Whitney & Ryan: Wedding Anniversary #8

You might recall when we celebrated our first anniversary and the *paper* gift that kept on giving all year long. We had a great time on our monthly dates and continued to enjoy our passion for exploring. For year two, I combined cotton & china into a beautiful Thanksgiving week getaway up in Mont Tremblant, Canada. In year three, a traditional leather gift came in the form of a TUMI travel wallet while the modern crystal gift included a Thanksgiving dinner at The Crystal Hotel in Portland, OR. Year four brought "tropical" fruits & flowers together with a trip to Bermuda followed by an upgraded {appliance} TV for our bedroom. Our fifth year was about "wood" and "silver" which included a bamboo sushi set for two, wine cork cuff links with the year 2011, and a trip to the Greenbrier. The sixth year of our marriage included iron & candy meaning bikes to burn off those personalized M&Ms and the trip to Schimpff's Confectionary in Indiana. In year seven, wool & copper were our gifts of choice which included a wool Fedora, a copper pocket watch and an incredible trip to Cuba for the ultimate throwback.

This year I wanted to *again* stick with tradition and put a spin on the modern gift. Traditionally bronze and pottery are the gifts of choice for year #8. Bronze is thought to represent beauty & durability while pottery indicates nature. Linen & lace are the modern gifts indicating simplicity.

For *bronze*, I had a money clip made engraved with tallies for #8. Sometimes a chunky wallet is not always needed, and a money clip has always reminded me of my grandfather and my father. It brought a bit of nostalgia to me to gift one to my husband and served as a throwback to the start of our relationship.

While we celebrated our anniversary, we picked out a custom piece of *pottery* from Hadley Pottery in town. To enjoy the beauty of natural materials and find a work of art that spoke to both of us was a special treat. **More details to come on the piece we chose.**

In terms of *linen & lace*, I had a pair of real silk boxers monogrammed with his initials. With black coloring and white monogramming, they capture the formal tuxedo-esque theme, and I thought this was a romantic option to celebrate year number 8 in the modern way.

I truly love following the traditional and modern celebrations of each year. I hope when we look back on all of the years we can enjoy the way we celebrated as well as the special moments of each passing year!