A Golden Party

Sally holding her original wedding dress that she made 50 years ago.(How did she keep it so white?)

Marion is holding up Mary's bridesmaid dress which Mum also made.

My Parents celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on the day yesterday.

It was very special as they had all but 2 of their original wedding party there (including the priest that married them, Father Ken Sargent whose first wedding was Mum and Dad's, he also married Brandt and I in 1995).

Here is an edited excerpt from an email that my Dad wrote.

Well,the 7th February,2009 dawned bright.We awoke & congratulated each other,then we saw an enormous golden orb rise up from the sea -a happy fitting omen. We went to morning Mass to give thanks to God for each other,then down to Mike & Kate's new beautiful white palace on the waterfront at Grays Point for a substantial finger food lunch,followed by glasses of Vodka White Ladies & Champagne, as that's what Sally wanted -no big Cecil B. de Mille production- just family & close friends. It was a lovely,lovely day.

Remarkably,there were 4 people there who were at the original wedding in 1959 -Sally.me,Marion,(her bridesmaid who Sally met on the ship during their move to Australia from England in 1950) and Father Ken,who married us.

Ken was so impressed at all the love & laughter in the room & he sadly remembered so many of other marriages that he did,which had failed. He got me to sit with him in a corner overlooking the river view for 45 mins.& got me to tell all the news of every Lyle & to tell him more Qantas yarns.
Mike took a photo of us with our heads close together & quipped'Is this the Confessional?'
Joan & David made up a beautiful scrapbook of our long friendship with them. Mandy mounted our original wedding photos in a neat golden frame & Jake put our old family home movies on a disc,which ran continually on the wall & gave us lots of laughs!
The girls made up platters of fresh prawns,smoked salmon,little quiches & of course,Mum's famous & delectable sausage rolls & Italian meat balls! The finale was a huge white cake with golden trim & a large "50th Golden Anniversary" scroll on it.
Mandy made a very beautiful toast from the bottom of her heart & got quite emotional,which we all loved & a few tears were dabbed away.In fact it was so good that I got emotional,too!
As guests had to drift away to other commitments,we just sat out on the verandah & reminisced for hours. A refreshing cool sea breeze sprung up & drove the 34 degree heat away.
It was a fabulous day & we can hardly wait another 50 years for the next one!
Thank you for all of your love & friendship over the years. We love you! Sally & Roy.

Jessica who works at a florist made this beautiful bouquet for Mum using Tuberoses and Ivy, just like her original bouquet.

Jess wearing Mary's bridesmaid's gown. Mum made all the dresses.

Jenni organized the cake, it looks beautiful.

The photo of Mum and Dad laughing is when we brought up that they were unconventional and didn’t fit the norm stereotype of all Mums cooking and Dad hammering nails as we all know Mum did the hammering, fixing etc and Dad would be turning the satay sticks on his Hibachi on the verandah. I cant remember what was said but it was one of Mums quick one liners I'm sure.

This was a quote from my sister Jenni who sent these great Photos, Thankyou.

Party photos.

We hope they had a lovely day, It sounds like they did.