HEMLOCK HALL

In celebration of our two year anniversary, Justin and I took a 24 hour jaunt up to the Adirondacks and stayed in a little cabin on Blue Mountain Lake. In classic Darbie and Justin style, we made these plans sometime around 7 o'clock Sunday evening, packed, and left the next morning.

We stayed at Hemlock Hall...which we found after sifting through random google results and Adirondack hotel reviews on trip advisor. We knew we wanted to be in the woods...in a cabin...on a lake...with a fireplace. Hemlock Hall seemed to fit the bill. We also came across some unbelievably grand, picture-perfect places like The Point and The Lake Placid Lodge. But they were WAY out of our price range. I stress WAY.

Luckily, the budget vacation gods were shining down on us...and besides being incredibly affordable, Hemlock Hall turned out to be EXACTLY what we were looking for. The main lodge is a big old Victorian beauty built in 1890 (same year as our house!). It's got all of the rustic charm you expect from an Adirondack hotel. Beautiful old pine and cedar paneling, impressive stone fireplaces, and a wraparound porch with incredible views.

We stayed in a sweet one bedroom cabin, tucked in the pines on a hill overlooking the lake.

We went canoeing in the afternoon.

And spent the evening in the cabin listening to records, hanging by the fireplace, and toasting our anniversary.

The next morning we stopped by Buttermilk Falls on our way out of town. A perfect end to our Adirindack adventure.

PRETTY PAPER

Justin and I decided it would be a nice tradition to buy ourselves a joint present each year that follows Emily Post's old-school list of wedding anniversary gifts. First year--paper, second year--cotton; third year--wood...and so on.

For "paper" we decided to splurge and get this lovely tassel garland from Confetti System.

12 feet of bright, cheery, sparkly goodness. It think it's a perfect celebration of our first year together.

ONE YEAR

Today is our one year anniversary!

Yup...last September 12th we were at a summer camp in Hueguenot, NY having the time of our lives. Lakeside ceremony, dining hall dance party, all night campfire rage-a-thon. It was EPIC.

The whole thing was a real DIY family affair. I handmade all of the invitations, table numbers, seating cards, maps of the campgrounds, and boutonnieres for the boys. My dad made all of the signs and hand-built the chuppah out of branches from the backyard. My mom sewed the tablecloths and a zillion feet of pennant flag bunting. Both of our families got together to decorate the dining hall with all kinds of lights and lanterns and more tissue paper decorations than imaginable. My wedding dress (a stunning 1920's beaded beauty) was from my mom's best friend Susie. Our friends and bandmates played the ceremony music (Chapel of Love, Sea of Love, and Then he kissed me -- on marimba, ukulele, glockenspiel, guitar, drums, alto horn, and kazoos. SO BEST.) My friend Frankie (aka Kid America) deejayed. And Justin's friend Ryan took all the photos. Even the priest was a friend of Justin's family.

We have about a zillion photos from our wedding day (far too many to attempt to upload)...but we did put some on flickr. Here's a link to the slideshow.

And this was our wedding song:

"This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies

And if I do say so myself...I think it HAS been our year.