Sunday, June 13, 2010

43 YEARS AND ETERNITY TO GO - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

OUR WEDDING EVENTS!
First, I had a wedding shower given me by my close friends. Most of these friends were from the I'll Be True Club; which was a group of friends that were waiting for missionaries and also some friends from nursing school. I remember how I had such a good time at my shower. We laughed and cried; it was a great evening. One of shower activities in those days was to make a wedding dress out of tissue paper. The dress was made on me. my friends had a great time doing that. The dress was very creative to say the least. Roger the groom showed up later to see what I had been given for gifts and to say good bye to my friends.
It was also popular in those days to have various items for your trousseau. I had bought some china and also had pillow cases and dish towels that were embroidered with various scenes. One of the highlights of preparation was when 4 of my great aunts came and quilted two quilts for me. One of the quilts was made out of extra dress material from the many dresses my mother had made for me. The other quilt was a beautiful pink quilt with a star made up of other pastel colors; also with material left over from Prom dresses. Of course, my father charmed my great aunts by dancing with them. I will forever treasure those moments of time.
 My precious mother made my wedding dress and veil. At that time I probably didn't appreciate all the love and work that went into making my dress.
The day before our wedding day was filled with so much to do that by the early evening both Roger and I were exhausted; so we parted early in the evening to see if we could try to get some sleep.
Roger came to pick me up around 8am to go to the temple. My sweet mother had also made me a white lace dress to wear to the temple and after the wedding. My mother of course took a picture of us before we left for the temple. Roger had a new suit; it was a light olive pin strip suit and he looked so handsome.
We were both really nervous about getting married; but also very excited. We arrived at the temple and were taken into the office to fill out the needed paper work. My Mother and Dad were suppose to be at the temple by  8:30am and they were late. I was so nervous because she had my wedding dress and of course we couldn't get married without them. They soon arrived and we both were taken to the areas to get ready for the marriage. When we were ready they took us up to the sealing room in the Salt Lake Temple where we ended up waiting for about an hour for Elder Ezra Taft Benson to arrive to marry us. While we were waiting for him to come I remember just sitting in that room with our families and feeling so grateful for them all. I was so much in love with this awesome man I was about to marry. I guess you could say I was marrying the love of my life and my best friend for time and all eternity. I knew beyond a doubt he felt the same way about me. As we knelt across the alter and looked at each other; how we loved each other so much and we could finally be together for an eternity. I couldn't even begin to tell you what Elder Benson said as he sealed our marriage; but I did feel the spirit and love that was present in the room that day.
Elder Benson asked us to come to his office in a year and visit with him again. We were so blessed to have him be able to seal us. Roger's father was well acquainted with him so he was happy to do that for us. It was unusual in that day to have one of the 12 Apostles do a wedding sealing for anyone except family. We didn't get back in a year to see him; but we did go back in 2 years and had a wonderful discussion with him in his office. Later of course he became the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
 It was raining that day as we left the temple and luckily we had an umbrella. As we went out on the street a woman came up to us and said; I hope you are as happy in 40 years as you are today. We have so much more love in our hearts for one another now than on that day. We have had such a good life thus far together and our love has grown and expanded until there is no way to really express it.
Roger's parents had a wedding breakfast at the Lamplighter Restaurant for us and all our families were there. 
In the evening we had a reception. It was well attended and we had a really good time. My wedding cake was beautiful. My colors for my wedding line were pink and light green. 
One of the stressful moment of the evening was when we changed our clothes and prepared to leave for our Honeymoon. My brother and some of Roger's brothers took our Volkswagen and put it up on cinder blocks. I didn't think it was funny at all. After getting a little upset they finally took it down.
We had made reservation for a motel in Grandsvill, Utah. As we left late for Grantsville it was raining really hard. One of the windshield wipers wouldn't work so Roger could hardly see while driving. We had to go very slow. When we finally arrived in Grantsville we went to the motel and the lights were out and we couldn't get anyone to help us. We realized that they had probably given our room a way. We drove around for a few moments and finally found a motel that had their lights on. It was not really a welcoming type of motel; but we were tired and grateful to have a room.
Another stressful moment was when I was getting ready for bed there was a cockroach in the bathroom sink that really freaked me out.
The next day we left on our honeymoon to Northern California. So for the next 10 days we had a glorious time in Northern California. This is where Roger had served his two year mission. We loved the ocean and the various areas we visited. It was a great honeymoon.
We have been married for 43 years and have had many life experiences together; some hard but mostly good moments. We have been so blessed to have the children, and grandchildren that we have. We love and treasure each one of them so much. We both have deep and abiding testimonies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We love our Heavenly Father and our Savior more than mere words can express. We love the temple and feel so blessed to be able to work there. We have been deeply blessed in so many ways. Our love for each other is priceless. We love our posterity and out greatest desire is that we can all be in the Celestial Kingdom together; we want no empty chairs. Our family brings us our greatest joys.

 Happy Anniversary to my dearest love on June 13th. 

4 comments:

Barb said...

Happy Anniversary Roger and LeAnn!!! You are a very special couple, you can see that you were, and are so very much in love - won't eternity be wonderful? I hope that you are going to do something really fun for your anniversary, you deserve it!

Much love,

Barb

singing/granny said...

Happy Anniversary! How beautiful you look...in both pictures! Loved reading your blog today! Melody

Marie Rayner said...

Happy Anniversary LeAnn and Roger! I, so , loved reading all about your wedding and sealing together. How wonderful that you had an Apostle of the Lord to do the sealing. I am sure it has been an extra special blessing to you! A beautiful post and testimony of how good things are when you do them right!

Cheryl @ TFD said...

What a great looking couple...then and now! Happy Anniversary! My hubby and I celebrated our 39th on June 12. Enjoyed your post.

Take care,
Cheryl