Happy Anniversary

As of today, Husband and I have been married for 25 years. This summer is all about sorting out the issues of college students, though, so we'll keep today's celebration down to dinner. And then in the fall, we'll go adventuring on a Mediterranean cruise on the Queen Mary.

We didn't have very much money 25 years ago, which is how all couples should start out, I think, and we paid for most of the wedding ourselves. I bought the dress for $400 and the hat for $15, we bought some flowers for around $375, ordered a cake and hired a photographer who was something like 125 years old.

A sister-in-law was an attendant, and one of my sisters was the maid of honor. The poor old photographer forgot to get a shot of my sister walking down the aisle, so my mother took matters into her firm hands and twisted. She badgered the photographer and his sickly wife for weeks until the man agreed to take a different photo of my sister, cut out the head, and paste it onto the body of the sister-in-law and then print out another proof for the photo album. The man's wife got hives from the whole ordeal and worried herself sick.

Anyway, the church pianist played the piano, and my sisters sang—"Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" was their duet—and my brother-in-law performed the ceremony.

The wedding was in my parents' church, and the reception was in their front yard with neighbors contributing picnic tables and chairs. There was no music at the reception and certainly no dancing, and my mother made most of the food. After a couple of days in Chicago, we packed up a U-Haul and moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey where we started our lives from scratch.