Celebrating 60 Years of Marriage

Friday night we headed to Milwaukee for my Grandparents 60th Anniversary party. The celebration took place at Bravo- Cucina Italiana. We had the party room. Grandma made table favors and Aunt Pat made beautiful flower arrangements with yellow, purple and hot pink flowers. We arrived at 3:30pm for a family picture and then the ceremony was at 5pm. I had the honor of performing the ceremony for the renewal of their vows. Everything was going great. I was half way through my message and I was talking about how much our family loves them and being together for 60 years, and I lost it. I started crying out of happiness. It took me about 20 seconds to gain my composure. I had every intention of staying strong, but I couldn’t do it. Then I looked out and my mom was crying. My grandpa had tears in his eyes too. So it was a meaningful ceremony. At the end my grandparents had the four great grandchildren come up front to sing “You are my Sunshine” with them. It has really sweet. Here are the vows I wrote for them:

I take you Judith/August to be my wife/husband
You are God's gift to me,
My priceless treasure, my blessing for life.
We will wipe clean the old canvases of our lives
and let God, with His amazing artistic talent,
fill them with new colors, harmony and beauty.
God bless us as we come together before our family and friends
to renew our pledge of love to one another
I say these things believing that God is in the midst of them all.

My Grandparents have a very deep faith and my Grandma enjoys to paint, so I wanted to incorporate both of those into their vows. They told me to write them and whatever I came up with would be great.

They had 35 family and friends there. We all had cocktails and then ordered dinner. It was my first time eating at Bravo. We have never eaten at the one by Jordan Creek Mall. Eric said the inside is exactly the same. I ordered the bay scallops with spinach gnocchi and sweet potato. It was very delicious; however, the scallops were dry. My brother had ordered a side of garlic butter, so I ended up dipping them in that, which helped. Eric ordered the Chicken Parmesan. He was very disappointed. It wasn’t even a real chicken breast, it was pressed meat, and it was small. Chase had a kid’s pizza and we were impressed with it. It had 8 pieces and very good flavor because it is baked in a wood oven.

The service was spectacular. We had three waitresses and the manager would stop in now and again. They make a good tasting Mojito. I had my Mom and Grandma drinking them before the night was over. The kids got to make their own pizzas even if they didn’t order it for dinner. The waitress took them over to the kitchen and each got a piece of dough and then they got to put sausage and cheese on them and watch them bake. It was so cool. It gave us time to socialize and the kids thought it was a blast.

I tried my first Creme Brulee. It was fantastic. The cheesecake and Tiramisu were just average. Tiramisu means "Heaven in your mouth." It fell short. Overall, it was a good experience at Bravo, and the occasion for the celebration topped it all. I found they don’t make cards for 60 years of marriage. I am guessing the demand isn’t great enough, since 50% of all marriages end in divorce these days, it is rare to see a couple top 50 years!