Bring On the Roses!
Storytime…
As it is in Everyday life, time is one of those things that there never seems to be enough of. This year was our 5 year Wedding Anniversary. A big one… Wow! 5 years! My mother’s Birthday just happens to fall close to the date, and this year was a milestone for her. We had planned a huge party, but unfortunately Covid-19 had other plans and we had to rethink our big blow out event. Brantley has been busy building the new Bus Barn (The Dawghouse) since touring has been postponed for right now. Well…pivot the plans, and call me a genius! The Dawghouse is big enough to host a party with enough room for social distancing. But it wasn’t quite done yet. So all hands on deck and let’s get it finished to a point we can host a socially responsible gathering. Was it the huge blow out we wanted? No. We had to consider safety, so it was scaled down to a number that everyone could be safe and we could be comfortable that everyone would & could follow social protocol.
In the process of restructuring and building, our upcoming anniversary had been pushed to the background somewhat. We both kind of realized that we didn’t have any solid plans since the party was the day before our anniversary. This is when the sneakiness begins. We had been planning a blog for ACG that focused on how to create environments and activities in the time of social isolation to “date” your significant other. One of those ideas was to have a romantic porch dinner. The set up was to be photographed for the blog… we had discussed actually using the set up as a surprise dinner for our anniversary. The “we” in that would be Lyn; my PIC with ACG & Amberseats and Niki, the event designer and guest blogger y’all will meet later. Now to figure out what plans he had…. “Lyn, get some recon from Brantley, he just said we are going to go on a date”. Get ready for the twist, y’all.
What I didn’t know was that Brantley had asked Lyn to help with part of my gift. He had planned to take me on a dinner date in a private location and give me a very thoughtful present. Lyn knew that my dinner plans would be ruined. She called Niki and asked if she would be willing to help surprise us both. Niki was 100% on board. Operation G Anniversary was a go! So… Lyn suggested to B that he use the blog set up and have a romantic dessert date afterwards, to present the gifts. She had explained to him that they could make the blog shoot run “longer than expected” on the day and she and Niki would tear it down after we left. In reality it would stay set up and be a perfect romantic environment for him to have dessert and gifts ready when we returned.
My Gift
Brantley had Lyn take a photo she had taken of my bouquet on our wedding day and replace the background engagement photo with one she had taken of our family. He had it matted and framed, and on the back was a matted copy of his wedding vows to me. I know!!! I can hear the awww’s…It was so sweet!
What Brantley didn’t know was that Lyn had told me that she couldn’t give any info on what he was doing, but that the dinner was probably going to be too much after the party and the blog shoot, so why don’t y’all just do dessert and gifts after? She gave me the exact same scenario. What a sneak!
We were actually planning the exact same thing for each other without knowing! She had told us both, “Niki and I will use the set up, and we will get the cake, everything would be ready when y’all get back”. We both thought there would be a certain set up when we got home, as they had set up the back deck for the blog’s photography when we left.
The set up we thought we would be coming home to.
The actual blog on this original “Entertain At Home'“ idea will be published soon
They had left the set up but had replaced the dinnerware with Brantley’s favorite… paper plates. (y’all may have heard me joke about how much he does not like paper plates)
There were other plans in the works! They left the original set up; but they took everything we had wanted for each other and combined those ideas in a separate space. It was truly a space we had designed for one another. Despite the various change in plans, the time challenges for the party, we actually managed to surprise one another in the sweetest way! I guess the one thing that wasn’t surprising is that after 5 years, two kids and sometimes endless amounts of miles apart… there is no other person we would rather navigate this world with. We are in it together. All the way.
Brantley had designed a specific center piece. Traditional wood for the Fifth year of marriage. Five white roses (Love) for the years we had been married, flanked by two red roses (Passion) to represent the two of us. One pink rose for Bray and one blue rose for Barrett.
What I wanted for him
A quiet romantic spot for us to be together.
What he wanted for me
A quiet romantic spot for us to be together.
What we got for each other
Exactly what we both wanted for the other.
Time together.
All Photos: @rebel1.be1 A reminder… The photos are very personal and for the blog. A special thanks to Niki Kogut for her participation in “Operation G Anniversary”.
Content Contributors: Amber Cochran Gilbert, Lyn Sengupta
