13 Wedding Anniversary

A lasting love

LONG-LASTING couples celebrated their love in a huge wedding anniversary mass in Basingstoke led by Bishop Crispian Hollis, the Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth.

In all, 105 couples attended the special event, which is in its third year, at St Bede’s Church, in Popley, including couples celebrating their silver, ruby, golden and diamond wedding anniversaries.

Basingstoke couple Tony Spiteri, 50, and his wife Liz, 49, were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.

The childhood sweethearts, who met when they were aged just 14 and 13 outside a cinema in Reading, live in Kempshott, Basingstoke.

Tony, an engineer, said: “Holding an event like this is a lovely idea. This is the first time that we’ve come, and it’s great to see that so many couples have come from all around the diocese.”

Celebrating 40 years of marriage this year, Bernard Cramp, 60, and his wife Lorraine, from Kempshott, were also attending the special mass for the first time.

Lorraine, 59, a legal secretary, said: “You hear so much about divorce and unhappy couples that it’s great to celebrate the many couples who have very happy marriages. This is a really nice way to celebrate together.”

All of the assembled couples re-affirmed their commitment to each other during the touching service, reciting together a vow to remain together for the rest of their lives.

Malcolm and Val Steel, from Hackwood, Basingstoke, were also among the 36 couples celebrating 40 years of marriage. Val, 59, a retired lecturer, and Malcolm, 60, a support worker for people with learning disabilities, are members of St Bede’s Church.

Val said: “There isn’t a secret to a long-lasting marriage but I would say working hard definitely helps. We’ve been looking forward to this mass for a while. It’s a lovely thing to do.”

Italian couple Salvator Agro and his wife Lina, 87, moved from Sicily to the Basingstoke area in 1951 and have been married for 60 years.

The couple, of Blair Road, Kingsclere, are both retired SEN nurses. Salvator, 84, said: “We moved to Basingstoke a long time ago and like it very much here. This is a lovely church and the mass is a nice way to celebrate so many years together.”

Among the couples, who were supported at the event by various children and grandchildren, 31 couples were celebrating their 25th anniversary, 36 were celebrating their 40th, 29 had been married for 50 years, five for 60 years, one for 62 years, two for 65 and one for 70 years.

13 Year Wedding Anniversary Gifts | Wedding Disk

Anniversary of your wedding , things change a little bit. Well, first of all, you have passed through many moments together, be them bad or good. You may have now kids, which means that your love has flourished and you have even more reasons to stay together.

Regarding the gifts that you can offer to your loved one on this occasion, the best thing that never fails is to offer him or her, the thing that he or she always wanted and needed. But if that is too expensive and the budget does not allow you to, you can pick something more related to the soul. You can order a huge painting, with both of you that you will hang in your bedroom. Or you can reserve a table at a fancy restaurant, preferably the one where you have went the first time and order the same food like you id back then. It will bring back some great memories and you will both relieve everything that it was great back then and it is still alive right now.

If you want to involve your kids too, you can buy some tickets and go in a big vacation to celebrate your achievements. Or you can go for a funnier gift that involves the number 13. For example you can order a cake that has the shape of the number 13. You can buy for your wife a necklace with a pendant that will have the number 13. Or if she is too superstitious, you can buy 13 roses . They will surely make her feel good. Who doesn’t love flowers?

If you are not the one that celebrates 13 years of marriage you can but you know a couple that does it, you can buy them things for the house, which I believe are the best in this case They already have a house together and they will probably lack some tools or something inside the house. Or you can buy something that the entire family can sue, something like a gadget that can be used by the kids too. This would be an occasion to keep the family together and let them have a good time. Especially nowadays when there are lots of games that are made especially for the families.

German-English genealogical dictionary

Wedding Anniversary Idea Book

LIFE

Congressional Record, V. 148, Pt. 13, September 20, 2002 to October 1, 2002

Congressional Record, V. 144, Pt. 13, July 31, 1998 to September 8, 1998