Bruce and Maggie recently celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary. Last weekend, we gathered to share in and celebrate the memories of their wedding and life together!
Dan and Julie, Jeremy and Lindsay, and Nathan and I took some time (very sneakily) while Bruce and Maggie were in Uganda to rummage through some of their photographs. We were very organized and pulled many, many photos of Bruce and Maggie and their life together. The goal was to scan and develop a slide show that we could present to the loving couple at a Surprise Wedding Anniversary party!
Looking through photos and reliving special moments was a lot of fun. We planned an outdoor party with close friends and family, food and some of Bruce and Maggie's favorite tunes!
Despite the fact that two of us daughter in-laws had just had babies (obviously not myself) our last minute planning and organization went very well. Jeremy and Lindsay took over the slide show and the decorations. Nathan and I worked on a family tree and took over food responsibilities. Dan and Julie ordered a cake and made phone calls to in and out-of-town guests.
We were able to get Maggie's brother and sister into town for the weekend, without them knowing!!!
We invited Bruce and Maggie to Elizabeth's fall kick-off soccer game at DeKovand Park. We arrived an hour before the "game" to set up food and decorations.
Our guests gathered and also chipped in with hanging lights and other decorations.
The tables were beautifully set up. The food was brought in from Famous Daves and the Stattler Brothers played on Pandora.
Then, we waited for Bruce and Maggie to show. These two are NEVER late, but today they were running slightly behind! They weren't sure what to expect of Elizabeth's kick-off game. In fact, Maggie thought that they would be playing soccer as well.
They walked over the bridge and the group yelled, "Surprise!"
The couple walked into their party and were greeted by loving friends and family! They were pleased to see Steve and Rick and Mary had planned the surprise visit.
We ate BBQ...
...and so did the kids!
Bruce and Maggie spent quality time with their two new grandsons. I think that Bruce is holding August and Maggie has Owen. I would say that I felt bad that I don't know, but could you honestly tell the difference?
And then we all gathered around to watch the slide show.
Bruce and Maggie didn't think that they had any wedding pictures left (40 years is a long time for photos to fade) so they were pleased to see that Jer had restored them for the slide show. We all enjoyed looking at the younger versions of this amazing couple.
The kids couldn't wait to eat the cake...
..but first we needed to give a toast.
Jeremy is always so good with words and gave a beautiful toast to Bruce and Maggie.
Cheers!
The night was wonderful and I think that Bruce and Maggie were very surprised. We are all so blessed to be a part of the lives of these wonderful people and look forward to years and years of memories to come!
