Happy 40th Anniversary
Monte and Alan
❤️
Every May 1st for forty years, I think of my long-time friend, former roomie and fellow college art student, Ann Marie aka Monte. Here she is on her wedding day, May 1, 1979 with her Maid of Honor: me (on the left). This photo is proof that I once had a different hair style and color! And just one of many small Brownie snapshots of a most memorable day.
I remember someone hung a May basket on her garden gate, the only time I've ever seen that happen in real life. No doubt a common occurrence in Bekeley!
When friends talk about wonderful weddings — though my own was lovely — I always describe Monte's. The bride, an award-winning jeweler, made the wedding rings. Her mother, a skilled and creative seamstress, made her daughter's wedding dress. This photo doesn't begin to do justice to the beauty of the fabric or the design. The wedding cake was the contribution of the bride's brother, a rising chef. The ceremony was in the garden of the happy couple's Berkeley bungalow.
Looking through my pictures of this wedding was like looking through my own wedding photos: More bittersweet with every passing year as I remember all those who are no longer with us.
Dear Monte: Though it has been a long time since we've been together in person, you and Alan and your families are always in my thoughts and heart — especially on this day.
What a lovely tribut to a good friend - those memories seem to surface more as I myself become more contemplative every year. Monte and her family were very talented - what a joy it must have been for them all to contribute to that happy day.
Posted by: Barbara H. | Wednesday, May 01, 2019 at 06:45 AM
It must have been a beautiful occasion to have been embedded so well in your memory. Although I was an attendant in 2 weddings, both of which ended in divorce within one year (!), I remember little about them except for the bridesmaid dresses (enough said about those). Another friend asked me to be in her wedding some years later and I begged off, saying I felt I might be some kind of jinx given how the earlier events went. That also may be why, when my husband and I decided to wed after a decade together, we opted for a 15-minute ceremony performed by a local traffic court judge on his lunch break.
Posted by: Kris P | Wednesday, May 01, 2019 at 06:13 PM
Oh, that is so special. What a sweet remembrance. You are both lovely. I can see that the wedding dress was expertly and lovingly created. Sometimes the memories of particular days in our lives are so special and become crystalline in our memories--almost as if they just happened yesterday. My niece's wedding from a few years ago was one of those days.
Posted by: Beth@PlantPostings | Wednesday, May 01, 2019 at 08:07 PM
What wonderful memories. Both of your look good. The bride's dress is gorgeous.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Thursday, May 02, 2019 at 04:30 PM
Kris, you are so funny. I imagine it didn't feel so funny when those couples got a divorce though.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Thursday, May 02, 2019 at 04:32 PM