50th Anniversary Party

My sisters and I decided in September to have a 50th anniversary party for my parents. Their anniversary is on December 23rd. They eloped because my dad was being shipped out to Germany right after New Year's Day to spend 18 months guarding the Berlin Wall. My parents have no pictures of their ceremony, which occurred in a church near my mom's house on a Monday afternoon.  They didn't think about needing to have a witness when they knocked on the parsonage door to ask to get married. It just so happened that my mom's brother's fiance (who became my mom's sister-in-law just a year later) was cleaning the church. So with hair in curlers, she was the only one present to see my parents say "I do".

We decided to have the party in November to beat the holiday rush and the bad weather. We had decided to try to have it in mid to late November, but the place we had planned to have it was already completely booked through Christmas, except November 9th! So November 9th was when we had it. It ended up being a beautiful day and we were glad that we did it earlier than we had planned.

It also didn't give us a ton of time to go back and forth about our plans. My dad and mom know many people in my hometown and a lady that my sisters and I had never met before ended up helping with the decorations and even providing finger sandwiches.

My cousin who now bakes cakes professionally baked my parents a tiered cake that looked like a wedding cake and I broke out my silver servers from our wedding. So they got to have the traditional cake cutting like people have at their weddings.

I am so glad that we had the party for them. They had a wonderful time and it was great to see many of my relatives and family friends that I have not seen for years. It also brought my sisters and I closer to each other, which was an added bonus that I didn't expect. 

My sister took a lot of pictures because she has a really nice camera, but I don't have any of them back yet. Here is just a few that I took with my phone.

From left to right: My sister Kimmy who is next to the oldest and 8 years older. My mom, Nancy and dad, Ken. My oldest sister who is 10 years older, Christina, I am next and the youngest, and then my sister Tracey who is 6 years older than me.

Me and my mom

My cousin Larissa and I. She made the cake. We are the same age and always loved spending time together.

The beautiful cake. The top layer was white with raspberry filling, the middle was chocolate and peanut butter, and the bottom was traditional white wedding cake.

My mom and dad with mom's 2 brothers Stanley with his wife Karen on the left and Terry with his wife Nancy on the right. Nancy was the one who was at the church cleaning the day my parents eloped. My mom has a brother and a sister still living who could not attend and two brothers who have passed away.

This is my dad and mom with my dad's sisters. From left, Thelma, Geraldine (we always called her Deeny), and Caroline. He has one brother who was unable to attend and 3 brothers and a sister who have already passed away.

These are my sister Christina's girls. From left: Brittany, Ashley and Shannon. Brittany is my parents' oldest grandchild.

This is when the party first started. This picture shows the set-up and decorations, though.

Just general crowd pictures.

This is my niece Alycia and her boyfriend at the back of the table and my nephew at the end with the blue jacket. You can also see the picture collages in the background.

This is my sister's family with my sister's boyfriend and my great niece and nephew.

My parents gave me some pictures to make collages. Here are a few of my favorites.

This picture was taken a little over 2 years after my parents got married. My mom was pregnant for my oldest sister. I think this picture shows the resemblance between me and my mom the most.

This picture was taken shortly after my dad got to Germany. There are a bunch of copies of this and similar pictures. Many have sappy love messages written on them.

My mom said this is the only picture that was taken on the day they eloped. Dad snapped it while she was pinning up her hair at his house before they went to the church.

I think my mom looks like Sandra Dee from Grease in this picture. This was taken while she and my dad were dating.

From left to right: My dad holding Tracey and my mom in front of him and Kimmy and Christina in the matching dresses in front of her. Then my mom's parents, then my uncle Terry and Aunt Nancy with my cousin Jon in front of them. Last, my great-grandparents.

This picture was taken when I was about 9. I loved that dress and wore it a lot! I wore a mullet for at least 2 years, probably more!

This picture was taken when I was in the 9th grade. It didn't scan very well. My sister Christina and Tracey were already married.

This is the most recent portrait taken of my parents and the one we used in the announcement in the paper for the party.