Celebration of Marriage

Dwayne and I were married at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Fallon. It is the church we still attend together today. The priest and a group of church members got together to get a celebration of marriage under way. All the married couples of the church were invited to come to a mass in their honor followed by a sit down dinner at the convention center afterwards.

So it started yesterday, Saturday, August 29, with 5 o'clock mass. We attended mass together. We had been asked to read the prayers of the faithful so of course we did! We were a little nervous about it but it went well and afterwards several people came up to us expressing how well they thought we did. The mass was nice and had a special blessing for all the married couples. The messages delivered were about how marriage may not always be what we dreamed it would be but that it is a journey full of different turns and how with God in the marriage the journey is doable and well worth it. Concepts we really believe.


After mass it was off to the convention center for dinner. When we first walked in the doors, we checked in at the table that had our last name. We were given name tags to wear that had both our names, the amount of years we had been married and what table we were seated at on them. In the lobby of the convention center tables were set up with all sorts of different appetizers. There was a drink fountain with water flowing for us all to drink from and we mingled for about 45 minutes or so while everyone arrived and the final touches on the dining room were set in place. Before long it was time to eat and the doors to main room of the convention center were opened!


We found our table, table 15. We were seated with two other couples and one widow. We hadn't ever met any of the people at our table so it was nice to hear their stories. When we all first sat down we were served salad. It was a very nice salad. They had the high school NJROTC students there as our servers that night. They were very good and made sure our places were cleared and our drinks were full. They also served us our main course of tri-trip steak and red potatoes with cantaloupe and rolls. The food was wonderful and all the planning and work that went into the event was amazing!


While we were eating and visiting with each other, we were all supposed to write down some advice about marriage on a card that each couple had. The advice we wrote down will be compiled into a book that will be given to all the couples who get married at St. Patrick's within the coming years. After the dinner dishes had been cleared away, one person from each table stood and read aloud what the table had decided was "good" wisdom. There were some very profound sayings, some very sentimental sayings and of course some very funny comments.


It was nice to hear all the different words of wisdom from all the years of marriage. They announced that in the room, between all the couples, there was something around 2,078 years of marriage (I can't remember the exact number they announced).

One of the couples got up with a guitar and microphone and lead the room in the song "Only You." They sang it all the way through once and then the second time around, they instructed all the husbands to get down on their knees and take their wives hands and serenade them with the song. The above picture is my husband down on his knee preparing to serenade me. It was pretty funny to watch a room full men down on their knees singing away. It was really neat.

The shortest married couple in the church was 3 months. They were not in attendance though so they named off the next shortest married couple. It was one other couple and us with 3 years. The longest married couple in attendance was a couple who had been married for 60 years.

On the stage they had a wedding cake. They asked the longest married couple and us, the shortest married couple to come up on stage and cut the cake. Each couple had a knife, and we took our position on each side of the cake and on the count of three we cut the wedding cake.

After the cake was cut it was cut up and served for all to enjoy. It was delicious!

With our 4 year anniversary approaching, this was a nice night to have together. We were married in the church that held the special mass that evening and we had our wedding reception at the same convention center with many of the same guests as the couples that were there that night. It was like a complete circle for us.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to the next one as they are saying they want to make this a yearly event!

As part of the decor in the room, they had hung up a quilt that the women of the church had made about 9 years ago. The quilt was made to honor Mary on her feast days. All the women of the church were invited to create a square of the quilt that represented them. As I was looking at the quilt I was able to find the squares that my mom, my sister and I had made all those years ago. The above picture is the square my mom made. It has my mom, me, my sister and my brother on it. The bottom is a verse out of the bible and it reads: "...As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

This was my sister's square. Funny, not much has changed since she made this square. Her passion for art has not gone away and she still enjoys playing outside and doing such things as basketball.

And here is the square I made. I still am strong in my faith, I still love music and theater (although I don't actively participate in either these days) and I still look for the sun to come through in tough times. It was neat to see this old quilt.

After we had gotten home from the celebration, some friends called us up and let us know they were in town and out at a local spot. So, we went and met up with them for some drinks.

We didn't stay out for long but it was nice to see Erin and Dan, Diane and Dalton and Candace and Waylon.

Overall, it was another really nice night to have together before the fall semester of school goes into full go mode. And on that note: If the blog seems to fall behind I apologize in advance. When school gets going it gets hard to keep up sometimes. Throw in everything else and it can get downright crazy. I will try and keep up though.

Love and blessings to everyone!