Thirty years ago today, I walked down the isle of the Kingdom Hall to be given in marriage. Surprsingly we are still married!
David was 20 yrs old and I was 19. We had been baptised about 6 months earlier and had been dating since I was 14 and David 15. I had family who were jws and I became really interested when I was about 17. I managed to convert David within a year or two.
Once we were baptised we were pressured by the congregation to get married as they didn't think it appropriate that we should keep dating, year in year out "without marriage in view" - though we had no money nor did either of us have a full time job. I was pioneering and David was finishing a university degree to please his worldy parents. My parents gave us $500 to spend on a wedding, but we preferred to save the money towards the preaching work and so our wedding was a rather dismal affair with nothing of a celebratory tone about it. Every thing was borrowed or recycled - even our shoes. You name it - we did it on the cheap. I tend to think the brides of war time England with their severe rationing managed a more joyous event than our wedding.
We had an afternoon tea held in a dingy library hall - where our meetings were held in those days. I had given the sisters sixty dollars to spend on tea, coffee and milk and to buy a few cakes. Witness guests were meant to bring a plate, but I guess it was an off pay week and very little food was contributed . I was terribly embarrassed as Davids parents and friends were professional people - engineers and arcitects etc. God only knows what they thought of the occassion. Laughable I imagine.
The only thing I regret is not having real flowers to carry in my hand. I would have loved to have had one item of decadence to lend some class to the occassion.
We left the wedding group to go out to dinner - David recalls we ordered a half bottle of wine between us and then we returned to our newly rented apartment - which was a looooooong way short of luxurious. We didn't go on a honeymoon.
We stayed witnesses for another eight long years after that. When we left, a CO told me that David would be unlikely to stay faithful to me outside the umbrella of the Organisation. I took that as an mean spirited insult and told him I'd take my chances - (coz I didn't think I was that bloody ugly)!
Anyway I guess there is a moral to the story - the wedding day doesn't count for much. We've had a great life together and we just spend the weekend in Macau where we paid an exhorbant amount of money to stay in a five star hotel with all the trimmings. We don't need that stuff - but it's nice to be able to do it occasionally.
Anyone else with a wt wedding story?
Marilyn