Celebrating Our 7th Anniversary

Mid-October was mine and my partner’s seventh anniversary! We always celebrate in some fashion and this year we went for a romantic night away to the New Forest. So here’s a look at our overnight break.

The Day Before Our Anniversary

The day before our anniversary we drove to the beautiful New Forest, which is one of our absolute favourite places.

It has a lot of meaning to me, as my first ever holiday when I was just a matter of months old was there. I was with my parents and paternal grandparents, who wanted to move to the forest and it was a special place to them.

In my twenties, I went on several breaks to the New Forest with my mum, brother, maternal grandfather and my partner, so it became a place full of happy memories for both sides of my family.

We booked a night in the stunning Rhinefield House Hotel, which was previously a manor house.

The grounds leading to it is stunning and we felt like the lord and lady of the manor staying there.

Our room.

After unpacking our things, we hit up the spa. It was small, intimate and oh so relaxing.

We flitted between the sauna, steam room, jacuzzi and swimming pool and I’m not sure we’ve ever been so relaxed. We both laid down on the reclining chairs and napped!

After the perfect start to the day, we freshened up and had dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Amniversary plate they bought out for us.

After a wonderful day, we headed to bed fresh for our anniversary the next day.

Our Anniversary

To start our seventh anniversary off, we had breakfast in the hotel. Mine included some delicious vegetarian sausages!

We got ready in our room, exchanged presents (more on that later) and then checked out.

As the previous day was rainy we hadn’t seen the hotel grounds properly but they was so stunning and peaceful.

Once we finally tore ourselves away from Rhinefield, we drove through the New Forest and went for a walk.

Beautiful autumnal scenes in the forest.

Then it was time to do something big. Hire a bike!

We had both wanted to hire bikes for a long time, but never got ’round to it. I hadn’t rode one since I was a kid so I was a bit nervous (especially as my mum cut her hand open riding one), but as they say, it’s just like riding a bike!

I started slowly braking often to get used to it, but after a while we was flying. Down country lanes, through the forest, up and down hills. It was incredibly liberating and fun cycling through the stunning scenery and passing animals and streams along the way.

After two hours we was exhausted and turned our bikes in.

Then it was time for dinner. We ate at The Railway Pub & Kitchen, which is one of our go-to food places.

It’s a cosy local pub, with home cooked food and plenty of vegan options.

As it was Taco Tuesday we tried one each to start.

Then it was on to mains. I had the Blackbean & Lentil burger, whilst my partner had the vegan Philly Cheese Steak and chips.

To finish we shared some churros with a chocolate dipping sauce.

All of which was delicious as always.

After two wonderful days in the New Forest, we headed back home. But here’s a look at my anniversary gifts.

We did agree that as we’re trying to become more minimalist and neither of us needed anything, we’d not go crazy on gifts. We booked the night away, dinners, etc as a gift to one another.

Then my partner got me the following bits from Lush, as it’s tradition he gets me the Halloween range for our anniversary.

Monsters’ Ball Bath Bomb

Lord Of Misrule Bath Bomb

Mercury Retrograde Bath Bomb

Melusine Bath Bomb

He got me a pair of heels as I owned none, but wanted a pair for our anniversary meal and my cousin’s upcoming 30th birthday celebrations.

The heels.

And then he surprised me with David Gray tickets! We kept singing David Gray songs all summer and my partner said I bet he hasn’t toured in years. Then just before our anniversary he released tour tickets to celebrate twenty years since his White Ladder album was released! Very coincidental timing, but we’re going to see him next year.

So that’s all of our 7th anniversary celebrations. Let me know if you enjoyed it.