By the time we arrived at Elkhenge, I had taken 950 digital pictures on tour! I averaged 100+ shots per show, immediately throwing out 350+, then sorting out 180 of the best pictures and filtering those into 62 web gems, from which I created these web pages. So you can understand that I had reached the picture saturation point by Elkhenge and unfortunately I don't have a single picture from either of those shows - sorry!
On the positive side, Elkhenge also served as the site for our 25th Anniversary ceremony! Since Pattie and I had a Justice of the Peace marry us back in 1979, I promised her the wedding we never had for this milestone anniversary. She decided on a simple, unorthodox ceremony with a few friends and family instead of a big formal affair - thank God! Realizing that most of the friends we would invite would be attending Elkhenge plus the only band I would want at a reception was headlining, the one remaining challenge was to get our relatives to make the road trip - which they all agreed once they were asked.
The two most important people that we wanted to participate were our son Jonathan, to walk Pattie down the aisle, and our grand daughter Sierra to be the flower girl. Sierra's mother graciously made the 6 hour trip to bring Sierra and her fiancé Jeremy even served as the photographer for these great pictures. My brother Michael who was my best man at the JP marriage also came along with his wife Marnette who in her capacity as a Wiccan priestess presided over the ceremony. We also asked Mark and Tim to play acoustic music - an instrumental Ripple as Pattie walked in and we both walked out. Add in our Juggling family and we had all the ingredients for a wonderful, if not unusual wedding ceremony. We can't thank everyone enough for being there and helping to make this an extraordinary day!
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Pattie cut a circle out of an old tie dye tapestry for us to stand on during the ceremony. She also made her wedding gown and kept it hidden from me so I would be surprised. I've never seen here look more beautiful and radiant than that day, seeing her walk towards me in that dress me feel like the luckiest man alive! Once everyone had gathered, Marnette began reading the text Pattie had prepared.
We both wrote our own vows for the occasion, however, before we could proceed there was one other thing that I had never done. Back in those early days we were 'living in sin', so after 25 years it was about time that I formally proposed to her!
Fortunately she accepted my proposal and we proceeded to exchange the vows we had written and exchanging roses as a sign of our love.
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One of the most beautiful gifts we received for our anniversary was an offer from our dear friend Melissa to perform a wedding dance for us as part of the ceremony. She had an awesome piece of music with powerful words to which she choreographed her original dance steps. It was a wonderful blessing to have this performed for us, something I never expected and will always treasure!
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When the ceremony was over we made the traditional walk to the sound of Mark and Tim's guitars so our guests could shower us with bird seed.
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One more traditional ritual left - cut the cake and smash it into Bob's face!
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Melissa & Josh's son Logan and our granddaughter Sierra -
could this be a budding romance?
Wait another 15 years and we can only hope!
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