40 YEARS AND RUNNING…COCKTAILS, DINNER AND DANCING

In the previous post (click here if you missed it) I described our wedding celebration 4o years ago.  As a refresher…Dave and I were married on Amelia Island, Fl in 1984.  At the time we both lived in Knoxville, Tn and decided to marry on Amelia, vacation home of Dave’s family.  We had a fun filled week celebrating with family and friends, and our rehearsal dinner party was held at Walker’s Landing on The Amelia Island Plantation.  At that time it was a very rustic pavilion with picnic tables on the porch.  Now after many renovations over the years, it is a perfect wedding venue. It still maintains its rusticity, and offers amazing sunset views of the Intracoastal Waterway.  It was a no brainer for us to have our 40th anniversary party at Walker’s Landing.  We also live 3 doors down from this amazing spot.

Walker’s Landing is on the marsh, on the western side of Amelia Island, overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.  On the eastern side of the island is the  Atlantic Ocean.  With these wonderful vistas playing such a part of our Amelia Island life, I drew inspiration from the marsh and the ocean for our theme and table decor.

As a way to thank our family  and friends for joining us for our anniversary celebration,  I painted each guest or couple a 4″x4″ beach or marsh scene placed on easels as part of the table decor.

We used baby blue napkins and floral arrangements with white hydrangeas, white lilies, white roses, white spray roses and blue delphinium…to coordinate with the blues of the marsh and ocean scenes.

The florals were from Dottie B Florist

an Amelia Island favorite.

One of my favorite paintings was actually the sunset view from Walker’s Landing.

Our Save the Date and Menu Cards, as well as the seating chart, were printed using  my “LIVING ON THE MARSH” painting which features the marsh view from our house.

 The wonderful dishes, below, were served from stations. The goat cheese tortellini and deviled eggs were especially delicious.

Alex Jansen, Chef-Owner of Personal Cuisine Catering  provided the catering with great personalized service.

The Decantery , located next to The Palace Saloon, provided setups, cocktails, wine and beer with 2 great bartenders.

I’ll include a few pictures and story of The Palace at the end of this post

Placecards printed using the same marsh painting with each guests’ name, were beautifully handwritten  in calligraphy by Carrie’s mother, Bernice!

RAW BAR AND DEVILED EGGS

We had a large screen tv playing photos from our wedding and of family and friends over the 40 years, running throughout the night.

Our photographer, Alison Thrift, of Chloetylerphotography came early to photograph our family and took many photos throughout the night.

Kathy and long time friend, Sue.  We met here on Amelia Island in 2001.

I remember all the happy faces during our wedding week, with so many friends and family enjoying being together.

And now looking at all the smiles in the pictures from our Anniversary Party, I feel the happiness in being together once again with family and friends.   So many of our friends are ones from the beginning, but many at the party are friends that we have met over the past 25 years at Amelia.  All of you mean so much to us.  I love looking at all the photos of our friends and families having fun being together.

The Parks family with Dave’s uncle Ralph Parks as the head of the family! Parks cousins and their spouses and triplet sisters. Ralph is Dave’s mom’s youngest brother.  He is the Parks family patriarch and historian.

Harry and Kelly, Hannah and Chris with Aunt Kathy

Sister Lucy…The Hawkins family

Sister Kay with Justin, Katie and Van

Hynson family with Aunt Vern and Aunt Liz

We met Rick and Joanne at a new member gathering on Amelia Island  in 2001 and have been fast friends since.

Eric & Kari Astor…Rick and Joanne’s son and daughter-in-law…great friends with our daughter, Lizzy

Our beloved daughter-in-law, Carrie with her family and friends

The Miller side cousins!

James and Lizzy say a few words before introducing their father, Dave.

Dave had some special words for our many friends and family who were here to share our 4oth anniversary. “Our past times together are what we always remember, many of these moments are captured in the photo show displayed today.”

“All of us probably recall a time in our lives when what seemed like a small decision we made had life changing consequences.  For me it was the spring of 1979 during my 2nd year with a national accounting firm in Atlanta.  It had just been announced that our firm would be opening an office in Knoxville, Tn since a World’s Fair was coming there in 1982.  It was around 5:00 and I was getting ready to head home when I walked past the office of the person who had ben chosen to be partner in charge of the new Knoxville office.  I knocked on his door and said, “Congratulations on your new opportunity in Knoxville.”  The next day I received a call from him asking me to join him in opening the Knoxville office.  A year later I purchased a condo in Knoxville.  Curt Leonard owned the unit to my right and Kathy Lovett owned the unit to my left.  Sometimes your small decisions turn out to have wonderful lifetime consequences.

40 years can come and go in a hurry.  I am most fortunate to have purchased a condo next to Kathy Lovett.  My interest rate on this purchase was 11% and I probably lost money when I sold it several years later, but it was the most valuable piece of real estate I ever owned.  I met Kathy there in 1980 and we were married 4 years later.  Our lives together have been an incredibly wonderful journey.  So I will close by saying to her our theme for tonight…I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow.”

And now let the dancing begin…

Our DJ, Jeff Freeze of Freezer’s Mobile DJ Service, was a delight to work with.  He played all the songs we requested (which were quite a lot) and also highlighted the ones we linked to certain family and friends.

I think we’re alone now…and we tumble to the ground…

I thought you’d like to see Dave and his best man (father) and groomsmen partaking of a Pirate’s Punch from The Palace before our wedding 40 years ago.

The groomsmen in front of The Palace’s iconic bar.  Now you know why we had a very “happy” wedding. And probably the reason we were tickled throughout our wedding service.

When my father, Jim Lovett walked me down the aisle and said “her mother and I”  and turned to go be seated, Dave and I had a quick kiss, very unrehearsed.  It just felt right.  The minister kiddingly said under his breath, you’re supposed to wait to the end…  Well that got me tickled and as you can see by the picture below, my large pouffy sleeves were very distinct.  As we were praying before saying our vows I tried to keep from giggling and my sleeves were shaking up a storm.  Our vows were exchanged with many giggles, but lots of love and when we finally were supposed to kiss, we did and everyone clapped and laughed.  I always felt we started our marriage on a happiness high with lots of love and laughter.

 

I love you more today than yesterday…but not as much as tomorrow

Thank you to all our family and friends for sharing our special party with us.

Come celebrate with me.  I’ll save you a seat at the table.