Page 22 - Mega Bridal Issue

30 YEARS ON

22
By Robert Tussey

In July Lori and I will celebrate our thirty year anniversary. The
traditional gift would be pearls. The modern list says diamonds.
Either way the choices leave little room for error (I say confidently).
In 1981 when we began making the plans it just seemed natural
for us to do it together. After all, I was a new age guy and had the
chops. How hard could it be? Tuxes for the guys and dresses for
the women. We already knew we liked the same colors. Flowers?
No problem. Food? Come on, we all eat… If only I knew then what
I know now.
We were paying for the wedding and were on a tight budget.
Neither of us wanted the little chapel in Vegas but hindsight would
teach us that an Elvis impersonator and plastic flowers would have
saved a lot of frustration. We finally decided on the Princess Louise
which was docked in the shadow of the Queen Mary in San Pedro.
That should have been a sign. The menu was limited but we achieve. But the show went on and we posed for all the pictures
wanted a full sit down meal so we settled on the chicken with pilaf
and veggies and rolls. You’ve heard of the rubber chicken comics while making an escape plan.
use? Uh huh! There’s a KFC right down the strip in Vegas (from So much of life begins in calamity. Remember your first day in kin-
the chapel) that would have given us warmer food and more smiles. dergarten or junior high and high school? And the terror of your first
prom, and dating, and first day on the job; all were beginnings that
The children (this is another group to minimize at a wedding) at our seemed to work out. Here we are 30 years on and we’ve toughed
services were using the rolls as hockey pucks – between the tables.
Lori agreed I would choose the band. Let’s just say that their cas- it out. The bond that made us strong continues to help us wade
sette didn’t do them justice and their picture was verrrry old: The through all that life throws at us. And life has a good pitching arm.
guitar player had to help the drummer off his stool between sets of Seven years after our marriage on the Princess Louise – it sank!
They dredged it up only to sink again. You’ve got to have a sense
music that, at best, annoyed even the staff. We had chosen the of humor about life and learn to laugh at yourselves. Elvis would
Billy Joel song ‘Just the way you are’ as ‘our song.’ I could never
have imagined the depths of tonal dissonance these guys could want you to.