Our Anniversary During Quarantine
We just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary and I’m going to look on the bright side and concentrate on the delicious cake and fun dinner we had at home, rather than dwelling on how much we missed taking a trip or going to a fancy restaurant. We’re all in this together and, by now, we’ve all had to commemorate a special occasion in a very refrained way. Even though it was quiet, I didn’t want to miss recording the anniversary that happened during the year of covid, for posterity.
In a nutshell, Nick and I met on a blind date, set up by a friend I’d met at work, who had gone to university with Nick. At the time, both of us were a bit warry of a set up, so our friend had to follow-up after we didn’t take her up on it the first time. I clearly remember her saying “You will really like this guy. You should at least meet him.”
So, she introduced us to one another via email and we made a date for coffee on a Sunday morning. He told me he’d be wearing a red shirt. When I arrived at the cafe (Future Bakery on Bloor near Bathurst), there were quite a few single guys having breakfast, but nobody in a red shirt. I especially noted one fellow sitting in the corner and thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if my date was with him”. Then, that same man pulled down the zipper of his black jacket to reveal a red shirt.
Three months later we were engaged and one year later we were on our honeymoon!
Fast forward 21 years and here we are. A few photos throughout the day …
↑ One of the many reasons I adore him is the homemade cappuccino he makes me every single morning. He makes it old school using a stove top espresso pot and froths the milk by hand. It’s always garnished with the special coffee sprinkle, that he makes in batches and keeps in a shaker. ↑
↑ The card I made him, using silicone stamps. ↑
↑ One of our African Violet plants was graciously in flower for the occasion. ↑
↑ Nick pre-ordered a cake from our favourite bakery, Dufflet Pastries, and picked it up from their Queen Street West location on the day of our anniversary. It was a fitting choice as we’d gotten the cakes served at our wedding from the same place. ↑
↑ Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake ↑
↑ We had a piece for an afternoon snack. It was divine. (For reference, this was the 6 inch option, and we had a piece each for 4 days. It kept nicely for that long stored in the fridge.) ↑
Dinner was Beef Fondue, served with a brown rice and almond dish, a variety of pickles, some sauces and grape tomatoes.
↑ I came to the marriage with this treasure, a gift I’d received from a friend’s mother, who knew I liked vintage things. I’d never used it before meeting Nick, though, but just had a feeling that I should hang onto it. ↑
Cooking small pieces of skewered meat in a pot of hot oil in the middle of the table, makes for a potential mess, so I laid the table using a plastic cloth, which was put overtop the heart-cloth (I got that to celebrate the Valentine’s Day after we were married, and we use it for two weeks a year, when we’re home for Valentine’s Day and our anniversary. I expect it’s the only tablecloth with a heart print that we’ll ever need!)
I realize that a portrait of the two of us together would have gone very nicely here, but alas, sweatpants (let’s call it “athleisure wear” to class things up a bit) and uncombed hair do not make for a photo you’d want to see. Oh, the joys of living through a pandemic!
Here’s to celebrating life. Thank you for reading. xo loulou
↑ At our wedding, November 1999, before digital cameras existed! ↑
