Today is my husband’s and my 25th anniversary. It’s such a special occasion that I decided I wanted to post something about it today. At one time, it was not a big deal for marriages to last 25 years because hardly anyone got divorced. But these days, with 40% to 50% of marriages ending in divorce it seems it is quite an accomplishment.
Since it is Tuesday, I pondered how I could make this post a Tuesday Three. I came up with three things that didn’t go quite as planned on September 6, 1986. But even though we experienced these challenges on our wedding day, our marriage has stayed strong. We vowed that in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, whatever may come, we would stick together. There has definitely been some sickness, but also health. We’ve experienced times of financial struggle, but have also been incredibly blessed. We’ve been through a lot, and are both looking forward to the next 25 years and beyond.
The first thing that didn’t go as planned for our wedding day was that the flowers were not what I ordered. I made my own bouquet and my bride’s maid’s bouquet out of silk flowers, so those were just as I wanted them. But I also wanted some fresh flowers. We were on a tight budget, so I only ordered two flower arrangements – one for the guest table and one for the altar. I ordered arrangements of blue carnations, white daisies, and yellow roses. When I arrived at the church and saw the flowers that had been delivered I couldn’t believe my eyes! They did, indeed, have blue carnations and yellow roses, but there were no white daisies. In their place the florist had used orange marigolds.
Now orange is my least favorite color in the entire color spectrum, and I certainly didn’t want it in my wedding flowers. But there was nothing I could do about it. There was not enough time before the wedding to get new flowers and the florist had dropped off the flowers and left before I got there. It took me almost 20 years to even be able to have marigolds in my yard again. But thankfully no one else was the wiser and it didn’t ruin our beautiful day.
The second thing that didn’t go as planned happened while I was getting dressed in the basement of the church. It was about five minutes before the ceremony was to start. I decided I wanted to have very fresh breath for that wonderful kiss with my new husband. So I tried to gargle and rinse my mouth with some green Scope mouthwash. Somehow I managed to spit the Scope up all down the front of my white wedding dress! I was so upset and didn’t know what I was going to do. Thankfully my dear sister Peggy was there. She reassured me that we could get it out as she began to gently rub the Scope out of my dress with a washcloth. Amazingly, it all came out and since it was about 90° that day it dried quickly. The ceremony started almost on time and no one had any idea what had happened.
The third thing that didn’t go as planned had to do with the music. We hired the keyboard player from a band called Trespasser to play before the service and to play the wedding march. Trespasser was the band that was playing the night my husband and I met. We asked him to play an original Trespasser song called “I’ll Never Stop Loving You,” which was our song. He did a great job of playing the keyboard portion as filler music while people came into the church and were seated. The thing that didn’t go as planned was that he didn’t really know how to play the wedding march correctly and hit a few bad notes. I’m sure a few people notice; okay, pretty much everybody noticed. But it was okay because I still made it down the aisle.
One other thing almost happened “not according to plan” at the wedding reception. We had a wonderful reception at a local grange hall (which we rented for only $25). Everyone had a great time dancing, visiting, and eating. The music was from several mixed tapes of our favorite music that my husband made for the occasion played over a very nice stereo sound system. At the end of the almost perfect night, we were about to leave when we remembered we hadn’t gotten those mixed tapes out of the stereo. My husband went back to the closet where the stereo was, only to find one of his “friends” hiding there. Turns out this so-called friend was planning to steal the stereo system and sneak out with it after everyone was gone. Thankfully we caught him before he could follow through with the plan and leave us owing the grange for the losses!
So it wasn’t a “perfect” day, but it was one of the most wonderful days of my life (along with the day my son was born, which also wasn’t a perfect day). Just goes to show you that perfection isn’t necessary for happiness and joy.
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV).