A 70th Wedding Anniversary Celebration | Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Hello, March! I know it’s been quiet over here as we’ve been busy photographing the sweetest of people and the events they are celebrating.
Take for example, this couple highlighted in our video. Len and Doris recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. You read that correctly – 7. 0. Wedding Anniversary. I know that 25 years is a silver anniversary, and 50 years is a golden wedding anniversary, but I had to look up what the symbol was for 70 years. It is a platinum wedding anniversary! Take a look to hear a wee bit about their story. I won’t give it all away here…okay, okay…actually I will.
I had to ask this lovely couple how they met. It turns out that Len was going to the movies with some friends, and they happened to arrive early. A couple of doors down there was a dance going on, so they ventured in for cookies and Cokes. It was then that one of Len’s friends spied a pretty girl that he wanted to ask to dance. Unfortunately, she was talking to someone else, and Len’s friend mentioned this to him. Len walks over to the girl, with the intention of interrupting the conversation to help his friend out. As he approached the couple chatting, the other young man stepped away. Len decided to ask the girl to dance. She accepted. When Len’s friend came over to remind him the movie was starting, and they had to go, Len told his friends to go on to the movies. He was staying right here with this lovely lady, Doris. (I had to ask if the friend was mad in any way that he had decided to ask the girl to dance. He said, ‘No, not at all.’)
A couple of years later, this lovely couple got married. In February of 2019, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with a champagne toast at their home in Chapel Hill surrounded by their family. If there is one thing that I have learned from photographing weddings and anniversary parties, it is this: there is great love all around us. There are chances and people and opportunities. Take the opportunity when it presents itself.
My mother used to always say to me: “Follow your heart, and your feet will follow.”
I think Len also subscribed to this belief when he found his bride-to-be on that dance floor, whether he knew it or not. He may have had the intention to interrupt on behalf of a friend, and instead life intervened for him. 70 years later, here they are.
Thank you to the clients who trust me to capture these moments, these celebrations of your lives.
Warmly,
Barbara Bell
