What I'm Sproutin': First Wedding Anniversary

Dress: Macy's, gift from my Mom, cardigan: Modcloth, rhinestone brooch: vintage, shoes: Aldo

Last Sunday was my first wedding anniversary. One year ago, my husband and I got married in a zoo. This year, we decided to celebrate by going to a gourmet Taiwanese restaurant on the 85th floor of Taipei 101. For pictures of what we ate, check out my other blog.

Ron and I don't usually go to fancy restaurants, so I wanted to dress up (even though there were plenty of other diners in polo shirts, khakis and jeans). My Mom bought me this dress during my wedding planning trip back to California, which was in January 2009. I remember at that time every department store I went to had these twofer dress combos. Modcloth still has an entire section on their Web site dedicated to them, but the ones I saw last year were all simple blouses sewn to equally plain skirts, like this. I'm actually a big fan of the look and wish I had bought more dresses like this. One cool feature of this dress is that the "sash" has little folds that look random but are actually sewn down.

My favorite part of this dress, however, is the keyhole neck and pleating. And, as you can see, I totally forgot to wear earrings! I'm so annoyed with myself because I planned to wear my wedding earrings, but they just totally escaped my mind (or my mind escaped me). Oh well. I tell myself that the lack of jewelry (aside from my tiny vintage brooch) keeps the focus on the neckline.

Get it off! Get it off!

The restaurant was a little chilly inside because of air conditioning, however, so I ended up putting on a jean jacket I'd grabbed right before we left our apartment. Here I am realizing marriage is forever.

I'm planning to write a post about my wedding dress and how I felt about the stupid cultural and societal expectations brides have to deal with. My wedding planning experience was mostly positive and very fun, but there were still things that irritated me. It's really odd how people feel like they have the right to mind your business once you announce you are engaged, from mundane things like the shoes you wear to really important (and personal) business like whether or not you are going to change your name and even your wedding ceremony and vows. But my brain is a bit fried right now, so I'll do that later (even though thinking of how annoyed I was when busybodies told me I should change my name makes me so angry that it fries my brain even more). Garrrrr!