Today’s post has only one purpose: to wish my hubby the best birthday ever!

Since Travis’ birthday is the day after Christmas, he doesn’t always get the birthday shout-out he deserves.  So here it goes:

Travis, I love you so much, and I’m so lucky to call you my husband.  You are my best buddy and my biggest cheerleader, and I love how darn silly you are!

And thank you for all of your support with the blog— there’s no way I could have kept it going this long without you!

xoxo forever and ever…

We see it in t.v. shows all the time.  Celebs don’t seem to bat an eye.  But in real life is it possible to make a relationship work with someone much older or younger than you?

(maybe so… these two are 22 years apart!)

Katie Couric just called off her relationship with a beau who is 17 years her junior!  And it got me thinking about how much age matters in a relationship.

There’s the old standby rule to figure out if an age difference is “appropriate”: take the older person’s age, divide it in half, then add seven.  For example, if the older person is 40, they shouldn’t date someone younger than 27.

Travis is not even 2 full years older than me, but I once dated eight years my senior.  It was very brief, and though age didn’t directly get in the way, I think it contributed to the reasons why we weren’t a good match.

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Would you (or have you ever) dated someone much older or younger than you?  Do you believe that relationships with big age gaps can still work?  Have you heard of the “appropriate age” rule?  Share your thoughts and stories in the comments!

Pleasure parties seem to have risen in popularity lately (I’ve been to 2 in the last few months!) and it got me wondering… have any of you ladies been to one?

I had a super-fun girls night on Friday where we enjoyed good food and drinks (alcohol is pretty much required, I think :), silly games, and lots and lots of sex toys!  Here are a few photos…

yummy food!

a cute display of all the fun products!

a booklet so we could follow along & mark our favorite items…

the heart massager I bought that warms up and makes massages that much more relaxing!

I find pleasure parties to be empowering and kind of liberating.  I mean, sex is a huge part of our lives, and we should make the most out of it!  I’m even thinking of hosting a pleasure party of my own before Valentine’s Day…

Have you been to a pleasure party before?  What did you think of the experience?  Would you ever host one of your own?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

In all the hoopla of Thanksgiving, I realized that I never did a Wedding Wednesday post last week!  So, I thought I’d make it up to you by sharing some photos from our wedding… this week, I’m going to take you through our ceremony.

We had both the ceremony and reception at my parents’ house, which was really special for me.  It really eased the stress of the day, and it made the whole gathering feel more intimate.

These first photos were taken just a few minutes before the ceremony… I was so anxious!

Travis and I didn’t see each other before the ceremony, but I got a different kind of first look… with my dad!

It was really important to us that we include our families in our ceremony, so we had both of our parents give us away.

My beautiful cousins read e.e. cummings’ poem “i carry your heart”…

And then we stumbled through our vows… we were both so emotional!  Everyone expected it of me, but I think it really caught Travis off guard.  (I thought it was the sweetest thing ever!)

During the vows, we passed our rings around and gave our guests a chance to bless them with good thoughts and lots of love for our future together.  It was a really special way to connect with our family and friends— many of them said it was the highlight of the ceremony!

Our nieces/flower girls were in charge of getting the rings back to us when it was time to say I do!  (I think they were excited to make a second appearance during the ceremony!)

Travis and I were so anxious to make it official, we forgot to wait for our officiant to say. “You may kiss the bride.”  Oops!  (P.S. I just love this photo of our dear friend/officiant, Tina.  She made our ceremony so special… we love her to pieces!)

I think it’s so cute that Travis high-fived my dad when it was all said and done…

As we walked out of the ceremony, we borrowed a Jewish wedding tradition and sequestered ourselves in the house for a few minutes of peace and quiet before the craziness of the reception.  It was such a special moment for me and Travis… we were really able to take each other in and reflect on the fact that we had really just gotten married!  Plus, he was able to help me pee in that big dress :)

There you have it, our ceremony!

Next week, I’ll take you through our reception, and come back tomorrow for another holiday gift guide!

Photography: Nicolette Clark, Wedding Dress: David’s Bridal, Groom’s Suit: Tommy Hilfiger, Hair Stylist: Jen Irby, Makeup Artist: Rachel Pinkerton, Flowers: DIY

Today I’m answering a question sent in from a reader, just like you! Laina asks…

My boyfriend and I have only been dating for about 10 months, but it seems pretty clear to me that we’re headed toward marriage. We met in India, I moved to Germany to be with him for about 6 months and now we’re together long distance, him in Germany, me in the states. He has another year and a half to finish school in Germany before he would be able to move here and although I plan to visit him again in Germany, I don’t really want to move there long term, at least not right now.

The tentative plan is that he’ll move here when he finishes school a year and a half from now (we’ll have been together for over 2 years by then). I’ve been told that the easiest, and in some cases only, way to get him a green card so he can move here is to get married.

Do you think that getting married for logistical reasons such as a getting a green card is necessarily a bad idea? I think it would happen eventually anyways, but it kind of takes the romance out of it and definitely means that I would have to bring it up with him within a certain time frame rather than just wait for the unexpected proposal. (Side note: does that even happen anymore? Or are we such planners (and feminists) that we all talk with our partners about marriage ahead of time and really decide together as a team rather than the guy always being the one to dictate the time frame?)

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Thanks so much for writing in, Laina.  Here’s what I think…

It is entirely possible to know in less than ten months that you’re with the right person.  (I called one of my best friends six weeks after Travis and I started dating to tell her I was going to marry him.)  So congratulations on finding someone that you can see yourself marrying!  That is worth getting excited about!

I wonder if you two have already discussed the option of getting married, since you say that he’s already planning to move to the States when he’s done with school.  If you haven’t discussed it yet, I say go for it!  Don’t put any sort of pressure on the guy, but ask him what he thinks of the idea and how he was planning on getting a green card when the time came.  If you’re truly thinking that this is the right man for you, I always vote for open communication.

Travis and I talked a lot about marriage before we got engaged.  We picked out a ring together, so his proposal wasn’t a huge surprise.  This reader flew to Luxembourg knowing that a proposal was on it’s way!  (Which I think would be super exciting!!) These days, women propose to their boyfriends and City Hall weddings have become glamourous.  There are just a million ways to do it.

The truth is, no matter how a marriage (or a proposal) happens, it will be romantic because you’re vowing to spend the rest of your life with the person you love.  And really, as long as the situation is right for your relationship, it doesn’t get much better than that.

What do you think about Laina’s situation, sweet readers?  Engaged/married girls: did you talk to your guy about getting engaged before it happened, or was it a surprise?  Is anyone else in a long distance relationship?  Help out this reader in the comments!