroup, focus, and take some pretty pictures with our photographer, Ari. Here are a few of my favorites: 

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
P.S. I have a could of "Being the Bride" spotlights lined up for the coming weeks. If you'd like to be a part of that feature, email me at piperellice at gmail dot com.