It's Your Anniversary, Isn't It?

On Sunday, June 26th, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary with what we like to call "Brandi* + Brady Day O' Fun."

We started the morning out with brunch at the Grand Concourse - the site of our rehersal dinner. This is a MUST DO in Pittsburgh. The food is delicious AND they have an antique doughnut machine that makes them fresh and $3.50 bloody mary's and mimosas!

After a glorious meal, we headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo. Going to the Zoo was one of our favorite things to do in Chicago, so it was great see some of our favorite animals.


Let's just say that our animal friends in Pittsburgh were feeling a little frisky during our trip. "Woodn't" you know that elephants eat wood?

Monkeys engaging in some romantic action.

We're keeping things PG here, but let's just say that this bear did a little "scratch n' sniff" twice while we were present.

In the words of Brady, "I like the Pittsburgh Penguins." - lol.

Bowling was next up on the schedule, but we found out that it wasn't open until 6. So we took our talents elsewhere - to the putt putt course. How fitting was it that the theme of this course was animals!

Lions and tigers and elephants, oh my!

After Brandi* pulled a Rory McIlroy and bombed the back five, Brady won by 4 strokes. Our golfing didn't stop there. We then went over to the driving range and hit some balls.

After a wonderful dinner at Ditka's, we then headed to the Bonkowski's to eat our wedding cake. Armed with our cake cutter, we opened the 365-day-old box to find...

Our cake. If you look close at the top, you will see a green streak that just may be mold. To the far right of that, you'll see where I dipped my finger in for a taste. Let's just say it was not good.

For all of those out there about to get married, see below for the directions on the proper way to freeze your cake!

Well there you have it! Our day-long celebration of our first year of marriage! We look forward to many more great years and many more great blog posts ; )

10...9...8...It's Smithkowski Anniversary Eve!

On the eve of our first wedding anniversary, we wanted to reflect about the weekend celebration that was.

It really was so great to see all of our friends and family in one room for the first and probably the last time all together. We loved seeing the New Jersey people become BFF with the Pittsburgh folk. We loved watching our aunts become instant friends. We loved hearing stories about all of the alcohol and cookies consumed. The battle wounds earned. The Patron shots shot.

But one story that we really loved and still love to this day is that of our dear friends, Lauren & Ramy.

Lauren is Brandi’s friend and Ramy is Brady’s friend – both friendships dating back to the early high school years. While Lauren doesn’t recall all the details, she met Ramy during our wedding weekend and immediately dubbed him her “fiancé.” Typically that would scare a dude away, but something sparked between these two and they’ve been dating ever since.

So cheers to you, Ramy & Lauren on your one-year meeting anniversary!

Here’s our favorite picture of your courtship.