Photoessay #33 - Wedding Anniversary

Today is my husband's and my 31st wedding anniversary. Here we are, 31 years ago in 1976. We both were younger, thinner and had more hair. We were married in the living room of Dennis' parents house attended by 30 and later had a reception with about 100 people at the Campus Commons clubhouse. Condos were new then and this was considered a prime location. Grandfather Adam Beittel married us. We were the last couple that he ever married. We were having some problems with our families with ceremony and religion. Dennis' parents were pushing for a Christian ceremony, we were both resisting this. I would like a Jewish ceremony but knew that I would have problems with any rabbi. I was pondering the problem at work at the Community College office one day when it came to me in a flash. Grandfather Beittel! He was beloved by myself and my family and he was a Congregational minister. Oh yeah, that would work. I remember jumping up and rushing to the phone in the employee lunch room next door. I don't remember why I felt I needed to use that phone, maybe it had more privacy. But my office-mate, a middle-aged man named Lee Hundley, and I got along great. Maybe I didn't want to disturb him.

One of Dennis' friends at the photo studio took the wedding pictures as a gift. He made a crucial wedding picture mistake, we have pictures of me with my family and Dennis with his family. But the bridal couple is not together in the family pictures. I show the picture of Dennis' family and I squeal "Where's the BRIDE in this pictures!" We laugh about it.

Don't remember why but, I was determined not to wear a white dress. This blue cotton dress designed with antique lace in the bodice (from my grandmother's dress?). My sister may have worn it also. Later, the antique lace was taken off and some plain white lace was attached. I never wore the dress again, it might have been part of a dressup box around here, I haven't seen it in years. Lanaya (Dennis' mom) was thrilled to put his outfit together. She also arranged for all of the flowers through a flower shop in Folsom where she showed her antiques. This style of flowers was called 'old-fashioned' with their primary colors.

After the ceremony, we went up to Dennis' folks cabin at Lake Tahoe for a few days. I wondered what to do with the bridal bouquet. I ended up tossing the flowers off a bridge above a beautiful valley and river. Seemed somehow appropriate.

Thirty one years is a long time for a marriage to endure. Among our 5 siblings, there are 8 divorces and only one (Dave) is currently married. We were young (23, 24) but we didn't think so at the time.