Our One Year Wedding Anniversary

One year ago, we got married in Seattle, Washington, on April 3, 2004. As your dad already mentioned, we met while working on an Executive presentation at Microsoft during the fall of 2001. (I was dating someone else at the time – plus I had a policy of not dating guys from work.) Our project ended the week of Thanksgiving, and your dad organized drinks for the team to celebrate on the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 30th. He also planned dinner with a few people, but no one else showed up but me! In a nutshell, that night ended up being our first date. . . .

We went to dinner at a local sushi joint called Shiro’s. . . and we totally hit it off. We shared a bunch of dishes and your dad was so happy that I was a girl who loved to eat and to share food (instead of just ordering a salad). We were yapping away over dinner (your dad said that I was yapping the entire time and he could barely get a word in). By the time we finished eating dinner, it was 11:00pm and the restaurant was shutting down – we were over an hour late to meet other friends at a bar nearby called Tini Bigs. While having drinks at Tini Bigs, your dad was giving us brain teasers (which I called ‘mind games’ by accident – fortunately, I figured out most of them so he thought I was smart!) Afterwards, we met some other friends at another local bar called Cyclops. When Cyclops closed around 2:00am, your dad was hungry again and wanted to go eat Eggs Benedict at a place called 13 Coins – no one else was up for it so again it ended up being just the two of us. . . .

We ended up hanging out all night long. . . .in fact, most of that weekend. . . . On Saturday night, we met your dad’s friend, Michael Robinson, who had just moved to Seattle from Hong Kong and was starting a new job in my group. We had a drink with Michael at Afrikando, which was the restaurant located at the bottom of my apartment building, and then the two of us went for our first real date at Monsoon. The next morning, I took your dad to the airport since he had to fly to San Francisco for an Oracle conference. We talked or emailed everyday until he came back to Seattle on Friday. . . .

To make a long story short, we got serious fairly quickly – during those first three months, we were inseparable. Your dad also moved into his new condo in mid-December which was across the street from my apartment (was he stalking me?). Unfortunately, he also threw out his back so I ended up having to carry all of his heavy bags from temp housing into his new place – he’s lucky I am strong! Since he was unable to find a cheap ticket to Minneapolis for the holidays, he ended up staying in Seattle and unpacked all of his boxes. I flew back from LA on Christmas Day and he had spent all day making an incredible Christmas dinner for just the two of us: a whole roasted turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, and green beans. For dessert, he planned to make bread pudding with bananas and chocolate, but we were so full that we ended up eating it for breakfast the next day.

We also went on a few trips right away: a week of skiing at Whistler over New Years with my friend Karen Short, a weekend in Las Vegas in January after the Consumer Electronics Show, and a weekend in New York in February after a recruiting trip to Columbia Business School. After six months, I ended up moving into your dad’s condo. . . .

We had lots of fun living in Seattle – we met some great friends while working at Microsoft. During the summer, we went hiking all over the Puget Sound – our favorite hike was called Snow Lake. During the winter, we went skiing at Whistler, Mount Baker, and Crystal Mountain. Every March, a group of us went skiing for a 3-day weekend in Big Sky, Montana with our friend Ty. When we stayed in Seattle, we also loved to walk to Pike Place Market and to go out to nice restaurants – some of our favorite places were Dahlia Lounge, Monsoon, and Palace Kitchen.

After living together for about a year, your dad asked me to marry him. . . we went out to dinner at Palace Kitchen over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate my birthday and when we got home, he got down on a knee and proposed. Earlier that day, we went shopping at a mall called Pacific Place and went into Tiffany’s to check out rings – I was so nervous talking to the salesman. I had no idea that your dad was going to propose that night! I felt really bad because the day before we got into a huge fight while driving out to the Gorge to see Coldplay in concert. (Thank goodness he did not change his mind after that fight!)

Your dad wanted to elope since that is what everyone in the Evans family does (instead of wasting lots of money on a big wedding). However, if we eloped, my parents had to be there and I wanted to throw a party afterwards – so it would not really be considered ‘eloping.’ We made a deal instead – if I got to plan a wedding, then we would start a family right away. We got married at a restaurant called Vivanda in Pike Place Market on April 3, 2004. Though it is usually raining in Seattle in April, we got lucky with 70 degree weather and sunshine all weekend long! The wedding ceremony took place in the private dining room with only 24 guests including our families – it was a short, intimate ceremony followed by pictures before the rest of the guests showed up for cocktails. Here is a photo of us in Post Alley right before the wedding ceremony.

I think your dad and his family were surprised at how much fun they had at our wedding. I think your grandparents were also shocked at your dad’s wedding toast – maybe he could have had a second career as a stand-up comedian. Toshi Mogi was the best man and Ruth Granlund was the matron of honor. Here is a photo of my side of the family: your grandparents (Henry and Shin), your uncle (Chester), your aunt (Carrie a.k.a. Mikyung) and your cousins (Sara and Scott).

Here is a photo of your dad’s side of the family: your grandparents (June and Gordon), your aunt (Caroline), your uncle (Larry), and your cousins (Jonathan and James).After cocktails, we had a sit-down dinner for about 100 guests – unfortunately, while everyone was being served their entrees, your dad and I went around to each table to say hello and we missed out on dinner. We heard the food was the best wedding food ever served.

After dinner, we had a DJ playing music in the private dining room until 1:30AM – my friends from New York danced all night long (they were so hot and drenched in sweat that they looked like they had done aerobics for hours). We stayed overnight in a beautiful suite with views of Puget Sound at the Inn at the Market which was across the street from Vivanda. The next morning, we had Sunday brunch with our families and a few close friends at Café Maximillien before everyone headed to the airport. Overall, we had a great wedding weekend with our families and friends.

On Monday, April 5, we flew to Sydney, Australia, in first class on United Airlines for our honeymoon. We spent the first five days exploring Sydney – we did the BridgeClimb on the Sydney Harbor Bridge, walked through the Rocks, and wandered around the city. We also took day-trips to Manly Beach and Bondi Beach. After Sydney, we flew to Cairns to relax on the beach near Port Douglas and took a 5-day live-aboard diving trip along the Great Barrier Reef. After our diving trip, we spent three days relaxing in Palm Cove – that is where you were conceived. We spent the last two days of our honeymoon in Sydney and stayed at the W Hotel in Wooloomolloo. On our last day, we took the ferry to the Taronga Zoo and saw koalas, rhinos, giraffes, elephants and gorillas. The giraffes had a million-dollar view of the Sydney Harbor.

Here is a photo of us on a ferry leaving Sydney Harbor with the Sydney Opera House in the background.

Here is a photo of us at Bondi Beach – it is a beautiful beach with a scenic walkway.

Here is a photo of us on our live-aboard scuba diving trip in the Great Barrier Reef. We went on 15 dives, including one night dive – we saw some beautiful fish, a shark, potato cod (which were over five feet long) and giant clams (which were the size of a large beach ball).

After our diving trip, we spent a few days relaxing in Palm Cove – one day we woke very early in the morning to go hot air ballooning. This is also where you were conceived. Your dad was right – I returned from our honeymoon ‘knocked up!’

So today for our one-year wedding anniversary, we celebrated by going out to dinner at Next Door Nobu which is a popular sushi joint in Tribeca. We enjoyed a nice bottle of sake and shared salmon skin salad, halibut cheeks, hamachi with jalapeno, uni (sea urchin which is your dad's favorite) and spicy tuna hand rolls. Lucky for us, you slept during the entire dinner in your little black duffel bag but started to wake up while we were having our desserts of mochi ice cream. It's hard to believe that our first year of marriage is over. . . . There were so many changes that happened since April 2004 including your dad's new job, moving to New York and having you!