A Very Special Day

For us, this is a very special day.  A most memorable, romantic, idyllic day.  It happened one year ago, today, and will remain special for us, forever. This also explains why Red Rock Canyon, NV is such a memorable place for us, and will remain so.  Because we had some inquiries from family and friends, we decided to share our very special day.

We so vividly remember this day, one year ago, a simple, casual ceremony, like our life had become, at the spur of a moment, in a Las Vegas wedding chapel across from the Court House, unexpectedly having to go inside when our dually truck wouldn't fit in the "Tunnel of Love" to the drive-thru window for the ultra quick ceremony.  We exchanged the silver wedding bands we had inscribed with "anois agus go deo", in Gaelic meaning, "Love, Now and Forever."  I respectively slipped my grandmothers, Mary Elmira McDougal Loftis' simple silver wedding band from 1926 between my new wedding band and the peridot engagement ring Chris had given me.  Afterwards, we drove to Red Rock Canyon for a celebratory picnic and hike, where we devoured smoked salmon, Tillamook smoked cheddar cheese, Greek olives and still warm French bread.  Following with red velvet cupcakes and champagne we toasted to new beginnings, new adventures, and to "Love, Now and Forever." 
We had both been married once before, many moons ago, with the large traditional church weddings and receptions.  'Been there, done that.'  This time we wanted simple and casual.

Chris and his Mother, 1982 in Largo, Florida

Leslie and her 3 sisters in Tillamook, Oregon, 1985

So the scenery will be much different for us this year.  We again will be en route to Oregon, but this year in the state of California, surrounded and enthralled by the beauty of the majestic snow-capped eastern Sierra Nevada mountains.  Again we will celebrate while sharing a memorable picnic  and  toasts with champagne to our life, our love and our current and future adventures together, and ending with an exhilarating, scenic hike.  How we met 10 years ago in Indialantic, Florida, on a public beach across from 'Big Island Burrito', is another story to be told, another day.
  
Cheers!