The Coates' 1st Anniversary- Paper it is!

It's official...we've been married for 1 year already :-)

I feel like we may have crooked the system a bit as Steve and I were living in different countries for a third of the time that we have been married...but our time apart has brought many challenges that most couples don't have to deal with in their first year of marriage. On the plus side however, we also skipped out on a few of the normal first year of marriage issues, like the toilet seat drama and the dilemma of whether dirty clothes go in the washing basket or near the washing basket.



Seeing as traditionally the 1st year anniversary is a paper anniversary, I designed and printed a gorgeous paper wedding album for Steve as his gift. He went to another level and designed the picture below. A company in the UK laser cut his design out of paper and positioned it between two sheets of glass in a box frame. It is absolutely beautiful and I must admit I am well impressed with his creativity.

Steve's incredible laser cut design master piece



Our paper anniversary gifts

We then celebrated our anniversary by spending the day in a small town called Einsiedeln, which is about an hour train ride away from our apartment. There was an incredible Christmas market on there with all sorts of home made alcohol, cheese, cookies, sausages as well as ornaments, scarfs, beanies and loads of gifts.

The Christmas Market in front of the Einsiedeln Monastery

One of the cute little stores selling candles and ornaments

It was our first experience at a European Christmas Market and we were sooooooooo impressed. There were people singing and playing musical instruments and the streets were covered in lights and decorations and everyone seemed to be in such a merry Christmassy mood.

We weren't too adventurous with the food as there was a lot of unidentified food items that looked a bit risky for a pair of unaccompanied South Africans. We did however taste the Glühwein and öpfelchüechli, which is thick slices of apple dipped in batter and fried and then drenched in a vanilla sauce. Obviously I ended up pouring the majority of the warm, sticky vanilla sauce down the sleeve of my coat during all the excitement...but fortunately my wet wipe yielding husband sorted that out. 

It was a really misty and cold day, which was great as it gave me the opportunity to try out all my new winter gear.

Life changing öpfelchüechli

Coates and his Glühwein

After we completed our shopping we visited the Einsiedeln Benedictine Monastery (the giant structure in the background of these photos). It is a huge completely over the top church covered in gold, statues, paintings on the ceiling and carved wooden designs. It was incredibly beautiful and so typically European.

We then ate lunch in a typically Swiss little cabin which was really warm, completely over-crowded with people and smelt like feet...you've got to love Swiss cheese :-) We drank cappuccino, chatted about the year ahead and ate Cheese fondue until we felt sick.  

My Pre-cheese fondue excited face

We finished the day with a stroll around the town and then returned home where we vegetated in a cheese fondue coma for the rest of the evening.