Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today, July 23rd, 2010, Matt and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary. We have had plenty of changes in our lives over the past five years. Two things though, that have not changed are our love for the Lord and our love for each other. If anything, our love for the Lord and each other have only grown over the years.

To celebrate our anniversary, we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Pasta. If you live in Greensboro and haven't been, you've got to go! We had our rehearsal dinner at Cafe Pasta the night before our wedding, so it will always hold a special place in our hearts. Below is a picture of us at Cafe Pasta on the night of our rehearsal dinner back in 2005. Oh how young we look!

After dinner, Matt drove us to the parking lot of the church where we got married, Eller Memorial Baptist Church. After parking the car, our conversation went something like this:

Matt: Can you believe it's been 5 years since we got married here?

Melissa: I know!

Matt: Do you want to go inside?

Melissa: What?!?

You see, Matt grew up in this church. He spent 27 years of his life attending this church. Many of his family members and friends are still members at Eller... So swiping a key from his grandfather was a pretty easy task to accomplish. We walked in and everything felt, smelled and looked exactly like we pictured it would. The only difference this time around was that the air conditioning was not on. If you can believe it, the temperature outside actually felt cool to us when we left. Anyway, here is a shot of the church from the balcony. 

Let's play a little game of "Then & Now."

Then: Here we are at the moment of, "I now pronounce you husband and wife... you may kiss your bride."

Now: So the pulpit was in the way, but you get the idea.

Then: One of my favorite pictures of us after the ceremony.

Now: I'm sure it was entertaining to watch me rig up the camera and run into position before it took the picture.

Then: Right before we walked in to our reception at Forest Oaks Country Club. I miss my dress.

Now: All I can do is smile. I'll swap my dress for that little munchkin anyday!

We also took a few minutes to take some vantage point shots while in the church. Goofy, I know. But what do you expect from such a goofy couple? This is similar to how Matt remembers me walking down the aisle on our wedding day.

And this is how I remember Matt's face as I was walking down the aisle and for the majority of the ceremony. This is what we both lovingly call, The Wedding Face. Matt claims he was so overwhelmed with emotion, this was the only facial expression he could muster up. I have our wedding video to prove it if anyone is interested! :)

We had such a wonderful time celebrating our 5 years of marriage. We found ourselves looking at the clock and asking each other if we could remember what we were doing at that exact time, 5 years ago. It was fun to try and remember. Happy Anniversary, Matt. You're the love of my life!