Still Married After All These Years

Our wedding anniversary is soon approaching and this is a big one, our 30th.  We were married years before it was possible to videotape the ceremony and reception.  All we ever had was a copy of a little cassette tape on which our recorded ceremony could barely be heard.  A most unsophisticated little tape recorder was hidden in the fireplace we stood in front of to exchange our vows.  I guess it was buried a little too deeply among the flowers to pick up anything decently.  This tape has long since bitten the dust.

How I would love to have a videotape of our wedding ceremony to be able to watch whenever I chose.  It's difficult to remember so many little things because I was moving around as if in a fog; it was somewhat surreal!  I couldn't quite believe we were really, finally getting married.  We had been engaged for almost three years (!) and together as a steady couple for two years before that.  It seemed to me The Day would never get here.

We decided to get married in the living room of my wonderful old home.  Neither of us were church goers and it seemed ridiculous to show up one day in a church to get married.  God is everywhere and we knew his grace would shine down on us no matter where we stood.  It seemed fitting; that living room was witness to a great deal of love between us over the five years prior to the wedding.

It was decided that immediate family only of the bride and groom would attend the actual ceremony.  My mother and big brother more or less choreographed the ceremony and music and did a most splendid job.  I well remember our little rehearsal the morning of the wedding.  I believe I spent the entire day in my robe until it was time to don my wedding gown et al.  We were all laughing and joking as my brother timed my descent down the stairs to match the music I had chosen.

Oh, it was so dramatic!  We used some music from The Moody Blues "Days of Future Past", a lovely little piece that finished with a triumphant, sunrise-like burst just as I reached the final bottom step to take my father's arm.  Dress rehearsal was over and the actual event was at hand.  As my feet alighted that final step, all former joviality vanished when I saw my father and I suddenly found myself so overcome with it all, that I dissolved into tears; tears of joy, relief, sentiment--a most unexpected rush of emotion.  Even now, as I write about this 30 years later, my eyes begin to glisten at the memory.  It was extremely intense. 

My Dad walked me over to where my husband-to-be was standing and the ceremony began.  The background music magically switched to Debussy's "Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun" and I continued to cry....through the entire ceremony.  I struggled to get myself under control enough to be able to speak my vows when it was time.  Apparently, I didn't do very well judging by the squeaky, broken little noises that came out of the cassette tape!  I must've nodded my head vigorously enough at the appropriate times to make everything legal. 

By the time we were officially announced man and wife, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.  Once again, the music switched gears to Mike Oldfield's jubilant "Tubular Bells".  Imagine my utter horror when this same music appeared several years later in "The Exorcist"!!  My mother declared the affair the most tearful, intimate wedding she had ever seen and she was quite right.  I only wish I could've seen it all from my guests' point of view.