My sweet Honey Bunny and I just celebrated 23 years together, 16 of them as husband and wife.
We were married in the gorgeous historic Hall of Springs in Saratoga Springs NY. It has a beautiful palace like atmosphere that is as gorgeous and elegant as can be. We celebrated with nearly 300 of our loved ones and were fortunate to have 6 of our grandparents there.
Our relationship truly is magical, we are so in love.
Jojo and Loris one of my dearest friends in the world. I am so blessed because I am loved by such wonderful people.
This is my Italian grandmother Carmella. She passed away 3 years ago. When she was in her early 60′s she was diagnosed with breast cancer that spread to many many lymphnodes and both breasts, they gave her only 6 months to live. She passed away at 91 from old age!! She loved to bake, cook and dance the night away…I miss her.
The girls, many of them I have known since I was very very young and are still my best friends to this day.
This is Father A. I grew up with him as my priest in the small town I’m from in upstate NY. Father is an avid skier, tennis player, hiker and organized many trips for us growing up that were so much fun.
Josh and I were engaged on February 2 1993, we planned to be married over a year later, three months later I wasn’t feeling well and thought I had the flu, you may know where this story is heading. Well it wasn’t the flu it was our soon to be son Samuel. I was 27 years old planning a wedding out of state for hundreds of people, had everything planned and bought my gown plus was launching a huge project at work. Can’t I ever do anything small and easy???
I made Josh call my parents to tell them..HA it was the least he could do as I was dealing with 24 hour a day “morning sickness”. One of my concerns was tellling father, we decided to move the wedding up to October 15, 1993, I love the Autumn and upstate NY is magical at that time of the year. I told Father A. that I was pregnant and asked him if would he still marry us?? He looked at me confused and said of course, why?? He said that we loved each other, had been together for 7 years and were already planning to be married!! He not only embraced us as an interfaith couple, he encouraged us during the ceremony to not give up our own personal religious beliefs and then had my husband stomp on the glass and break it. Now if that is what being religious means..I’ll take it
I really loved walking down the aisle and having my soon to be husband watching his soon to be wife and soon to be son coming to join him as a family for the rest of our lives. My baby kicked all the way down the aisle It was beautiful.
This is my dad before his stroke. He is still doing great and happy as can be.
I love this picture I can still feel the magic of that night.
See the Bunny’s at the top of the cake.I married my Prince Charming but that doesn’t always mean life is a fairy tale. I had our son three months later and 7 months after that was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Never in a million years did I think that the words in our vows, in sickness and in health would apply to us until we were very very old. It took me a long long time to feel well and there are days I am sad and not feeling too great. I always try to see the glass half full and to stay positive, my cancer was 15 years ago. I am so blessed to have so many people who love me and are there for me.
Now since I have been together with my husband for so long I’ll share a few of my tips for having a happy and successful marriage:
1) I pay attention to my husband and make him feel loved because he is, basically I don’t take him for granted.
2) I’m fun who the hell wants a boring wife???
3) I care about how I look and he loves it!!
4) It doesn’t matter if you make it or fake it, men love good food and I think it is very loving to have a nice meal together, maybe that sounds old fashioned but he feels special when I cook him a delicious fillet mignon especially since I eat mainly vegetarian..he knows I am thinking of him.
5) When my husband comes home from work the last thing he wants to hear about is Betty from two towns over and how mean she was to me today blah blah blah… Remember, Betty from two towns over is MISERABLE and Betty from two towns over wants to be YOU. Don’t waste your precious time worrying about ridiculous miserable people.
6) We put each other first.
7) We always respect and encourage each other.
We throw lots of fun parties…I know first hand that life isn’t always a party even at The Paris House but happy times with each other , loved ones and friends is very important and enhances your love and appreciation for each other.
Now I hope Dr. Bunny helped all of you young unmarried gals out there and I did my part to lower the divorce rate. Honestly I really don’t find marriage hard work at all. Its wonderful!!
all photographs are by Lloyds of Troy , New York
mom good ilove it and you to go go ga gaxoxo oliver
Happy Anniversary Bunny and Mr Bunny! You are so beautiful… inside and out sweet Bunny… I know you celebrate every day of your beautiful life, and make others so happy too! Yours is a “happily ever after” story with a few twists and turns in between… I love that your grandma lived such a long happy life and loved to dance! I do believe one’s attitude towards life is what makes one live long! Love to you… Bisous… Julie Marie
Oh, what a beautiful wedding and touching story!!!!! Thank you so much for the gentle reminder of how to appreciate my sweet husband of 20 years, and how to appreciate life. I am so happy you overcame your cancer and are here to inspire us all!! I love that first picture of you and your hubby (so beautiful), and your bridesmaids dresses were divine!!!
xxx kim
You and Mr. Bunny are the cutest things ever! Love all these photos and the stories that went with them! Happy Anniversary to you both! And wishing you many, many more years of marital bliss!
P.S. I totally agree with every single one of your ‘tips’!
Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Bunny!
Enjoy reading the touching story…
and the cake is what else…it’s so you!
I shall take the sound tips to heart, you are so much better than Dr Phill!
xo*+ much blessings to your marriage~
That was beautiful Bunny…I just think your dress was gorgeous!!!
Im so glad you shared your tips for a happy marriage too! I think alot of married couples forget why it was they got married in the first place, but you can definately tell that you have not forgotten. It’s funny, you can just tell in how you write about your hubby and family just how much you love ALL of them!
Im so happy that you are healthy and wish you the happiest anniversary EVER!!!
Your friend…
Danielle
Happy Anniversary!!! I know there will be many more
Touching and lovely story, enjoyed every minute of reading it. (hugs to you Bunny!)
Happy Anniversary Bunny!
You make such a beautiful couple….your love for each other is evident. Your wedding pictures are so pretty…..the words were so sweet to read!
I love your advice…you are so right!!! I need to start practicing more of those points
hugs,
Mimi
Happy Anniversary you two! Wow those pics were a blast from the past! Oh my God, my hair! loved the pic of me & JOJO boogying!
Love to all, Loris
Congratulations on your Anniversary! What a lovely lovely Bride you were! You are truly blessed to have such a good relationship with your husband…I too have a wonderful wonderful husband! Thank you for sharing this with us today!
Loris, I love the picture of you and Jojo!! It was so nice to hear from you today on my blog…I miss you!!!
Ohhhhhhh, Bunny. You were such a gorgeous bride. No shock there. It’s so inspirational how crazy in love you still are with your hubs!
What a beautiful post sweet friend! I loved seeing your wedding day photos and you made a stunning bride! It’s so nice to hear about couples that are happy and get through life’s twist and turns by holding onto each other for strength…I’m so glad the two of you have each other!
Thank you for all of your wonderful tips, I couldn’t agree with you more…even after marriage, we still need to act like a girlfriend!
I adore and love you sweet friend! Have a fabulous weekend!!
Anonymous would be me…silly me, few days away from blogging and I forgot how to comment!
What a lovely tribute to your husband, your marriage, your family, friends & son. You were a beautiful bride & what’s important, you had a wonderful day & those special feelings have lasted until this day. You gave great advice & I totally agree. I swear I got Graham thru not my “good looks (ha)” but through his stomach! I am sad to know though that your life has been so deeply impacted by cancer. Happy that you’ve been cancer free for 15 yrs. & praying that will never, ever return.
I must thank you for your kind comments on my blog. You are always so supportive & it is greatly appreciated. Life is wonderful but it can be so painful too. I guess that is for us to never take for granted the good times & our loved ones. I just can’t image life without my mom.
Hope your weekend is off to a good start? All the best to you ~ xx deb
So pretty Michele love the photos! So nice to see traditional longtime love with so much life and happiness…God bless you both and your three boys…
How sweet! These are such great pics!
What adorable and beautiful photos of you and Mr. Bunny! Congrats on your 23 years together, what an accomplishment. I agree with you on making them feel loved – I just love making special food for my hubby. And I rarely complain about other people to him… it’s so trivial and it so doesn’t matter. Oh, the things you learn as you get older! Tis the wisdom. How I wish I had a healthy dose of it when I was in my 20s.
Hope you and the Mister are having a beautiful weekend.
Thanks for stopping by my blog, it was lovely to have you.
Happy Anniversary Bunny!
U are a beautiful couple.
Hope U had a great weekend, Darling!
XoXo