From Here....to Eternity

Wedding-kiss

Awwww, don't we make a cute couple? Twenty three years ago...but it seems like only yesterday.

Initially, we'd planned a long engagement. Twelve months, or so. We didn't even set a date. But like any eager young bride, I enthusiastically shopped for the gown, perused all the bridal magazines, tried to arrange everything according to some schedule laid out by the so-called experts - in short, I was well on my way to driving my mother nuts. "I don't want to hear about this for the next twelve months," she said. "Daydream, plan, shop all you like - but don't drag me into it this early. Give me six weeks. I can pull off any wedding you want in six weeks."

We called her bluff. Decided not to wait a year, after all. Gave her twelve days.

Okay, so that was partly her fault. I wanted a special date. J.J.'s birthday was just a few days earlier. Mine was nine months away. (Don't ask me why I wanted it to have some sort of dual significance; perhaps I realized, even then, that I was not the best at remembering important dates...but I like to think it was some sort of superstitious nonsense, like wanting a date that had already proven itself to be "good.") My mother narrowed her eyes at me. "You two really mean this? You're in it for life, right? You're not going to screw it up?"

"Um...right. Why?"

"If you promise not to screw it up, I have a date in mind that you might like."

"What?"

"How about our anniversary? We'll share, but only if you keep it a happy date. No divorce. Nothing to make it a sad date."

"Deal."

Our Wedding, Their Anniversary

To put things in perspective, we were married on my parents' twenty-second anniversary. I am now two years older than my mother was, then, and two years younger than my dad. I shudder to think how old and grown up I thought they were, at the time.

My parents were four years apart in age; so are J.J. and I.

What do you think? Are we holding up...okay? Do we look...old, and grown up? To be fair, do they?

Comments

[rotheche]

Congratulations on the anniversary :)

A fast wedding's a good wedding, I reckon.  When my husband asked me to marry him, we both knew we didn't want a big thing.  Our whole wedding plan was pretty much drawn up on the back of a napkin as we had lunch the next day.  Guests, rough budget, likely venues - we agreed on most things, so it was a pretty simple task.  Took around half an hour, as I recall.  We just picked a date a few months in the future and didn't really consider any significances to it (July 31, it ended up being - we just said 'last Saturday in July' and that's what it worked out as).

We got married in the US; my husband, being the US-based party while I was in Australia, did 98% of the planning.  Booked the venue (a lovely little bed and breakfast with a nice gazebo area in the backyard) and the celebrant; I did the invitations and organised the dress; we went down to the courthouse for the license details when I got back to the US for the wedding, and lo, we were good to go.

[Lokii]

[this is good] I hope you didn't have soup at that wedding.

/ogle moustache
/stare
/twitch
/ogle some more

Grats on ding though.

[Something Else]

[ﻩﺫﺍ ﻩﻭ ﺎﻠﺤﻜﻣ] What a great story!
They look normal, y'all look ..... young, but of marriageable age.

We picked our date as "The Saturday afternoon during Spring Break."  Happens to be St. Patrick's Day, and we've spent years (starting when I was pregnant with #4 and really didn't feel like going out) eating an all green supper in honor of our family's birthday.  This year it's our 28th.

[Bee]

[this is good] We got married on the day before our existing anniversary...  Our friends got married on his parents' anniversary...  Anniversaries just make sense as wedding days!  Happy anniversary...

[Holly]

@Mister Lokii: You did NOT just OGLE my husband!! (Or did you think I was the one with the mustache??) LOL!

@Something Else: I really meant...well, do we look as old NOW as I thought my parents did then, or something. My parents always looked young, though. Funny you should say we looked "young, but of marriageable age" - I was 21, he was 25. Not all that young. (My parents were 18 and 22, when they married!) Most people guessed my age higher than it was, until I hit my thirties. I like the all green supper idea! We celebrate "International Lamb Day" (I'll have to explain that one day, not now - it's a family tradition, not a real holiday) on June 9, the day we set the date for our wedding. (Our engagement was officially on May 26, the night of the "Memorial Day Flood" in Tulsa, OK. I remember the flood, because it kept us trapped indoors the next day, and I could not show off my shiny new ring! @#$%!) 

@rotheche: How long have you two been married, now?

@Bee: "We got married on the day before our existing anniversary..." Dare I ask?

 

@Everyone: Our anniversary isn't until the end of June. I was just inspired, by Scott and beba, and the fact that it was Valentine's Day, and mushy stuff abounds in the cosmos around this time, to post that.

[rotheche]

We're still newlyweds - it'll be three years in July :)

[Lokii]

I'm a dreadful flirt ^^;;;;

[Bee]

Holly: "The day before our existing anniversary" meaning the anniversary of when we started dating... We were so young (13 and 14) that he literally asked me,"Will you go out with me?"  ::grins::  It's kinda funny to think that was how we started out, but more in the cute and endearing sense...  Our original anniversary (7/2) would have put us on a Monday, so we opted for the Sunday (7/1) because it was "close enough"...  Make more sense?

rotheche: People still ask if Clark and I are newly weds (since we still hold hands and "proclaim our love" at every parting), and we have been married for 6 years this summer (13 years total)...  Keeping that spark alive is tough sometimes, but it can be done!  Glad to hear we aren't the only ones!!!

[Scott]

When I'm grown up, then I'll be able to respectfully comment on your age...  Until then, you look young in those pictures...

B and I married with even less planning...  We put it together in about 4 weeks, deciding on the specific location the day before!  As a matter of chance, we have a wonderful wedding date: 7/6/5.  And, as you can see, are still newly weds, also.

[rotheche]

@Bee: People who meet my folks comment that they're still obviously in love.  They've been married since 1969, so I reckon we've got at least one good example to follow :)