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Prince William and Catherine Middleton celebrate their one year wedding anniversary today.  It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been 12 months since I had to navigate the drive from my place to my sister’s house without missing any of the televised ceremony.  I am sure it’s even harder for Catherine to believe that only a year ago the whole world called her Kate and did not know her sister, Pippa.

Let’s take a look back at their year

Just three days ago, Kate was running around her old school playing hockey.

The royal couple plan to celebrate their anniversary at home behind closed doors. A far cry from their wedding which was watched by millions of people around the globe. But not that far from the way that I celebrated my own first wedding anniversary, although I am quite sure that they aren’t going to a local cafe for dinner.

I’d like to imagine they’ll spend the day reflecting on their love for each other and basking in each others glory after swapping small gifts. Traditionally the first wedding anniversary is celebrated with paper gifts but I think if you are royalty you don’t have to stick to those rules. Perhaps William has popped down to Hamleys toy store to buy a commemorative set of the couple as dolls made by Mattel Inc, the US makers of Barbie dolls? Or perhaps not.

Whatever they do I really hope that they are as happy as I imagine them to be.

Remember the wedding…..

The Kiss

How do you celebrate anniversaries or milestones in your life? Are you a quiet over a cup of tea celebrator or a raucous party maker

Comments

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40 Comments so far

  1. Pingback: My Love for the Royals | Harriet Kempton

  2. Singleinoz

    I read in a book once (girly chick fiction) a couple who celebrated every year by having there friends over for dinner. I would love to do that.

    They also had a Sunday Roast lunch and anyone could drop in. Both ideas I hope to replicate some day.

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  3. vic@mummyateme

    Our five year anniversary is coming up and we will be celebrating by giving each other time together. Between us we have four kids so nothing is more precious or hard to come by then time together, just the two of us.

    I’m dreaming of a lovely dinner or a walk along the beach together but in reality we will probably kiss each other, say I love you and fall instantly and happily alseep together!!!!
    http://mummyateme.blogspot.com.au/

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  4. Mimi

    it will be our first anniversary in Sept and ive booked a weekend retreat getaway down south for us! cannot wait for some pampering and time together in a different place :) . We plan to renew our vowls in 7 years time Tofino in Canada which is a special place for us.

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    • Mimi

      PS my husband cant forget our date as its his birthday as well! Planned that right! ^_^ haha

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  5. MDW

    Wow, reading all these creative ways people celebrate their anniversaries makes me feel boring! It’s 12 years for us this year and we usually just wish each other a happy anniversary. However, we’re still happily married, so I figure that should count for something! We’re not big on dates, we tend to take our moments when we can rather than stick to a calender. Works for us.

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  6. Bradley

    We always have a small celebration. It may be just ourselves attending, but we always mark the occasion with a slap up meal and the best bottle of bubbly on the menu.

    The day always begins with us giving the other a matching piece of jewellery significant to the particular anniversary.

    Next year we plan to renew our vows for the third time as our anniversary falls on the Saturday. We are both suckers for a good wedding or vow renewal !

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  7. Anon

    !st anniversary in 6 weeks time and we’re going back to Hawaii where we spent our honeymoon. I’m not kidding myself that they’ll all be that big but you may as well start as you mean to proceed

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  8. Anonymous

    It’s been a year since I watched the entire ceremony? Wow how time flies!
    I’ve been following all Kate related news in the tabloids, and .. the verdict? Total bore. I didn’t realise that she’s only made a few public speeches. She’s not really inspiring, and I feel like she’s achieved little during the last year.

    I hate to pull the “Diana did it better” card, as I was too young to remember the just-married Diana, but people don’t seem to remember Kate is actually 30. Not a young, innocent, sheltered 20year old that Diana was.

    Kate is nice to look at, has a good figure to pull off modest clothes, but she’s definitely not an icon. Hate to say it, but she should have kids soon to keep the ol’ royal linage going. Yawn.

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    • Kaz

      Oooh, that’s pretty harsh. Quite a thing to have to be an ‘icon’. Can she not just be herself? I think she’s great; classy, composed, she seems in love with William…good luck to her I say.

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  9. Harriet

    SO EXCITED to see someone else is celebrating! My friends and I are having a high tea party… probably more excited about this than we will be about our own weddings!

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    • Anonymous

      You’re celebrating Kate and William’s wedding anniversary or did I not read that right?

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  10. Lorin

    It’s my wedding anniversary too! It’s the last night of our family holiday in New Zealand so once we put the children to bed we ordered room service & pretended were out to dinner… now I’m packing our bags ready to come home tomorrow :-(

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  11. Dee of Adelaide

    I celebrate EVERYTHING, love a good reason to celebrate. But our wedding anni is the week before christmas. Done on purpose at the time because 80% were not living in Adelaide where we got married but like us were coming home for christmas or on their way to other family for christmas.

    Consequently though its a horrible time of year for an anniversary. No money, can’t book a table, everything crazy. So we rarely do anything. We celebrate our first meeting/date in June instead.

    I’d prefer to create a Dee and Big Fella love day in September, because all 40 family birthdays are from Dec 1st to June 5th, plus christmas and easter and there is nothing from june to december!

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  12. Anonymous

    My mum has made the chocolate crunch cake Kate and William had at their wedding for tonight!

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  13. Karlee

    I’ve been married 18 months and I had an amazing first anniversary. We spent a weekend in the Hunter Valley where we went on a hot air balloon flight, had a champagne breakfast then were driven around in a Cadillac for a private wine tour. We definitely splashed out, but it was a first anniversary so we wanted it to be memorable :)

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  14. Eternal Caterpillar

    If she has been married for a year now, shouldn’t the captions read “Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge”, or simply Catherine, rather than Kate Middleton?
    Or does a woman have to be married for longer – or pop out a baby – before people stop calling her by her maiden name?

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    • Mug

      Maybe she’s keeping her maiden name.

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      • Eternal Caterpillar

        As a titled royal, she has either no surname, or Windsor (maybe Mountbatten-Windsor?).

        When she married Prince William, Catherine was no longer a Middleton. I think it would be courteous for this to be recognised, and hope for her sake it soon will be.

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        • Jules

          I’m sure she appreciates your concern but I doubt that being referred to as ‘Kate Middleton’ by a blog in Australia really bothers her too much.

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          • Eternal Caterpillar

            It sounds like you’re saying it’s okay to do the wrong thing by someone if they don’t know about it, which is pretty awful in my opinion.

            My point is this: Mamamia is a website that, if not for women specifically, certainly aims to have women’s best interests at heart, I believe. Therefore I fail to see why they refuse to acknowledge a woman’s name change upon her marriage, a year after the event. Just because some others haven’t either, doesn’t make it right.

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  15. Mrs S

    I only got married 5 weeks ago but have already thought about what to do for our first wedding anniversary (which will also be our 10-years-since-our-first-date anniversary). I’d like to go away for the weekend as it is special one. I’d be happy to go out for dinner for the others and just go away for a night or 2 for the special ones.

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  16. Simone

    I’ve mentioned this several times here before, so sorry if I’m boring you! We celebrate our anniversary by going through the alphabet. So year one was all about the letter A. Gifts starting with A (apple trees & a vintage abacus), go to a restaurant starting with A, or eat in and make food starting with A, and we try to order wine or a cocktail starting with the letter too. We love it! I remember when we got to C my husband thought it would be fun to go to the ‘Caltex’ in ‘Cranbourne’ for dinner. I managed to turn that into a night at Circa!
    We’ve just celebrated our ‘N’ anniversary (14 years) and gifts included an old Number Nine from a petrol price thingy, a Nutcracker, Nougat, a Nikon camera lens, spiced Nuts. Dinner at Noir in Richmond. It’s great fun. We never forget. When we get through the alphabet we’re going to start again but celebrate it in countries starting with A, B, C etc.

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    • Makale

      Since you first posted this I kept in mind! Celebrated my first anniversary in February and did “a” – heaps of fun! Hubby even got his workmates involved in ideas and booked a hotel starting with A. He normally doesn’t get into this but I think he liked that it was a bit different!! He wants a trip to Boston for B…:o/

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  17. Anonymous

    Is that Kate in photo 46 or Pippa?

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  18. daisy

    Both of us usually forget! Been married over 30 years and could count on one hand the number of times we have remembered. Did go away for our 25th though, for the weekend. And I did get an eternity ring for my 10th, but of course it was my idea! It is irrelevant to us but happy to have an excuse to celebrate if we notice.

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  19. Janey

    Through a serendipitous twist of fate, my husband and I were in London for 4 days as part of a long planned holiday last year, and 29 April was our last day there. What a memorable occasion to accidentally be a part of! I was the same age Diana would have been had she lived to see her beloved son married to someone he truly loves. It certainly was a highlight of our trip, as was seeing the thousands of enthusiastic people camped along the roads near Westminster Abbey. There were many Aussies there and we ended up being interviewed by a Channel 7 journalist just because he heard our familiar accent. :)

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    • Sparky

      At the other end of the spectrum, I was in London for Diana’s funeral. I left Oz the day she died as part of a long-planned backpacking adventure and it was my first (of many) visits to London. Completely surreal being there at that time.

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  20. porky

    My husband forgot our wedding anniversary yesterday. Does anyone else’s husband do that?

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    • Anon

      He used to …

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    • guest

      I have never given mine the chance to forget ours, I always talk about we will do in the lead up…plan to go out for dinner etc. I don’t think he would forget it anyway, but this way I’ll never need to know :)

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      • anon

        yup i do this as well so much easier than hoping he will remember (and then being disappointed when he doesn’t) lol

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    • Katy Strong

      My 5th wedding anniversary next Saturday and husband arranged to go out with a mate for a few pints. When he mentioned it I acquiesced albeit with a momentary pause (we’re not big on anniversaries) he realised and immediately cancelled and suggested we go to dinner together instead. Nope, yours isn’t the only one that forgets. It didn’t bother me cos it’s not habitual forgetting but I also don’t need a song and dance.

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    • Craig

      It is pretty bad to miss the date. As long as he knows the month he can look it up a few weeks out. I have been caught out being quizzed on date when it was still months away. Its like rabbit in headlights.

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