Where does time go? It barely seems five minutes ago..that I got married.. (Well, it does obviously seem longer than that.. but you know what I mean!) At the risk of this being a totally self centred blog.. I apologise.. but its not often that you get to celebrate a day like this..or get the much treasured photo album out! :D
Now here I am in 2008, a heck of a lot rounder as an individual.. and in more ways than one.. TWENTY YEARS later! Yes, today...the 30th July, is our 20th Wedding Anniversary! My wonderful husband however, is still a slim and muscle bound guy as ever...hmmm.. I know he likes my food...I guess I just like my food more..LOL.. Oh well, what the heck! We love each other and that is what counts!
So, we are sharing a candle lit dinner tonight (not much point really what with the 24 hour daylight of Lapland...but it's the 'thing to do' is it not?) Oh and when I say sharing, I do mean also with our sons ...they get to benefit from a bit of 'Fairy' washing up liquid afterwards too..(Good for the hands the ads say!) :D My kind of sharing LOL!
A nice bottle of Merlot, Egg Mayonnaise starter, main course of Creamy Chicken in Vermouth with whole grain mustard and some strawberry and fruits of the forest dessert..will go down a treat. Yummy!
I can't fathom where those years have gone.. its amazing and quite scary really, although we have done a heck of a lot in that time. Plus we have two wonderful sons to show for it. Yet, I can still clearly remember the night before my wedding, sleeping on my Grandad's sofa back in the UK. I didn't sleep much and I remember just lying there thinking...
My late Grandad Gerald Grant gave me away...
During the service, the photograph taken from the church balcony.
And closer in.. us taking our vows.
We had a lovely wedding, despite it being on a very tight budget...we married at St Marks Church, Highcliffe with a reception at the Burlington Hotel in Boscombe, Bournemouth and stayed for our honeymoon night at the famous Lilly Langtry Hotel. I have to say that the delightful rural church has since undergone much modernisation and its lost its 'je ne c'est quoi' in my opinion.. it was much nicer the way that it was. Quite a shame really..when we got our younger son christened there, we barely recognised it, even the entrance was at another point!
A much blonder moi!
Mother of the Bride, cleverly made all the dresses for the three Bridesmaids, Helen, Kirsten and Jane.
Woo! We did it!
Mr checking out the new Mrs and Mrs doing likewise!
Best Man in the blue suit, was Tony, my husbands eldest brother
We were lucky enough to have had a sit down reception for 80 guests, with an evening disco for 200. The whole day cost £2000, which was some feat, even 20 years ago!
I also had an unusual stop off during the day.. it was a bit like a scene out of 'The Graduate' really, when I think of it. I 'ran away' from the wedding to go to visit my then sister in law who had just given birth two days prior and had had to miss the wedding. I jumped into this tiny old car belonging to my bro' Lee, crammed my big dress in.... and we scooted over to the hospital. You should have seen the faces of the nurses when the lift opened in the maternity ward! I remember saying something like "Yes, I know.. Ive left it a little late!" Well, thats my sense of humour!
So I have this very unusual photograph of me holding my newly born nephew, whilst wearing my wedding dress! Then of course, I did go back to my freshly wed husband, who was kindly holding the fort and doing his best to explain to the other guests! LOL!
The Bride greeting baby Matthew
If you look click on the picture and look closely you will see our names on the ends of the our horseshoe shaped cake...one tier sponge, one fruit...made by famous Mary Fords of Bournemouth.. Yummy!
Newlyweds with the Mother of the Bride
As usual my husband will get his home made anniversary card from me.. and another ticket to put in his message box.
To explain: Every year, on our anniversary I give him a message on a ticket, which is inside his card. These are all saved inside a special box that I made too...many years ago.
We also have some handfasting oil that I bought several years ago to celebrate - I think - what must have been our 15th Anniversary. One bottle of oil had a tiny round pink rose quartz crystal in it to represent the female - and - the other had a tiny phallic like quartz crystal in it to represent the masculine. For seven nights around our anniversary, we had to 'annoint' each other with our own oil (No smirks or cheeky laughing from the back of the class please!!! LOL) Then on the seventh day (our special day itself) we combined what was left into just one bottle and exchanged our special crystals as gifts. Its a fun, affectionate and powerful gift for each other! Now each year, we use just a tiny bit of it..to make it last for all our years...
I've given a few of these sets as presents in the years since...and once I got blamed for my brother's wife getting pregnant way too quickly.. sheeee as if its MY fault! LOL...
So anyway, getting back to it... raise a glass for us tonight...
And finally, I want to say a special 'I Love You!' and 'Thank You!' to my darling husband for surprising me by taking the day off work today...(just as well I wrote 99% of this blog yesterday! Plus of course...for sharing the BEST marriage and friendship EVER with ME! 'Here's looking forward to our Silver Wedding Anniversary'..in five years time!
Totally self indulgent blog over.... LOL!!!
