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Monday, January 23, 2012

How Time Flies!

Today is my wedding anniversary.  January 23, the dead of winter.  "Ah, destination wedding," you may be thinking.  No, no.  No one had destination weddings in those days.  I know, not everyone would consider a January wedding in Chicago of all places.  I had been living in North Carolina for a year and a half, teaching freshman English at NC State. The future husband and I had some big long-distance charges in those days.  Then in October, we met in Boston for Columbus Day weekend.  We decided to get married after my semester ended.  So between late October and the wedding, I resigned from my job, the future husband bought a condo, I packed up my stuff and had it moved to Chicago, and that was that.

over the threshold
The day of our wedding was bitter cold with a dusting of snow on the ground.  We all wore heavy coats and gloves to the wedding.  The wedding was in Bond Chapel, a wonderful small Gothic chapel on the University of Chicago campus.  We had only nine guests, including the best man and matron of honor.  I wore purple.  It was a high-necked, long-sleeved, fitted wool dress (hey, it was January) that I can't even imagine being able to fit into again.  We held our "reception" in our new condo with homemade food, a sweet little cake, and lots of champagne.  It was fun, low-key, and just right.

Yesterday we decided to revisit the old neighborhood.  We went by Bond Chapel.  An Eastern Orthodox service was just ending.  We waited until we saw some people leave, then we sneaked in for a peek.  Whoops, they were having a fellowship lunch in the foyer.  It was a little awkward, but we slipped past the people with their paper plates of food to see the nave and the stained glass windows.  It looked exactly the same.

Bond Chapel

We went past our first home, the condo across from a park.  The park was filled with children sledding down a little hill. There seemed to be more children than when we lived there.  The Lutheran School of Theology two doors down had expanded its parking lot and blocked access to the alley, but otherwise, everything looked almost exactly the same.

third floor walk-up and a stained glass pizza
We also went to lunch at our favorite pizza place, Medici on 57th.  I snapped a phone picture of my husband with a bit of wall and booth background and sent it to our daughter.  "Guess where we are?"  She texted back, "Without me?" Yep.  Just the two of us, back in the neighborhood where our married life began on another cold January day in Chicago, twenty-four years ago.


24 comments:

  1. and many happy returns of the day! congratulations on your anniversary. i think your wedding sounds perfectly wonderful, cold-condo-small guest list- and homemade food. what's not to love????

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  2. Love this post of yours! Happy Anniversary! Love the pictures! Really sweet!
    Following you now!
    Carol from Carol's Jewelry Orchard on Etsy
    Member of the Etsy Blog Team
    Fellow Mid-westerner (Is that correct English?)

    Glad I found you! (Or you found me) Thanks for posting on my blog!
    Carol

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  3. Happy anniversary! What a sweet post! The church is so beautiful.

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  4. Happy Anniversary! I really love this post and the photos too!!

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  5. What a lovely story. And that chapel is so beautiful. And what a wonderful thing to do on your anniversary - take a trip back to where it all began. I'm glad everything is still standing. Happy Anniversary!

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  6. Well - that's lovely to read: happy anniversary and we'll all start saving for the Silver one next year! Congratulations. Sounds like a "real" wedding should be. We had ours (42 years ago) in the middle of the week, so that only those who really, really wanted to and could make it, did. We, too, had a small wedding (just 36 - instead of the many we might have) and never regretted it.

    All the best to you both.

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  7. Happy anniversary, what a beautiful church! I hope you have a fantastic day:)

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  8. How sweet it must have been to revisit those places that meant so much to you both. Happy Anniversary!

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  9. what a great post. thanks for sharing this bit of you with us! It's great visiting the past, happy anniversary.
    Debbi
    -ourhometoyours

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  10. What a beautiful journey back! Happy Anniversary and to many more years of happiness!

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  11. Congratulations and happy anniversary!! 1988 was a great year to get married. It's our year too. Here's to 24 more!

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  12. Happy happy anniversary! What a fun way to spend your day--reminiscing and taking time for just the two of you! So nice to "meet" you over at my blog today!

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  13. Your wedding sounded divine! The church is beautiful and your reception sounded just right! Congrats on your anniversary!!

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  14. Happy Anniversary!! The church is absolutely beautiful!!! I love revisiting old places.. they bring back so many good memories =)

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  15. Congratulations!!! 24 years is wonderful and such an inspiration. I know all about cold January weddings, our anniversary was last week and the year we got married we were having record-breaking cold weather here in MA! It was a great time. So lovely to hear about another fellow January wedder. . . may you enjoy many more wonderful years together!

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  16. Happy Anniversary! What a special thing to do on a special day:)

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  17. That's a lovely story - I love the small ceremony, the unconventional (at least they would seem so now) dress, reception, time of year. What matters is not the trappings, but the solid foundation, the love and the commitment. Happy anniversary!

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  18. So sweet! Happy Anniversary a day late!!! What a wonderful way to celebrate. That church is beautiful!!! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

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  19. Thank you all for your sweet comments and good wishes.

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  20. Happy anniversary! What a wonderfulnwaybto celebrate! I love our city (even though it is way too cold here in the winter!)

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  21. I love this, how untraditional and yet beautiful your wedding day was! Congratulations belated, wish you many more years of happiness and satisfaction!

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  22. I really enjoyed reading about your wedding day, it was so sweet and I love how it was so understated, I think a lot of people these days kind of miss the point a bit when they have these massive affairs for their wedding. Congrats to you and your husband!

    A
    x

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  23. What a lovely way to celebrate your anniversary, and what a complication-free wedding to begin with! The church is stunning. I love how you and your husband are beaming in your wedding photo and you have your arm around him as if to say, "Today I married my best bud."

    Happy anniversary! It'll be your silver anniversary next year.

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