My husband and I celebrated 23 years of marriage this past Saturday…at a wedding. Although I suspect having the opportunity to attend someone else’s wedding on one’s anniversary is rare, I highly recommend it. Memories of the day have never been stronger than they were as we celebrated with the newlyweds.

There were a few differences. Our wedding was held in Maryland and the temperature soared to 103°F (39.4°C) with greater than 90% humidity that day. Saturday’s wedding was held in Falmouth MA, on Cape Cod, where the evening was cool and dry. Our reception was held in a quaint, rustic, gristmill and attended by over 150 people, theirs was small and intimate, held in a beautiful Victorian manor.  Our caterer ran out of drinks (perhaps because of the heat) and the best man had to make a run to a nearby liqueur store for beer, wine and sodas while their caterer was fully stocked and glasses were never empty.

What wasn’t different was the love. The love the couple had for each other and the love the guests had for the couple. That celebration of love and commitment is, after all, the reason for a wedding whether it is held in a cathedral, a park or an Elvis wedding chapel in Vegas. We toast, we dance, we eat cake and we revel in the love that surrounds us. What better way to celebrate one’s anniversary? I suppose it didn’t hurt that our daughter asked the DJ to play Can’t Help Falling in Love, the song to which my husband and I danced our first dance and we danced to it again, soaking in the memories.