A New Way To Celebrate Your Wedding Anniversary

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My husband Jason and I just passed our NINE YEAR anniversary. For some of you, that might not be so long. For others, it’s quite a lengthy time. I’m certainly proud of the accomplishment and I can tell you that while the past nine years haven’t always been super easy, I wouldn’t change a thing about the journey we’ve been on together.

So to celebrate this year, we did a little something different! Seeing that we are both wedding photographers, and that we are around weddings all. the. time., we have recently been inspired to have our wedding photos redone. Wedding photography has changed SO MUCH in the past decade and to say that our wedding photographs are terrible would be a huge understatement.

They’re TERRIBLE.

I AM thankful that the day was at least captured. But they are not fun to look at, they are not creatively inspiring, and they do not represent who Jason and I are or our wedding day well. Sad moment. I have a feeling a lot of you can relate.

So I went wedding dress shopping! I found a used dress for dirt cheap at Goodwill, hired Mike Olbinski to be our photographer, arranged for hair and makeup and we booked a photo shoot on the day of our anniversary, in hopes of capturing some new photos that we could consider art! The end result?

I FINALLY have some amazing photographs of my husband and I in wedding attire that are artistic, creative and represent our personalities well.

Jason and I had such an amazing day together getting all dolled up and remember that we were getting ready in this very same way, nine years ago to the day, to say our vows to one another. And I actually felt prettier on my nine year anniversary than I did on my wedding day! Imagine that!

The real reason I’m writing this?

Is to encourage YOU to think outside the box a little bit for your anniversary. Marriage doesn’t have to be mundane and boring. And while there is nothing wrong with going to a fancy dinner to celebrate, there IS something to be said about having an adventure together; even if it’s a small one! We never left town and we were getting ready at our own home most of the day. But it was different, outside of the box, and gave us something to look back on together. While marriage can be super challenging at times, it’s SO important to focus on why you fell in love in the first place. And doing something a little out of your norm for your anniversary is a fantastic way to celebrate how many years you’ve been together.

It was a total blast.

I encourage everyone to do your own Anniversary Photo Shoot. It was beyond fun and now we have something to show for it, for years to come. To see the FULL post on Mike Olbinski’s blog, click HERE.

 

Quick Add ons-

First, you might be wondering why on earth did we do this for nine years and not our tenth? I’ve been asked that a lot! The short answer is that we believe in celebrating life NOW. So instead of waiting, we chose to just jump in and celebrate right where we are at.

And second, I HAVE to give a few shout outs to the peeps that made this photo shoot possible. Mike Olbinski for the amazing photography, Alexandra Evjen, fashionista and stylist guru with AVE Styles for styling our wardrobes, Kim Cornwell with Triple Threat Studios (no website) for doing my hair, AND to Christine Valero with Hair Story for doing my makeup. Christine also colors my hair and is FAB.

Ok, that’s all. 😉

 

16 COMMENTS

  1. It was so fun to witness part of your special Anniversary day!! You two are so in love with each other and are such a beautiful example of how God inteneded marriage to be… plus you have a ton of FUN doing it!! LOVE you guys!!

  2. This seems like a topic that should have been blogged about on your personal blog not on this website. It also seems like you are just promoting someone’s photography business (which doesn’t make sense given that you already have your own…and conveniently linked up so more exposure for you.) I get what you are trying to say: be different, think outside of the box, etc, but that seemed like an after thought after showing us all of these glamour shots. It just seems really out of place on this blog.

    • I love this article, Jessica and thank you for sharing your creativity with us! I would totally have NEVER thought to do something like this, but love thinking about celebrating our anniversary in a unique way!
      Libby, I disagree, I think this article is totally relevant for Scottsdale Moms Blog! This blog is about what local moms are doing! It’s a place to share ideas and experiences and even, yes, awesome friends who have amazing talents! Thank you for sharing your perspectives ladies!

    • Aw I’m sorry you feel this way Libby! My goal was purely to inspire others to have some fun in life and in marriage. I definitely will be doing a post on my personal blog as well about the inspiration behind all the details of the shoot! Thanks for commenting!

      Thank you SO much Joy!! I am so glad that you loved the article and that it encouraged you to think about celebrating your anniversary in a unique way! Thanks so much for supporting me! 🙂

  3. Love the dress! I have always been sad at how cool wedding photos have become- and ours are SO poised and lack that fun factor. What a fun idea!

    Also, a fun idea me and my hubby did on our 11th was design a custom pair of converse together. It even had ELEVEN embroidered on them- a fun idea and it felt out of the box too!

    Marriage is freaking hard work- glad you took time to celebrate it!

    • Noelle- That’s really cool!! Please tell me that you kept the converse??! Any photos of it? I’d love to see!! I love that you took time to celebrate it too! Thanks for commenting! xoxo

  4. Love the pictures Jessica! I can totally relate, I wish I had more artistic wedding photos from our wedding too.

  5. Hey Jess! LOVE the photos! AMAZING…so great you can capture your love and devotion in photos. It’s like a vow renewal, you get to go to that special place again with your husband and remember why you guys got married in the first place. Bob and I got our vows renewed a few years back and one of the best things about that event was to re-live the “getting married” expierence again. We re-read our vows to each other again, the whole nine yards, and it has really changed how we think of our wedding anniversaries now! Good for you guys… 🙂

  6. Love these photos Jess! They are off. the. chain. For reals!! What a good reminder that post-children some photo-ops can be just for mom and dad. Not to mention it shows the littles that mom and dad can still rock it together! 🙂

  7. This is quite possibly the most charming idea ever. Thank you so much for sharing your mega-creative idea and letting us experience the fun vicariously through your pics!

  8. I know you posted this in 2012 and it is now 2013, but I just wanted to tell you thank you! I have been toying with this idea for the longest and now that my husband and I are approaching our 5th anniversary we have decided to move forward with the shoot. I plan to get back in my dress and he’ll be in his suit and we’ll take some shots at different locations and end it on the beach. We think it will be fun – something just for the two of us! Children free! Lol. Reading this made me feel like I am not THAT crazy for wanting to do this! I love your pictures and I love the fact that you two had a lot of fun!! And I would agree, wedding photos have changed so much; I was married almost 5 years ago, but even in that short amount of time, things have changed a lot. I do not want replacement photos, but I would like photos of my husband and I that actually look nice. I don’t even look at my wedding photos because they are… not that great. My eyes are closed in more than half of the shots and for some reason there are more photos of everyone else during the reception than there are of us. I don’t mind because we actually felt like the reception was more for our friends and family (they LOVE weddings. No. Really, they LOVE them!! It’s a little annoying sometimes. lol). Any whooooo, I’m ranting now. Thanks again. You set out to inspire and you did just that! God bless you and your husband and the life you share together!!!

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