Tomorrow is our first anniversary. I can hardly believe it. I don’t know what to say, except where on earth did the year go? That, and I love this man.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our anniversary. I like the idea of anniversaries. Early on, Brandon and I decided to accumulate as many of them as we could. At that point, we weren’t thinking in terms of wedding anniversaries, mind you. We weren’t even engaged yet. It’s just that we’re both quite fond of champagne, and we wanted to cultivate excuses for drinking it. This required a strategy: we would celebrate, we decided, as many occasions as we could get away with. For starters, we would celebrate the anniversary of the day he first e-mailed me, and of the day we first met. Then, as the months went by, we added more days to the list: the day we got engaged, the day he moved to Seattle, the day we got married, and so on. Happy marriages have been built on less, right? Champagne is as sturdy a foundation as any, we figured. Even if it does make me tipsy. Which is the opposite of sturdy. Anyway.

But the thing is, we made a mistake in our strategizing. We accidentally put two champagneable events on the same day. Our wedding date is, as it happens, also the birthday of this site.

We didn’t plan it that way, I swear. Cross my heart, even. In fact, we initially chose July 28 for our wedding day. A few friends who are particularly nerdy about Seattle weather had told us that, statistics-wise, the last few days of July are generally among the best – in other words, the least likely to be rainy – days of the year. So we settled on the 28th, a Saturday. But the caterer we wanted was booked for that day, so we bumped it back to Sunday. Which happened to be July 29. The date on which, in 2004, I started this site. The site that, in early 2005, inspired Brandon, then not even a twinkle in my eye, to send me an e-mail to say hello. For a mistake, it was kind of perfect.

At the time, I remember making a mental note of the coincidence, thinking, Oh, isn’t that AMAZING? Isn’t that the CUTEST? We’re getting married on my blog birthday! Eee!

But then, as quickly as that thought had arrived, another one took its place. Molly, it said, what about the champagne strategy? THE CHAMPAGNE, damn it. Also, you are a colossal sap.

Needless to say, we’re still working out the champagne issue. I think we might have to have two bottles, which isn’t such a bad idea, right? If we have one today, maybe, and one tomorrow? (Being tipsy is only pleasant to a certain degree, I find.) But whatever we do, we will raise a brimming glass in your direction. I can’t thank you enough, every one of you, for being here. Thank you for your appetite, your generosity, and your immense kindness. After four years, this space feels like a second home to me, and I hope it feels the same, at least a little bit, to you.

P.S. All photographs in this post are by the lovely, lovely Michèle M. Waite.

P.P.S. I am going to Oklahoma on Thursday to spend some time with my mother and grandmother, so I won’t be posting next week. I’ll see you back here on August 11, or thereabouts.