OUR EMERALD WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

When I got up first thing this morning, I saw a card on my bedside table - we aren’t big on cards so I knew it wouldn’t be from my dear husband!

However, before I went downstairs, I decided to try on my wedding dress, which is stored in a drawer underneath our bed.  It is still in the box it came in all those years ago but I was obviously quite a bit slimmer on our wedding day, which did surprise me, I must admit as I didn't think I had changed that much - obviously my memory is going!u

Having “stepped into” the dress, I was surprised that I couldn’t pull the zip up more than a couple of inches. I also found the lace very itchy, so how I wore it all day on our wedding day, I don’t know. I did "toy with the idea" of wearing it when we went out for our meal at lunchtime, but thought that would be a bit OTT, apart from which, Mr HCB no longer has his wedding suit – because he has also put on weight since we first got married so we went in our ordinary clothes instead!

I took the card downstairs so that I could open it with Mr. HCB and discovered it was from our younger son and it even had “55 Emerald Anniversary” on it - another reminder for Mr. HCB - and the second one with 55, as I was given a hand-made one from friends at church last night. We also had a card from some other lovely friends, one from our bridesmaid, who never forgets our anniversary and another beautiful hand-made one from a special Blip friend.  There is also a lovely little painting in a frame from another Blip friend, who is very special to us and then in the middle of the morning, two more special friends arrived, with a gift of a table runner that she had kindly made for us - we feel very blessed.

Mr. HCB then gave me his gift but no card - a beautiful, emerald green Granny Smith apple!  He said he knew I would like a new “Apple” so thought he would combine it with something healthy and also emerald in colour!  I think it’s our zany SOH that has carried us through the years because it did make me laugh!

It was good to look through our Wedding Album - all black and white photographs - and to see the telegrams that were sent to us “on that day” 55 years ago. It was also interesting to see that a 3 day stay at The Savoy Hotel in Bournemouth cost us the princely sum of £27 4s 2d in old money, including the service charge of 15% - you could hardly get a meal for one in a restaurant today for that amount! In fact, just for our meal, which we really enjoyed at our favourite restaurant, Miller & Carter, where they treated us royally, was twice that amount but it didn’t matter because we enjoyed it.

My first collage shows the telegrams, a beautiful note from the Minister who married us, together with a hand-written letter from Mr. HCB’s Aunty Lilly, accepting the wedding invitation written in her distinctive writing and of course, using a fountain pen, which she always did, a copy of the Order of Service, the bill from the hotel and a card which all the guests had signed.  I “coloured” the middle shot with an app called Photomyne, because as I said, all our photographs back in 1968 were in black and white.

The bottom two shots were taken today - one as we arrived at Miller & Carter and one just after we had been given our two free glasses of Prosecco.  Looking at the most recent ones, I guess the thing that has changed most is the colour of our hair!

The extra collage shows us with our wedding cake, made by my Aunty Mary, which I remember was delicious, and our lovely meal, complete with a “Happy Anniversary” greeting on a plate when they brought our dessert, then Mr. HCB tucking into his apple pie.  

We have had a lovely day and Mr. HCB is now having “40 winks” as they say - we never could drink in the middle of the day without wanting to sleep afterwards!  With thanks to Mr. HCB for being a loving, kind and generous husband, a great father and a wonderful grandfather - he is definitely a "keeper"!

This is what our dear Minister friend, Fred Carr, wrote on the 5th March 1968:

“Your Wedding Day will, I am sure, be one the greatest days of your life.  I pray that it will remain in your memories as one of the precious, happy days that will always be hallowed for you.

You are setting out together on a great adventure, an adventure in Comradeship.  Your lives will become more and more bound together as you share all the homespun realities that make up human experience.  Join hands with that great Friend who ever walks beside us, and your lives will be as a blessing one to the other, and to those around you.

I wish you health and joy!  May your hearth often be the meeting place of good friends, and may your home always be the abiding place of the dearest Guest of all!

God go with you!
With love from your sincere Friend, 
Fred”