anniversary Archives - Detroit Duchess

Five on Friday: Sixth Anniversary

May 5, 2017 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

On Sunday, John and I are celebrating our sixth anniversary. It’s rather fitting that the sixth anniversary is the Iron Anniversary because at this point our relationship has evolved into something so much deeper. After you go through so much together, the other person really becomes your constant and a source of strength in times of adversity. More than our fifth anniversary, this one seems like much more of a milestone as I feel like we’ve overcome a lot in the past year.

Every year of our marriage, I’ve always given John a traditional gift:

Year one was the paper anniversary and I made a date book with a pre-planned date for each month of that year.
The second year was the cotton anniversary and I got John a really cool Michigan recliner. Unfortunately, that got trashed in our sewage flood.
Year three, the leather anniversary, I got John a pair of Johnston & Murphy leather topsiders that he had been eyeing.
Year four, the fruits and flowers anniversary, I got us a lemon tree. The tree is still alive and did have a lemon growing on it at one point.
Year five was the wood anniversary and John got a wood watch which he loves.

Here are a few of my gift ideas for the iron anniversary:

1. Monogrammed Forged Steak Brand ($49.95)

This is so adorable! I could either get my husband’s initials or you can also do a one-initial brand.

2. Le Creuset Cast-Iron Heart-Shaped Dutch Oven ($149.95)

This is too perfect not to include. A pink heart-shaped dutch oven?! What more can you ask for?

3. Hampton Bay Marshall Patio Chaise Lounge with Textured Silver Pebble Cushion ($159)

I’ve decided I want a chaise lounge for our backyard. I have no idea where I would put it or where it would even fit, but I’m envisioning myself lounging outside reading a book all summer and I want one.

4. Endless Summer Fire Pit ($181.99)

John and I have wanted a fire pit for the longest time and I love that this is a propane one making it easy to use. You could also replace the lava rocks with fireglass.

5. Fire Pit Cookout Kit ($49.99)

Once we have a fire pit, we’re going to want to make s’mores and hobo pies!

If you have any other ideas for the iron anniversary, I would love to hear them:

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anniversary, Five on Friday, Friday Favorites, Iron Anniversary, Sixth Anniversary

Five on Friday: Fifth Anniversary

April 15, 2016 by DetroitDuchess 5 Comments

John and I are approaching a milestone anniversary this year! Five years as husband and wife! This fall will also mark 16 years since we first met. What an adventure we have been on these past few years! I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.

Every year of our marriage, I’ve always given John a traditional gift:

Year one was the paper anniversary and I made a date book with a pre-planned date for each month of that year.
The second year was the cotton anniversary and I got John a really cool Michigan recliner. Unfortunately, that got trashed in our sewage flood.
For year three, the leather anniversary, I got John a pair of Johnston & Murphy leather topsiders that he had been eyeing.
For year four, the fruits and flowers anniversary, I got us a lemon tree. The tree is still alive and actually has a lemon growing on it now!

The fifth anniversary is the wood anniversary and I came up with some fun gift ideas to commemorate the occasion:

1. Jord Wood Watches ($275)

What better way to commemorate our five year anniversary than with this beautiful wood time piece? This one in particular caught my eye, it is stunning!

2. Nambe Butterfly Salad Bowl with Servers ($199.99)

I originally had a wood salad bowl on our registry, but we didn’t end up getting this. Five years later I think this would be a beautiful addition to our table.

3. Personalized Wood Postcard ($18.95)

This would be so fun to send to your beloved as an anniversary surprise!

4. You Make Me Happy Wood Wall Plaque ($48)

I really love this and it definitely speaks to our relationship. I love that it is something we can get for the house.

5. Piccadilly Wicker Picnic Basket ($85)

I love the idea of a romantic picnic at the park or by the water somewhere. We don’t have a picnic set and this would be perfect!

Let me know if you have any other fun wood gift ideas.

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If you would like to join the Five on Friday with A Liz Adventures, The Good Life Blog, Hello Happiness and Carolina Charm just click the button below for more details.

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Filed Under: Five on Friday Tagged With: anniversary, Fifth Anniversary, Wood

Weekend Recap: Chicago Anniversary Trip

May 29, 2014 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

For Memorial Day weekend, we took a little jaunt to Chicago to celebrate our anniversary and spend some time together. We had a blast and it was so much fun to get away!

We decided to drive down – it’s about a five hour drive – and had a great time on our little road trip.

We made it!

We stayed at the SpringHill Suites Chicago Downtown/River North and they were great! They comped us a free bottle of wine because we were celebrating our anniversary and made a great reservation for us at Flemings.

Flemings did a great job and gave us a box of truffles and $25 gift card for our next visit! I have to say that on these anniversary trips people really roll out the red carpet for us. We are so blessed that people love celebrating our anniversary with us!

After dinner we took a night cruise on the Chicago River through Shoreline Sightseeing at Navy Pier. I had never been to Navy Pier before and it was awesome! So much fun and the cruise ended with fireworks over an amazing view!

On Sunday, we went to US Cellular Field to see the Yankees play the White Sox. Derek Jeter was on and the Yanks kicked some butt. I had such a great time at the game! After the game we had dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse called Fogo de Chao and it was delicious!

On Monday, we had a great brunch at Eggsperience. They provided quite a spread (another awesome recommendation from our hotel):

After the last trip where we forgot our leftover deep dish pizza, we decided to stop by Pizzeria Uno and pick up a deep dish pizza to go. It made for a great dinner after the five hour drive back home!

We had a wonderful time on our little getaway and I can’t wait for our next few trips this summer!

We can’t wait to go back to Chicago! What are your favorite things to do in the Windy City?

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: anniversary, Chicago, Eggsperience, Flemings, Pizzeria Uno, Shoreline Sightseeing

Weekend Recap: Wedding Fun

May 13, 2014 by DetroitDuchess 1 Comment

I am terrible at taking pictures when John and I are out. I am always having fun and forget to capture it. So in order to give you a recap of the last few weekends I had to raid John’s phone and my friend’s Facebook pages. I think I am going to have to do one of those photo challenges to encourage myself to take more photos.

I mentioned in my previous Five on Friday: Bridesmaid Edition post that we had four weddings to attend this season. Here are some fun photos from the first one, where John and I were both in the wedding party:

Next up, John and I celebrated our third anniversary! With all of the weddings we decided to have a celebratory dinner at Iridescence at Motor City Casino. We are taking a trip over Memorial Day weekend for our annual anniversary trip, but we wanted to start the celebration early. John surprised me with a beautiful Michael Kors watch. I am a lucky lady!

The next day I attended my friend Krissy’s baby shower. She is the cutest prego and definitely has that pregnancy glow! Her sister put together a great shower and they made her an adorable flower for her bump:

Our second wedding was this Saturday and it was at a great location! Planterra which is a cool greenhouse. It was the perfect time to get together with friends and for John and I to relax and have some fun. Of course I didn’t get any pictures of us, just of the girls. Also, a big shout out to Liz (on the right) who was so excited to be on my blog (I loved her green dress – Anne Klein). I was just excited that people are still reading this.

Last but not least, we celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday and I didn’t get any pictures of my Mom, because we were too busy playing with our niece. She is such a little cutie and our entertainment for the day!

So next up we have a shower, wedding, bachelorette party and final wedding. I can’t wait – it is a fun way to kick off the summer!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anniversary, mother's day, weddings, weekend recap

The City of Love

May 16, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

To kick off this blog I thought I would start by recapping our 2nd anniversary celebration. This seemed fitting to me because I first wanted to start a blog when we got engaged to chronicle the wedding, and then again after we were married to chronicle our newlywed adventures. I figured four years later, I’m finally going to do it!

My husband and I were married on May 7, 2011 so this was our second anniversary aka “the cotton anniversary.” We got married on the 7th because my birthday is July 7 and his is August 7 and we thought it would be cool if all of our big dates were 7-7-7 (21 in blackjack which I am obsessed with). Now in the future if we can make sure all of our kids are born on the 7th that would be pretty cool.

We got engaged in Toledo, Ohio (I will share our engagement story in another post) and ever since have jokingly called it “The City of Love.” We usually go back there once a year to celebrate our anniversary and try to do a similar trip.

This year was even more exciting because we hadn’t been back since they opened the new casino and it was Star Wars weekend (yes, I’m a nerd, I know)!

Our trip started on Friday night after work. Toledo is only about an hour drive from us so it is a nice little trip. We stayed at the same hotel we did when we got engaged and they really rolled out the red carpet for us. When we were checking in I mentioned that we had got engaged there four years ago and that we were hoping to get a corner room similar to the one we had before.

They did better than that, they got us the exact same room!! I didn’t even realize that they kept records that far back. The room number was 1023, John said he would never forget it. Kudos to The Best Western Toledo -they went above and beyond for us the entire weekend and made it really special.

After that we decided to head on over to the new Hollywood Casino for some grub and blackjack. The first thing I noticed about the casino was that it was smoke free which was just awesome! We had dinner at Scene, a sports bar restaurant and then proceeded to lose our shirts at blackjack. Oh well, we still had a great time.

We were so excited for Saturday because it was May 4 aka “May the Fourth Be With You.” We had tickets to go to the Toledo Mudhens game which was a Star War theme. The players were wearing special jerseys and they had their first fireworks of the season, set to Star Wars music. Even though they lost, we had a great time!

Chewbacca replica Mudhen’s Jerseys (photo from Crain’s Detroit Business)

“Feel the Force!” – Yoda

After the game, we came back to our room and did a special anniversary toast with our toasting glasses from the wedding. We opened a bottle of champagne that I had been saving from our honeymoon. We bought it from the Murgo Winery in Sicily at the bottom of Mt. Etna and it was delicious!

Cheers to us!

On Sunday, we made our way to the Toledo Zoo to see the elephants! My husband and I love elephants and the Toledo Zoo has a baby elephant named Lucas. We got to see their revamped African exhibit and we even got to see feeding time – it was so cool! The zoo also had two baby polar bear cubs that were about five months old. They were just darling.