Woman wears her original wedding dress as she celebrates 70th anniversary with husband
A couple of teenage sweethearts celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with a swoon-worthy photoshoot featuring the bride in her original wedding gown.
According to Caters News Agency, Nancy Lubbers, 87, and her 91-year-old husband Melvin met at a skating rink when Nancy was 16 years old. Seven decades later, the couple has five children, 12 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren — as well as nearly a lifetime of memories.
The South Dakota natives decided that a special photoshoot in the family garden, captured by their youngest granddaughter, Anna, a professional wedding photographer, would be the best way to honour their 70th anniversary.
“My grandparents only have a couple of photos from their wedding day,” says Anna for Caters. “I came up with the idea to take photos of Grandma in her dress and then my mom, Melissa, found Grandpa’s Korean War Army suit for him to wear.”
Following Melvin’s proposal at a ballpark, the memorable ensembles were on display at the lovebirds’ church wedding in 1952.
According to Caters, Nancy paid around $35 for her dress and $15 for her veil.
When asked how she felt about being able to wear her gown again, Nancy stated, “It was truly an honor that I could still get in it.”
“My dress was something special and I loved it, so I just preserved it and kept it all these years,” she said. “It felt really good to wear it again and we had fun reminiscing about our wedding day and the photo shoot was a lot of fun.”
“Oh boy, that certainly brought back some good memories,” Melvin said, recalling seeing his wife in the dress.
Melvin likes to joke that he bought Nancy’s rings from a gumball machine, but the young couple was able to pay for their own wedding and reception in the church basement, where they celebrated with ice cream and cake for dessert.
Melvin was called to serve in the Korean War as a tank commander for eight months shortly after getting married, forcing him and Nancy to forego a honeymoon, according to Caters.
They raised their children together while Nancy worked in a grocery store and Melvin worked as a salesman and kept a hobby farm.
They discovered the secret to a long and happy marriage along the way.
“You won’t always agree, there will be disagreements, but when you have one of those, you sit down and talk about it and come up with an answer — and once it’s resolved, don’t bring it up again,” Melvin told Caters.
“Even if you don’t agree, always respect each other,” Nancy added. “Just live your life to the fullest.”
