Five Years Of Good Loving

• Sep 12, 2007
• 18 Comments
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Today my wife and I celebrate our fifth anniversary of being legally married. If you’ve read my blog long enough, you might have seen this post which suggests we were married June 14, not September 12.

It’s all pretty simple, you see. We had our wedding ceremony on June 14 2003, but were secretly legally married on September 12, 2002.

Ok perhaps the term secret marriage is a bit too strong. But it sounds cool, doesn’t it? The story is that at the time, my wife wanted to take a long trip back to Japan before our planned wedding. Unfortunately, with the tightening up of immigration following September 11, we were concerned she’d have trouble coming back. So we got legally married at the Beverly Hills Courthouse to make sure she could return.

Recently we decided to follow the DRY principle (Don’t Repeat Yourself) and only really celebrate our legal anniversary, as it keeps it simple for me.

Hard enough for a guy to remember one anniversary much less two!

So to Akumi (yes, she actually reads my blog), Happy Anniversary. I love you very much! And I was going to post that other silly pic of you we found, but I want to live to see the next five years of our life together.

What others have said

Eddy Young Sep 12, 2007 2:29 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Happy anniversary!

My wife and I, too, got married twice, with about three years between the signing at the Registrar Office and the religious ceremony. And, to facilitate immigration, just like you. But, unlike you, we've decided to celebrate only the religious occasion.

Damien Guard Sep 12, 2007 2:41 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congratulations. With the invention of the electronic repeating calendar event you have no excuse for forgetting it either... well apart from switching calendar programme I guess ;-)

[)amien

Crazyguy Sep 12, 2007 2:52 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congratulations Phil! I'm happy for all three of you :)

M Sep 12, 2007 2:56 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Touching :) Congrats!

Boris Yeltsin Sep 12, 2007 3:23 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Our anniversary is also her birthday. I only have to remember one date that way. Although obviously, if I forget that day, then I would probably be best never going home again ;)

Willem C Sep 12, 2007 5:12 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congratulations to the both of you!

Denis Gobo Sep 12, 2007 6:04 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Same here, married December 11 1997, ceremony August 15th 1998

However my wife somehow insist on celebrating both days ;-)

Congratulations

Keyvan Nayyeri Sep 12, 2007 9:02 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Did I send that comment to that post myself?! :-P

"Congratulations Phil :-)

I didn't know that 11 September could provide these troubles for all immigrants in US. First I thought it's just for Muslims!"

Nick Sep 12, 2007 9:44 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

My wife and I got married twice in the same week :D

Our wedding plans weren't turning out the way we wanted (both of our mothers had different ideas than we did about our how our wedding should be), so we went to Vegas and got married a week before our actual ceremony. Our parents were slightly miffed... but they got to have the ceremony the way they wanted, and we got to have our small, quick civil ceremony the way we wanted.

Haacked Sep 12, 2007 9:46 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

@keyvan Well there was an across the board tightening up for security reasons, though many measures were simply security theater.

The real problem was the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service which is now rolled into Homeland Security) employees. I'm not saying all INS employees are bad, just every one we ever dealt with. Petty disgusting people, and you have to understand me, I pretty much never talk bad about anyone. Ask Rob Conery, I have a lot of patience. ;)

But the power these people have over immigrants, many who were immigrants themselves at one time, really inflates their head and creates one long power trip. My wife told me stories about how awful they were to her, but I didn't really understand until I had to go into the INS offices with her after we got married and experienced it first hand.

That's why I was glad to read in the papers about a new immigration office they are building in the U.S. I think it was Florida. They are trying to put a human touch back to what made America great in the first place.

Keyvan Nayyeri Sep 12, 2007 10:36 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Yes,

I have an Iranian friend in TX and he told me some stories about INS employees. Unfortunately they just tried to erase the problem rather than solving it! At that time, I can remember that they began many many stupid programs not only inside US but also in several other countries (especially in Middle Earth) in order to stop terrorism!!

Jan Van Ryswyck Sep 12, 2007 11:22 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congratulations to both of you!

Steven Harman Sep 12, 2007 11:24 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congrats buddy, the wife, and lil' thug!

Wife Sep 12, 2007 12:42 PM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

I'm so glad both of Phil's nuts will make it to the 5 year anniversary dinner.
; )

Love ya Mr. Haacked!

Omar Shahine Sep 12, 2007 12:49 PM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

funny, my wife and I did the same thing. One legal marriage and two weddings in later. we are still debating which one to celebrate...

congrats!.

sokun Sep 12, 2007 6:11 PM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congratulation, happy anniversary I wish your successfully compiled family up and running forever.

Jon Galloway Sep 13, 2007 12:07 PM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Congrats, Haacked! Congrats, Wife!

Simon Oct 02, 2007 2:40 AM

# re: Five Years Of Good Loving

Hey, well done and congratulations.

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