Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Second Time Around

I met Cindy, an advocate for suicide prevention, through volunteering at UCLA. Her story of how she met her husband Chuck is quite sweet :) During the summer of 2006, the two of them crossed paths at the Santa Barbara Wine Festival, where Cindy was with a bunch of her girlfriends. Cindy met Chuck, who was alongside his guy pals. Combining their groups together, Cindy and Chuck chatted for awhile, ate dinner together, networked and at the end of the day, exchanged telephone numbers with one another.

After a few months of correspondence, Cindy and Chuck went on a first date. One year later, as a couple, they wanted to elope. However, Cindy couldn't bear to keep the secret to herself, so she spilled the details to a handful of her BFFs. The next thing she knew, Cindy had matching outfits with Chuck, flowers, and a wedding party. Although it wasn't a "real elopment," Cindy acknowledged that it had the same shock effect as one. Cindy and Chuck decided to re-live their first meeting and get married on the same day as the wine festival, July 21st. The wedding was a very California-ish affair, involving the donning of t-shirts, shorts, and flipflops. The ceremony overlooked the harbor. Afterwards, they recreated the moment by drinking wine at the same festival in Santa Barbara with their closest friends.


To keep with tradition, Cindy and Chuck go to Santa Barbara every year to drink wine and celebrate their anniversary.

4 comments:

  1. Ooh, I love the idea of matching t-shirts as a "wedding ensemble!" For one thing, it gives you the unique opportunity to wear your "wedding dress," at every anniversary! Plus, no matter how many years pass, you never have to suffer the humiliation of your "gown" no longer fitting!

    Great article, Tanya! It was extremely well-written and truly inspiring! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. :)

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  2. Love it, Tanya! Thank you!

    We both still have our T-shirts, although our "wedding flip-flops" finally died, and of course I still have my tiara sitting right here on my bookshelf. I also love that a t-shirt will never go out of style so I can wear it when we're 95 years old and celebrating our 50th anniversary.

    ~Cindy

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  3. I love your blog! I can't wait to read more!

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  4. This is a great and positive blog! Thanks for sharing.
    Erica

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