A Night at the Museum

Mike and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary last week. That’s for this marriage, not the other time we were married to each other. The anniversary began with a flourish as Mike presented me with an arrangement of 25 long-stemmed, red roses – and then it got even better.

After a leisurely day and giving gifts to each other, Mike took me to a special dinner that he had planned. One of Memphis’ most beautiful landmarks is The Brooks Museum of Art. The exquisite marble structure was completed in 1916. Stepping into its classical interior as a young girl was almost like going to church. The beauty of the building, enhanced by the art it contained, made you whisper as you moved from room to room. It was a wonderful experience of which Mike and I each have childhood memories.

Brooks has been expanded and modernized making it not only the oldest art museum in the state, but also the largest. It’s currently displaying an exhibit of Andy Warhol prints and has associated with Emerging Pictures, a New York-based film company, to present several award-winning independent films in the museum auditorium. You can read more about Brooks at http://www.brooksmuseum.org/.

Another of the newer features is the Brushmark Restaurant. The food and service are exceptional, and the curved glass exterior wall provides a green and peaceful view of Overton Park which houses the museum in addition to other attractions.

One of our anniversary traditions is to watch our wedding video. I cried as I always do. Our first wedding followed all the proper traditions. This one, in front of 50 close friends, was very personal.

We walked in to the strains of “At Last” by Etta James. Mike picked up his acoustic guitar and sang “Let it Be Me.” I had written a poem for the event and read it. http://scarlett-xtrastuff.blogspot.com/


Niece Shannon was maid of honor. She also hand-made the wedding invitations as well as the invitations for both parties we had in Memphis the following week. She also helped me finish the place cards. Niece Marcy was the greeter and tried to keep us on schedule. We were sad that none of Mike’s family could go to California to attend, so he asked my son Alex to be his best man. Long-time friend Audrey Yamagata-Noji officiated, and her husband Gene volunteered to videotape the event.

Because I’d recently had to stop driving due to lowering vision, the preparation became a girlfriend project. Gwen took me to shop for (and sample) cakes. Charlotte took me dress shopping and then brought rose petals and special napkins to the wedding site for the high tea that followed. She also gave me the most gorgeous negligee I’ve ever seen. Nieces Robin and Marcy helped me find my shoes, the cake topper and some other miscellaneous items. Candy helped me select bouquets and, with flowers from her garden, decorated the entrance to the gazebo where we were married. Randee helped me choose paint and wallpaper borders and towels to decorate a manly bathroom for Mike's move-in to our house.

And, of course, Melissa helped me purchase the champagne. I don’t know if it was due to our mutual admiration for the beverage, my admitted lack of math skill or just that we were talking too much, but I ended up buying about three times the number of bottles that were actually required. When I told Mike what I’d done, he said, “Well, I guess you don’t have to worry about place cards. Just get a sharpee and write names on the bottles and set one at each plate. It’ll be some party!” We didn’t actually go that way, and on our anniversary last week we finally finished the last of the wedding champagne.

We’re awfully glad that our paths converged again.