Anniversary celebrations – take two! | Married 30-somethings...

As ‘Newlyweds’ covers the first year of married life, the first anniversary, for all the couples taking part, is the grand finale to the show. We decided our real anniversary should remain private, and logistically it wasn’t ideal for the crew, so we had to re-create our anniversary for the benefit of the programme a few weeks later.

They made all the arrangements. It was a ‘surprise’ for me so although Rob knew what was planned, I didn’t. I would find out on the day when the camera’s were rolling. Joy. It was all very hush-hush and secretive. Lots of conversations behind closed doors and confidential emails. It had a similar feeling to the ronan meet (other than Rob also knowing what was happening) so you can possibly forgive me for getting my hopes up.

Our “anniversary” came around and in the morning i was told we had to do a few “work related” bits first, which i was clearly supposed to greet with unimpressed annoyance that our anniversary was being taken over by work. I did my duty 😉

Then, oh, ha ha ha, the joke was on me. After a simple stop at the post office Rob let me in on the ‘big plan’ for the day… This is where i stepped into the unknown. I was excited and keen to know what the big reveal was. Duh duh daaaaaa…. We were off to Bournemouth beach!

Yay

I tried to look delighted at the prospect. I don’t think i’ll be winning any oscars. And to anyone rolling their eyes at my ungratefulness. Fuck off. Clearly I was happy about spending the day with Rob at the beach and as soon as the 3 words every girl wants to hear, ‘champagne & strawberries’, were mentioned I was totally on board. It was just the initial shock that was all. Some story about it being a special place for us, or Rob, or something. I don’t know. I’ve been once before when i was 15 for an uneventful ‘girls day out’ and Rob went when he was a kid. Not exactly littered with ‘memories’ but whatever. Game on.

‘We’ had hired a little hut thing that, as it turned out, wasn’t quite up to the standard the crew had expected so we opted to move the chairs to the beach, laid out a rug and opened the pre-prepared hamper positively bursting with goodies, including the all-important champers. The sun was shining, everyone was happy, it was nice.

They weren’t to know there was a 10k run going on that day (lol) so filming was constantly interrupted by herds of sweaty individuals grunting and wheezing as they pounded past. It was good in a way because it meant we had a lot of down time and could really enjoy the day as opposed to just filming.

As the sun started setting we took a long walk down the now deserted beach and chatted about our first year of marriage, which although didn’t exactly go to plan, we have enjoyed. There were things we wanted to happen, that didn’t, but there were also unexpected and unplanned events that did happen and the year was all the better for it.