EMILY ANDRE
OUR COLUMNIST ON CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF MARRIAGE AND HER GIFT TO PRINCESS
This week Pete and I are celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been five years already. It would be really nice to be able to go out for dinner to celebrate, but at the time of writing this, restaurants haven’t quite opened the way they used to be. We’re just waiting to see how things go as Pete is a bit more cautious about going out than I am. He wanted us to go back to Santorini [below] to mark five years, as that’s where we went on our honeymoon, but sadly that obviously hasn’t been able to happen. What’s happening to the travel industry because of coronavirus is really sad and I feel for everyone who is going to be without a job.
The traditional gift for five years of marriage is wood, so maybe
I will get Pete some flatpack furniture he can construct. He’s useless at DIY, but he does his best! We had to put together a hutch for Princess’ birthday present and he disappeared halfway through – of course he wanted to take all the credit, though! I bought Princess two dwarf rabbits for her 13th birthday. They’re so cute and they live in the playroom. I thought rabbits may be better than a dog in terms of my allergies, but I’m still suffering. I’m most allergic to the hay they live in, so cleaning them out has been a nightmare. Once they’ve had their vaccinations, they’ll be able to spend some time outside, but we’ll have to be careful as there’s a fox in our area that loves to eat everything – including our bins and shoes! We also arranged some lovely teepees for her birthday, and Millie and Theo had a mini one each, too. They were so comfortable that I actually fell asleep in one, which made the kids laugh!
I was reading about the new guidelines for weddings in England, including the need for the couple to wash their hands before and after exchanging rings. You have to be realistic with rules – to me that sounds a bit unachievable. I’m not sure many people will want to get married under these new guidelines, so people are either going to break the rules or not get married at all. They need to find a way to make it more feasible.