Our First Fifth Anniversary
Tuesday, 27 May 2008 -- 8:43 amFriday was the first of our two 5-year wedding anniversaries, so we decided to mark the occasion in the same way we did the original event:
2003: 
2008: 
We had to use the photobooth at the T-bane station, so we had to settle for four copies of the same pose. But we’ll take what we can get, especially since it was rather late at night! Incidentally, we realized on the way home that with the time difference, we took the new photo almost exactly 5 years after the first one!
The background story:
If you didn’t already know, Lucas and I actually had two seperate weddings…Because of immigration complications, we had a legal ceremony at the local court six months before the actual wedding. At the time, I was concerned that this would somehow take away from the importance of the wedding (I was wrong), so we didn’t even take a camera to our legal marriage ceremony. Erin and Mike did drive down from Dallas to be witnesses and sign our marriage certificate in order to provide a more legitimate-looking picture to the INS/BCIS/USCIS (it changed names three times during our green card quest).
Our appointment with the judge was one of the last of the day, because Lucas actually went to work that day (Erin and I took the time off to shop for bridesmaids’ dresses). Unfortunately, that meant that we were finished and married right in the middle of afternoon rush hour. To pass the time until traffic cleared, we drove over to nearby Northcross Mall. Anyone who’s lived in Austin will tell you that this is one of the saddest, most derelict malls still in business, but it was close, and we didn’t have anything else to do.
While we were wandering around, we passed the old photo booth by the defunct indoor ice rink, and we got a brilliant idea. We’d take “Wedding Photos!” So Lucas and I climbed inside and took a strip of photos that we ended up hanging on our refrigerator door as a conversation piece. Those photos ended up semi-famous when we ended up featured in a story by USA Today about reasons so many couples are having more than one wedding. The photos from our legal ceremony were so unique that they decided to lead with them and they ended up printed across the front page of the Life section!
May 29th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I’m glad you posted that, I don’t think I’ve ever read the the story in USA Today. Or maybe I knew about it at the time and I forgot.
Anyway, the photo booth pictures are adorable and I would have put you on the cover as well!
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 am
Wow… it’s hard to believe how quickly time really passes. Kerry and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this past fall – but our 7th, since our ceremony. We kind of have the double dates thing too, with the fact that our relationship still isn’t “real” in the eyes of the government. We have “our” date 10/14/1997, the date that we had our ceremony 10/14/2000, and the date that our Vermont Union Certificate is signed 10/28/2000.
I doubt we’ll ever be famous enough (or beautiful enough *wink*) to make it into USA Today.