Congratulations to me (and my husband of course)! We just celebrated our 31st Wedding Anniversary. Even though it was so many years ago, I still remember our wedding day and all the crazy preparations vividly. The big day took place in my home country of Australia in Queensland.
My husband (then fiancé) and I had absolutely no idea how to plan a wedding event, plus money was tight in our younger days, so we graciously accepted the offer of a friend to have the ceremony at her beautiful home with an ocean view. Keep in mind that there was no internet back then, so everything was sourced using The Yellow Pages (a huge telephone number reference book for all businesses). As Wedding Coordinators were not commonplace, we arranged everything ourselves. We rented tables and chairs, linens, glasses and a caterer. We hired a DJ and purchased a traditional Australian wedding cake (which is a heavy fruit cake with marzipan icing). Plus, we found an arch and appointed my dear parents to decorate it with flowers. They did an excellent job, considering it was their first (and last) job as florists!
An Officiant (or Celebrant as they are known as in Australia) was recommended to us, so we set up an appointment to meet her. Her name was Miriam. She was a stocky, short woman, whom we both towered over. I always thought that an Officiant should put you at ease and make a couple feel happy about their wedding day and the exciting future awaiting. However, Miriam’s somber demeanor had us shaking in trepidation. She immediately informed us that she took the commitment of marriage very seriously, and she wasn’t presiding over the ceremony for fun. And that was evident, because my usually very funny fiancé, sat stoic during the entire interview, and we dared not to smile in case she thought we weren’t taking things “very seriously”. Despite her stern, school marm, no nonsense, matter of fact approach, and knowing of no-one else, of course we hired her!
Apparently, we did take our marriage very seriously, because we have reached 31 fulfilling and happy years together and are robustly looking forward to the decades to come. So, here’s cheers to us!
An Officiant (or Celebrant as they are known as in Australia) was recommended to us, so we set up an appointment to meet her. Her name was Miriam. She was a stocky, short woman, whom we both towered over. I always thought that an Officiant should put you at ease and make a couple feel happy about their wedding day and the exciting future awaiting. However, Miriam’s somber demeanor had us shaking in trepidation. She immediately informed us that she took the commitment of marriage very seriously, and she wasn’t presiding over the ceremony for fun. And that was evident, because my usually very funny fiancé, sat stoic during the entire interview, and we dared not to smile in case she thought we weren’t taking things “very seriously”. Despite her stern, school marm, no nonsense, matter of fact approach, and knowing of no-one else, of course we hired her!
Apparently, we did take our marriage very seriously, because we have reached 31 fulfilling and happy years together and are robustly looking forward to the decades to come. So, here’s cheers to us!
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