This year, the Phipps’ celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss! 60 years, people!
They made the choice in 1954 to love each other for better or for worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, never to divorce…and they’ve succeeded! I’m sure they’ve had hard times and disagreements and stressful months/days/years…but they made the choice to love each other regardless and stick it out for the long haul! We are so proud to be from this long line of love…
Wrex and I have actually attended two other 60th anniversary celebrations, one of which was Grandad Phipps’ brother. The Lord has put some incredible people in our path, it’s true…
We had the honor of decorating for the grand occasion and I regret to inform you that I didn’t get too many pictures. I left my good camera at home, my iPhone was full and in my nauseous state, we just tried to survive.
With that being said, I’ll share what few I do have!
We went with a neutral theme…lots of white, off-white, gold and a buttery yellow.
My favorite part of the party was a display of Doug and Alice’s wedding ensembles. How incredible is that going away outfit?! Grandma was so tiny when she got married we barely got that thing on the mannequin!
We had pictures from their biggest anniversary milestones…
We had this little pretty at the entrance of the banquet room…
and this right above the welcome table. That really puts it in perspective, doesn’t it?
About a month before the party, I put together a list of questions to ask the Phipps’ and then called them up on several occasions to interview them. It was, honestly, one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to do. There is sooooo much rich history there…stories we need to know! We laughed so much, it was almost unbearable!
Did you know Grandma left her wedding and went straight to the dentist to get a tooth pulled before their two week honeymoon?? The dentist did the work for free as a wedding gift, but Grandma told him he didn’t need to do that because she’d been waiting to marry a rich rancher so she could get her teeth fixed and she just had! HA!
I took the interview and turned it into 60 facts about 60 years. We printed them out and then (painstakingly) put them on a huge board to display at the party. We loved how it turned out and people really seemed to enjoy reading little tidbits about their life together.
There was cake and punch and a popcorn bar…boisterous conversations and laughter. They had such a great turnout; there were well over 100 people that came to hug them and bless them and celebrate with them!
Before we left, Grandad told us thank you for all we did and he said, “I hope you guys have 60 years, too.” And he didn’t say it in a “I hope you actually make it!” way…he said it like 60 years is worth it. We’ll make ya proud, Grandad…we promise!
****If I gather up more photos from the rest of the fam, I’ll be sure and share them as an update!****