Full Circle

Yesterday I told you about my parents' 60th anniversary...thanks for your warm wishes for them, both here and on Facebook! They stopped by our house last night to see us on their way home from their official anniversary trip...and they brought us Rise n Roll donuts. I realize there is something a bit backwards about receiving gifts FROM the anniversary kids, but hey. Did you hear me say Rise n Roll??? Yeah we didn't turn those down.

Anyway. Last night I had some fun with the rest of Mom and Dad's wedding pictures, and I thought you might like to see what I did!

As you may have gathered, I am kind of a fan of doing recreations of pictures. It's a Pinterest-induced addiction.

But Ryan and I planned our wedding so quickly that I didn't have time to scope out Pinterest for picture ideas. So all these things...just a lovely coincidence.

You saw the picture on the left yesterday. Mom as a bride in 1954. Yours truly as a bride in 2012...fifty-eight years later. Someone on Facebook commented that we look a lot alike...and we do. Mom was 17 when she got married. I was twice her age. But if you saw my senior picture next to her wedding photo, you'd see just how much alike we looked back then!

On the left...my sweet Grandpa with my mom. I loved Grandpa so much and dearly miss him. I would have loved for him to have met Ryan. They would have been buddies. I do find it interesting that neither Mom nor I carried a traditional bouquet in our weddings.

Quite a change in venue...from the church to the beach. But I am thrilled that we have the same photo from both days. {Click on the photo to enlarge it.}

In all those years of planning, I can truly say I NEVER thought I'd see the day when I ended up with the smallest wedding party of ANYONE in my entire family - especially my parents! But nonetheless...here are our parties!

Clearly neither of us like messes. Get that cake IN HIS MOUTH without dropping crumbs!!

Mom and Dad had the little bride and groom from the store on the top of their cake. Ryan and I had an acrylic silhouette of us holding hands on ours. Mom and Dad's cake was NOT mocha flavored. And we served cupcakes to our guests, while they served the cut tiered cake. But otherwise, it's the same. Well. Minus the palm trees. :)

True love - separated by 58 years and 1700 miles.

Mom and her girls...and me with mine. :)

Dad with his guys and Ryan with his. :)

Two love stories. Fifty-eight and a half years apart. But this girl is very thankful for them both.