Celebrating A Life Together

This is our last guest post while Pam is off in New Zealand. We would like to say congratulations once again and welcome her home with the story of how we celebrated our ten year anniversary.

Wedding Take One: It is 1997, we are both recently out of college and do not have a lot of money. Our desire was to be married so three months of planning led to a small ceremony in Jason’s grandmother’s garden and a reception at the local church hall. Not the grandest of events, but we were young and in love so we got married; That is what it is all about, right?

Flash Forward 10 years: Though not a stereotypical woman in many ways Margot had always dreamed of having a bigger wedding, a larger celebration with friends and family and yes….a dress.  Jason wanted to give his bride what she wanted, but it did take some mighty hint dropping. 

We planned the event together and knew for certain what we wanted:  A real reception, as many friends as possible, good food, music and great drinks.  No church meeting hall prohibition on alcohol at this wedding reception. We picked a local function facility, picked a menu of hot appetizers to be passed around and got a DJ.

More planning went into the table settings that consisted of the same Fire and Ice Roses that Margot had carried 10 years earlier (to give credit that was Jay’s idea) and custom labeled chocolate bars for our guests to take home.

Of course what to wear was a big focus, for both of us. Not only was Margot getting her first tailored, dress shop dress, Jay was going all out with a three piece suit.  We think we did pretty good!

The guest list had one criteria. We wanted to invite the people who had supported us throughout or relationship. These people came from some many different phases in our life: high school, college, different jobs, and of course family. There was so much love in the room, it was overwhelming.

( Margot's Family )

( Jason's Family )

( Margot and friend Terri )

( Jason and his fraternity brothers doing what they do best! )

( Margot and friend Melissa )

( Margot and her sorority sisters )

( Margot and friends Jane & Missi )

We started the evening with a champagne toast thanking our guests not only for attending but for their support through the years. This celebration was as much for them as it was for us.

The rest of the party was a blur for us both, the food was good (or so Margot heard as she never really got any) and the DJ got us dancing. We had put together two scrap book albums of our years together for the guests to look through. They were a hit. Since Margot’s parents had both passed on we made sure a picture of them was displayed as they surely had taught me that true love does exist.

The evening wrapped up with Margot’s brother David grabbing a microphone and singing along to ACDC’s Dirty Deeds. Ahhh, the feeling of a wedding reception is only complete when someone does something they will FOREVER be reminded of!

At the end of the evening when we were alone Jason thanked me (Margot), saying he was so happy we had done this and that it was one of the best nights of his life. I can say it was one of the best of mine too. Weddings and receptions are great, a celebration of a new life beginning, but we believe we finally got it right. Our wedding was a small ceremony that bonded us for life. Our anniversary party was a true celebration of what we had built and what we had been through so far. We were much stronger then that were as the young couple that got married in 1997. Jason had fought cancer and won, and we had lost Margot’s mother after years of illness. In short, we, and our marriage were battle tested. We were more in love than we thought possible on that day we said our vows.  Now THAT is something to celebrate.

We hope that Pam is enjoying her honeymoon and comes home with many stories to share with us on this blog. The greatest story will be the one her and her husband write day by day as they enjoy their lives together. I’m sure they will take the opportunity to celebrate along the way and share their love with us as they do!

Cheers!

--Margot & Jason