Anniversary weekend in prescott, az

One year ago David and I got married in my favorite mountain town: Prescott, Arizona.

It really is crazy how fast the first year has gone by, and at the same time how long ago our wedding day feels to me. I don’t exactly want to get schmaltzy about married life or write a dramatic essay about loooove or bestow the internet with my expertise on marriage as I am NO expert. I’m very much a marriage novice. I actually find public grandiose statements about one’s marriage on Instagram and blogs a bit too saccharine and annoying so I will refrain.

But! I will say that it is lovely to revisit one’s wedding day, to look through all of the wedding photographs (I still need to get a wedding album together, yikes), and to pull out the ole wedding dress for a quick hello. I unearthed some of our wedding day momentos, which I like to call our “wedding pretties”, such as my crocheted gloves, the British six pence I wore in my shoes for good luck, my monogramed pearl bracelet which was my “something new”, and my pale blue hankie I carried in my purse with the embroidered words “I do” which was my “something blue.”

Purr.

I adored the reverential aspect of looking back to our wedding day, and all of the pretty decorative details surrounding our day that made our wedding our wedding–daisies, lemons, cherry pie, the porch of an old yellow house. They are such poetic near sacred symbols to me now . They now represent my feelings of deep gratitude for David, and our commitment to being family for each other

Sigh.

Okay, now that I got the warm fuzzies out of the way, time to talk about our trip!

Naturally we needed to hit-the-road-jack and spend our first wedding anniversary in the town where we got married, like, DUH.

Anytime in Prescott is lovely in my book, but the summers there are are just so charmingly Americana. Since we got married on the first day of July, our anniversary weekend was prime time for that summertime Americana charm as it was heading into the 4th of July weekend.

So, without further adieu, our trip!

Breakfast at Berry’s

When we first pulled into town we stopped by Berry’s Pie Pantry–a polly pocket sized diner known for their pies.

OMG, their cherry pie is my ABSOLUTE favorite. It’s definitely one of my favorite diners in Prescott, but now the place now has more sentimental meaning–our little yellow wedding house is right next door!

We even served their cherry pie at our wedding dinner, having a cherry pie cutting vs. a wedding cake cutting (don’t you worry, we did have wedding cake at our reception two months later.) And then our first morning married we walked to the diner for a cozy breakfast.

Both times I ordered their flannel cakes that are literally.so.damn.good. They’re like a thin, nutty pancake covered with thrashings of strawberry sauce and whipped cream. I’m sensing a wedding anniversary tradition???

And, why not! Just a quick trip down memory lane, our cherry pie from the diner at our wedding!

Back to breakfast at Berry’s.

Saying Hello to our Wedding House

After breakfast we strolled by our lil’ wedding house to say hello.

And, well, why not! Another quick trip down memory lane. I’m thinking we may have a few of these memory lane detour in today’s post, folks.

Enjoying Downtown Prescott

If you know me, I’m a woman who loves PLACES. I can definitely fixate on towns/cities/areas that strike me as charming/wonderful. It literally can give me such euphoria loving where I am, and likewise crushing angst/restlessness being stuck in a place I don’t find pretty or very inspiring. First world problem, I know. But my soul does thrive off charm/novelty. And once I love a city, town or place, I kiiiiinda romanticize and love every inch/fact of that PLACE.

One of those places? Definitely Prescott. (I’ve kiiiinda convinced David to try on moving here in the near future. Fingers crossed!)

I just love all of the historical, rusty nooks and crannies. Sigh.

We walked around all of its charming little shops off Courthouse Square including a hipster (is that a word we use anymore?) plant shop, a shop dedicated to just crazy socks, homemade soaps, and an old fashioned candy shop where we bought lots and lots of salt water taffy with fun summer flavors such as root beer float, cherry cola and chicken and waffles.

But! Hands down, my favorite shop in Prescott: Liberty Lane! It’s actually housed in the first bank of Arizona which is a detail I loooove. It still has the old bank vaults in the back.

But this shop is like a holiday decor boutique, it sells all of these (expensive, ouch) wonderful, fine holiday decor pieces along with darling antiques. Ughhh. Can I just have five thousand dollars to spend on every holiday every year and buy everything here?

Honestly, this photo does not–I repeat DOES NOT– give this shop justice on how whimsical and beautifully arranged everything is. And yes, I bought a somethin’ somethin’ for 4th of July which I will be excited to use next year!

Relaxing at Courthouse Square

After walking around for a couple of hours, we took a break by lounging in the grass and in the shade of Courthouse Square.

Gosh, I love the Midwestern feel of Courthouse Square in Prescott.

Quite frankly, maybe that is why I love Prescott so much. I served my LDS mission in Illinois, spending a lot of time in Iowa as well and I totally fell in love with the Midwest. Every town had a courthouse with beautiful old buildings around it. I find it so utterly story book charming.

Prescott’s Courthouse Square has that plus a Victorian gazebo. The charm literally kills me.

I especially looooove how much of a social/family nucleus the Courthouse Square serves for the community–families and couples will have picnics, throwing frisbees or playing fetch with their dogs while people traipse in and out of the surrounding shops and restaurants, often emerging with ice cream cones from at least three ice cream shops off the square. Like, guys, this is the kind of crap on Hallmark Christmas movies!

Plus, couples that get married in Prescott will almost always take wedding photos at the courthouse. Throwing in the occasional bride and groom amidst all of this charm?

NORMAN ROCKWELL PAINTING ALL THE WAY.

Oh dear, memory lane here we COME!

We wandered over to Marino’s Mob Burgers right off the square for some din din. I love this burger place, it’s mafia themed and the servers dress up like flappers and the entire menu has 1920’s gangster names like “tommy gun milkshake” or “sleepin’ with the fishes and chips.”

I just love crap like that.

Just a broad and her burger.

After burgers, we headed back to the Courthouse Square for a free summer concert at sundown.

This Arizona girl mostly raised on dirt and gravel is just marveling at the velvet GRASS.

We left the concert a little early to walk through one of the nearby historic neighborhoods. It was the golden hour so, you know: sigh, sigh, sigh.

Nope! Not charming at all! Not one bit.

Look at the tree in this yard…yep, folks! Memory lane here we come AGAIN.

This house, guys. This house, its bunting. Dead, I’m dead.

Recognize the house??? Yep, at it again LOL.

Moving on…further down the sidewalk.

Ice cream!

I got the honey lavender ice cream. Life changing.

Ice cream with President Roosevelt!

So last year, the night before our wedding, David stayed at the historic St. Michael Hotel while my sister and I I stayed the night in the yellow house. David took an evening stroll, got an ice cream cone and walked back to his hotel room, but snapped a selfie with Teddy Roosevelt’s portrait in the foyer before heading up to his room (Okay, brief history lesson: Teddy Roosevelt stayed in the hotel in late 1800s as most of the Rough Riders were recruited from Prescott. Sorry, my history geek is showing.)

We decided to replicate the photo but now with the both of us. Am I sensing a corny wedding anniversary tradition??? LOL.

Pre-wedding David on the left, Married David and somewhat-crazier-because-of-me on the right LOL.

Quite the patriotic corner, eh?

Yes, I know I’m constantly gushing about Prescott but another major reason I freaking love this place is that it’s so FESTIVE.

The courthouse at night is lit up in red and blue. COME ON!

Oh look! The gazebo!

Oh look! Another trip down memory lane!

Sorry, not sorry.

Okay, I’m kind of sorry.

But the lights! Even the street lights were red, white and blue.

Nope. Not charming at all!

Pastries for Days From Pangea Bakery

OMG, guys. This newer bakery/specialty foods spot in Prescott was so. utterly. damn. delicious.

I want to send them roses because this place alone has really started to entertain David’s mind that maybe, just maybe, moving to Prescott would be a decent idea LOL.

But the PASTRIES. The CUPCAKES. Okay, we went here a total of three times in two days.

David teaching me about San Marzano tomatoes LOL. Watching David in this store was like…me being unleashed in Target for Halloween decor.

Okay. These cupcakes. These heavenly, divine, holy CUPCAKES. Plus–so festive! Ugh! Dead, I’m dead.

The third and last time we went to Pangea Bakery was on our last morning in Prescott. We grabbed pastries for breakfast and then took them to Willow Lake where we found a bench to munch on glorious carbs. Not a bad start to the day.