Just Saying..........

Yesterday was BH and my 22nd wedding anniversary!!  No big hoopla.  We had a nice quiet day at home.  I fixed Italian chicken breasts w/spaghetti on the side, fresh Italian bread and a salad for supper.  Banana splits for dessert - BH's favorite!!

He cleaned up the front yard.  Lots of debris on the ground after 4 days of heavy rains and strong winds.  I straightened up the house and wrapped gifts for niece's shower.  That took me over an hour.  Trying to configure how to box up the items; should it be one or two boxes? Should I separate daughter's gift from ours?  No, boxed them all together.  The card will have all our names on it.  Then to figure out a nice bow/decoration for the top.  Yikes.  I had to go to the old house and rummage through the craft supplies to find netting, irridescent beads, doves on wedding rings (didn't make the cut), and tiny white silk roses (didn't make the cut).  Put it all together; it does look kind of cute.  I had to use double stick tape to keep everything in place.  Unfortunately, the only tape I had is 1" wide and kind of thick.  But it worked.  I hope it stays in place until gift-opening time!

Anywho, our anniversary and her upcoming wedding bring back tons of memories of "our day".  It was the hottest day of the summer so far.  The church was not air-conditioned.  But everything turned out beautiful.  Our sons rented us a horse-drawn coach the night before, and BH and I went for a lovely ride around town for over an hour!  What a great surprise that was!  Our kids stood up for us.  My oldest gave me away; BH's youngest was his best man. (Both our sons were friends in high school and they set us up on a blind date 2 years before!!)  Our daughter's were bridesmaids and my one-and-only sister was my maid of honor.   My 2 youngest sons, who were 11 and 10 yrs old, were groomsmen.  All the girls were dressed in beautiful tea length gowns, and the guys were in tuxes. My gown was "candlelight" ecru, tea length, lace; and my shoulder length veil was held with a lacy "Juliet" cap.  Purchased at JC Penney's for $110.00.  I love that dress and veil. 

I did all the flower arrangements, even for the altar at church.  Bouquets, hair pieces, boutinerres, and centerpieces for the head table at the reception.

My twin brothers - one played accoustic guitar sang 2 songs during the service - "The Wedding Song" by Paul Stokey(of Peter, Paul and Mary fame) and "In My Life" by John Lennon.  Then he did an instrumental of "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg during communion.  The other twin did the video camera of the whole ceremony.  We have it on tape.

The reception was great.  Everyone had a great time.  There was a DJ to play the music.  Our first dance was  "Just You and I" by Crystal Gayle and Eddie Rabbit.  All our family, friends and some co-workers were guests; I think it totaled about 80 people.

Our wedding cake was made by a friend of my sister's (she has her own cake decorating business).  It was 3-tier and gorgeous!!  Very delicious too!

Then when things really got rockin' and rollin' later that evening, my twin brother(the camera guy) and I jitterbugged to "Let's Go to the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors!!!  He's the only one who can jitterbug!!

When all was said and done, I think the whole thing cost us about $2,000.  Quite a difference now when couples think nothing of spending 10s of thousands on a wedding!  Wow. 

Well, the day after the wedding, we left for our honeymoon.  Took a road trip down south.  Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia.  Saw lots of sites, had a wonderful time.  And we camped the whole way!  Yes. Camped.  We're both avid campers, but by the 12th day, the billboards for "Red Roof Inn" were looking mighty appealing to me!  I would've given anything for a nice soft bed and a hot, relaxing shower!  But we carried on.  BH said "won't it be great to be able to say we camped for the whole 2 weeks of our honeymoon?!"    Ehhh, yeah.

So here we are 22 years later.  Lots of ups and downs; lots of hurts and reconcillations; lots of joys and lots of sorrows.  But we've built this life together, through good times and bad.  A huge accomplishment in itself.  And we take pride in it all.  And as the years pass and our time here wanes, we take comfort in each other, we depend on each other, don't want to be apart from each other and we truly, truly adore, respect and love each other.

And I often think how those 4 songs during our ceremony and reception have come to mean more to me every day and how they have defined our life together.

We wish the very same for our lovely niece and her husband-to-be.