February 15th, 2017

How did you all celebrate Valentine's Day?  Did you go out to dinner somewhere nice?  Did you exchange cards?  Did you send or receive candy or flowers?  That's really nice!  Tim and I got married again.

Wait?  What?

Yup that is exactly what we did.  They had this event here in Venice yesterday called, "I Do, Again".  300 or so people, that's at least 150 couples, registered to get married all over again.  It was so fun!  Like attending a really great party on the beach, only you only actually know one other person.

We signed up for this dealio about a month ago. Never having done this remarrying thing, we had no idea what to expect of course, but it was easy peasy.  We walked over to the beach about an hour before the ceremony, as requested and were greeted with gifts, an official photograph (that's it below - I never do well with "official" photos) cupcakes and a rose for the bride. Oh that would be me.

Then we, all 300+ of us, waited for things to get underway.  We did what everyone else was doing. We sang along with the DJ'ed music, danced on the sand, people watched, talked to total strangers and took photos both silly and .....

....  Not so silly.

The people watching was great!  The dress code was non-existent.  There were men in tuxedos and men in bathing suits.  There were women in full length evening gowns with tiaras and women in swim wear.  Some people wore shorts,  some ladies wore dresses (I wore a dress) and a surprising number of women wearing veils which I never thought of as beachy before, but I do now.

The couple married the longest in attendance had logged in more than 60 years.  The most newly wed had just over a year to their credit.  I think most of us fit in somewhere in the middle.  Everyone was happy to be there. I saw no faces that were less than smiling as we all talked and laughed and sang and danced together.

Then  just as the sun was beginning to set, the Judge stepped up, we all stood and spoke together:

"On our wedding day, I made a choice.
It was the most important choice of my life.
On that day, I chose you to be my souse.
Many times since then,
I have chosen you again.
The reason is simple: no other person
has ever made me this happy.
No one else brings me such joy.
I want to stay with you for the rest of my life.
Not because I feel obligated to meet your needs
but because you continue to meet mine.
On our wedding day, I made a choice.
I make it still.
I promise to live with you, to trust you and to cherish you.
I will love you when we are apart as well as when we are together.
I will love you in sickness and in health,
in good times and bad.
I pledge myself to be ever faithful to you with my body, my mind and my heart.
We have been together before.
We are together now.
We will be together always."

Awesome!

And considering that we shared our day with a huge groups of people we did not know, surprisingly romantic.

Then the music started up again. People danced and sang some more, took photos and somebody set off fireworks!

But we took just one more photo and then we walked back home.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine's Day.