Well, after several months of planning, it’s over. No more samples of punch to try. No more searching through pictures. No more picking out cups and plates. Back to reality. I am kind of sad that it’s over. That’s probably sounding crazy because planning the party was so time-consuming. But it was fun. And inspirational, really.
For anyone who cares, who wasn’t there, I can’t help but give the play by play. It was just so amazing that I have to share.
First off, we were on a pretty tight budget, which means we couldn’t rent out some fancy country club banquet room or serve a multi-course meal. We wanted to invite anyone who wanted to come. So it was put in the paper as an open invite. We had no idea how many would show up, so we had to plan for a pretty large crowd. Mom and Dad were renewing their vows, so we were already at the church. We decided to have a small reception afterwards in the church fellowship hall.
Since there are four of us kids, we thought it would be nice to have the girls stand up with Mom and the guys stand up with Dad. The three daughters and one daughter in law and the one son and three sons in laws made up the “wedding party.” Mom kept saying she wasn’t wearing white and wasn’t walking to the Bridal March, so we did make some changes from a typical wedding. After all, it wasn’t a first wedding. Although it kind of was. Mom and Dad eloped so for them, it was their first wedding. So we changed up the tradition a little. We wanted everyone in our immediate family involved, so the grandsons seated the guests. My two little ones and a great-granddaughter, Faith, passed out little programs that listed all of our names. We played a CD with piano music of love songs while people were seated and it was perfect.
Mom wore a beautiful gold-colored dress and jacket since your 50th anniversary is “golden.” Dad wore a black suit. Girls wore black dresses, all different, and guys wore black pants and tan dress shirts with different ties. After all of the guests were seated, the older grandkids walked down and sat in the front row. Then the little ones had their turn. Indira and Faith wore polka dotted black dresses and Drew wore a little linen jacket with his dress shirt and pants. They looked amazing. Then my brother, Tim, walked back down to get Mom. I have never seen my Dad so in love. He was just admiring her from the front and I thought we all would start crying right then and there! And Mom just kept her eyes forward and glanced at Dad a couple of times, almost looking shy. Wow. How do you still have that kind of love and admiration after 50 years?
Pastor Martha did an awesome job with the ceremony. She knew we wanted to keep it casual and light and she did exactly that. She commented on the way that Mom and Dad look at each other with their “twinkle.” Everyone could see it, too. Then, at the close of the ceremony, Pastor Martha invited the grandkids to join us up front to surround Mom and Dad with love for the final prayer. We all huddled around them and put our hands on their shoulders. It was beautiful!
After leaving the sanctuary we headed over to Asbury Hall, the fellowship hall at our church, for the reception. They still cut a cake and toasted punch and looked like two teenagers in love. We had pictures on the table that stuck out of gold flower pots. They seemed to be a big hit. They were pictures of them when they were little, growing up, high school, newly married and all of us kids over the years. It was fun to see people we had not seen since we were kids looking at all of the memories.
It was a success. In all aspects. They enjoyed it. We enjoyed it and I think our guests did, too. I walked away from the party not only appreciating my parents for an amazing job raising all of us, but also inspired. I’m inspired to never give up on my marriage. I’m inspired to teach my kids the values of love and respect that I was taught and inspired to treasure all of my days with my lovely parents.
Until next time…peace, love, and a good night’s sleep!
