On Friday my husband and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

10 years sounds like a very long time. But really, it felt like it flew by so quickly. Of course, in 10 years, it hasn’t always all been a smooth road for us. There have been a lot of blissful highs and shattering lows.

In ten years we have moved and renovated house three times (each time, we promised ourselves we’ll never do it again), had three children and a vasectomy (to make sure we don’t accidentally do it again), survived a life threatening illness (his) and a marriage threatening depression (mine).

There have been moments when we thought we would never make it.

But we have been lucky in so, so many ways. Our health, family, children, careers, life, finances… and each other. It’s been an amazing 10 years.

Anyway, to celebrate our anniversary… usually we find a posh restaurant and have a really nice, quiet, expensive and romantic meal together.

However, this year I wanted something a little more memorable and special.

I decided that I was going to surprise my husband!!

This was a big risk, because… he doesn’t like surprises.

In fact, it was a deal we made when we got married… no surprise parties. Ever. I exploited a loophole in our marriage contract by telling him it was a surprise. So he was expecting the unexpected – but of course, he still didn’t know exactly what it was. He seemed…okay(ish) with it.

But, when the moment came, I was terrified that it would all go wrong.

I told him we were going out for dinner, so we both got dressed up – suit and cocktail dress stuff. As we left the house, I insisted on driving. Every turn I took, he was trying to guess where we were going, based on our direction.

It was nerve-racking!

I drove him to a spot on Perth’s spectacular river foreshore, facing the gorgeous city skyline. It is where we usually to go for our evenings walks, and it was on a park bench here, during a conversation about ingrown toe nails and duck migration, that we somehow proposed to each other and decided to get married.

The spot was in a very popular area, and as the sun was setting beyond the river, there were lots of people jogging, cycling, walking their dogs. As we got out of the car, we looked very out of place in our fancy dinner attire (like a pair of peacocks at the beach)!!

My husband got very confused. He thought we were going to catch a river ferry to get to the restaurant? Or that the restaurant was on a ferry? Then he thought we were just going for a walk before dinner?

As we walked along the path by the river, people were gawking at us and I felt very conspicuous. We walked past a dog doing a poop on the grass, which seemed to be constipated, squeezing so hard his eyes were jiggling about.

I suddenly realised I had probably made a really, really bad decision. But there was no turning back now.

We walked on past Poop-Dog, my husband in silence, and then we came to something else very much out of place by the riverside.

A restaurant style, silver-service table setting for two, with table, chairs, a white table cloth, plates, glasses, silverware, candles, roses, place-mats, napkins, and my husband’s favorite food in a warmer under the table. I gestured to my husband to sit.

My husband was absolutely stunned. I could tell because he was doing a pretty bad job of trying to keep his huge smile down to just a cool smirk. He loved it.

Of course I had arranged everything weeks in advanced.

From the exact spot on the foreshore, to all the bits and pieces, to the food, to how we were going to keep to food hot, to his present, to the exact time of our arrival. I got my brother-in-law to deliver, set up, and to guard everything until we arrived. When he saw us coming, he had to run and hide behind a tree, like a crazy stalker dude. Thanks bro-in-law!!

I timed it so as we sat down to have dinner in the open air beside the river, we could watch the sun set over the city skyline.

I made sure we would see the lights in the city turn on, the twinkling stars appear on the dark pink sky, listen to the birds calming down for the night, while we enjoyed our meal and drinks in the candlelight. Hee hee, it was soooo romantic.

Ok. I’m boasting now, but I am so proud. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to so much effort to create a 1 hour experience for anyone before.

But hey, I’m crazy in love with this guy and I think I’d like to keep him. For life.

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ps.

We never saw the Poop-Dog again.

After the sun fully set, we had to leave because the mosquitoes were eating us alive. We took a stroll beside the river. Then we drove to the city, had a drink in a noisy bar, before deciding we should just go home. We were in bed by 9.30 and asleep by 11.30, and the time difference was not because of reading a favourite book.