Wedding Album

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary! We have two wedding anniversaries, we had a civil ceremony on January 17th and a church wedding on April 26th. We always get our wedding album out on our anniversary. Last year I shared this wedding album with a group of online friends and they enjoyed it so I'm going to show it to all of you.

We both were getting ready to retire from NASA and we decided to have a civil wedding while we were waiting for the church wedding to happen! We had a three-day holiday weekend and went up to St. Augustine, a different county, to marry in their courthouse. When we arrived in St. Augustine we stopped at this pretty bed and breakfast to see if we could make reservations. They had only one room (suite) and we took it!

The Casablanca Inn

We told the owner we were there to get married and she asked if we knew about the charming wedding chapel there. We didn't know about it so she called them to see if they had time available to marry us. They could take us at 4 p.m!

The Amore' Wedding Chapel was a beautiful old Victorian home.

We went over there to check it out and found a girl decorating for her wedding the next day. We were able to use her decorations in our wedding!

"The rings you wear are outward signs of your innermost hearts.
As the ring is a circle, so it is a symbol of our sun, earth,
and infinite universe of wholeness, perfection, peace,
and of the unity of your spirits forever more."

Our wedding was sweet and beautiful, the couple who own the Amore' Wedding Chapel did a lot of things to make it special for us such as the Unity Candle.

"The Unity Candle symbolizes the new family
you are now forming from your past lives.
The flames, you light it with burn brighter
when joined together.
Now you both are charged with keeping this
flame bright for the rest of your days upon this earth."

Mr. and Mrs.

The minister gave us a copy of the special things he read, I'm sharing some of them with you.

"A husband makes a willing and unending commitment to encircle his wife
with his protecting care, to shield her from the rough storms of the world,
to cling to her with unfaltering fidelity, to honor and cherish her with unfailing affection,
and to guard her happiness with unceasing vigilance.

The wife is committed to love and cherish her husband, to honor and sustain him,
and to be true to him in all ways. Such are the duties of the estate of marriage
and each of you are under obligation to fulfill these responsibilities with.....Love."

Keep in mind I took these pictures of the wedding album, therefore they aren't very clear.

I really like this verse about "Hands" that the minister read.

When making the wedding album I traced our hands, then reduced them down to fit on the page.

In case you can't read it:

Hands

Joe and Katherine, as you stand together, take notice of each others hands.

Because these are the hands that will help you through life’s journey.

These are the hands that will greet you and say “I love you” each time they touch.

These are the hands that will caress you in times of joy and celebration.

These are the hands that will wipe your tears in times of sadness and sorrow.

Where there were only two hands before,

Now through this marriage there are four.

And in God’s hands, there are even more.

May these hands guard you, guide you,

And love you all the days of your lives.

We had pictures taken outside in the gazebo, it was too cold to do the vows out there.
It was very cold that day for Florida, a high of about 40 degrees! The horse carriages weren't running that day so we couldn't ride in one.

Outside the Casablanca Inn

Inside the Casablanca Inn:

My husband spoiled me from the first day, he took me to this cute little tea room!

This is a French restaurant, it is still in St. Augustine:

The second day we drove further north to another bed and breakfast, The Elizabeth Pointe Lodge, it is right on the water at Amelia Island, a beautiful place.


We had a wonderful three-day honeymoon, then went back to work on Tuesday! (We retired on January 31st.) Later we went on a cruise to Paradise Island in the Bahamas. We kept our civil marriage a secret until after we had our church wedding! Everyone was surprised! Anybody else ever marry secretly? Marry the same man twice like I did?

I hope you enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane with me, just 13 years, but lots of memories!

My blogaversary is coming up on January 21st - four years!! Yes, I started that long ago, sometimes I feel as though I'm running out of things to post!

I forgot to take a picture of the blogaversary give away, please come back and sign up by commenting on my blog, and get an extra name in the pot by signing up to Follow my blog! Oh, I need to do a button for you to post (and get another extra name in the pot.) Hmmm, I don't know how to make "a button" can anybody out there help me with that!

Have a happy day!
God Bless.

Katherine