Couple said ‘I do’ in 1975 before 250 loved ones—one shocking discovery a year later led to surprise vow renewal 50 years on
A marriage can feel real even without legal documents. A couple who had been married for 50 years without paperwork might agree to do that. Bruce and Beckie Maie had known for a long time that their marriage license had never been filed, but they still built a family over the years and loved each other. They decided to hold a ceremony on their 50th anniversary and get married legally among friends and family to make the paperwork simpler. However, the couple's late official wedding felt much more than a legal obligation, according to 21 Alive News.
The couple found out that their marriage license had never been filed around a year after their wedding on April 26, 1975. "Found out a year or so later that the marriage license never made it to the county clerk's office," Bruce shared. The pastor who had officiated the ceremony for the couple had not submitted the marriage license, so they were not married on paper. Around 250 guests had attended the couple's wedding at that time. The county clerk told the couple that they could only fix the issue if they brought the entire wedding party together once again and had a ceremony. It felt like a huge hassle at that time and somehow slipped the couple's minds as they got busy with life.
"By that time, the pastor was living four hours away, our bridesmaid and our best man were living in different parts of the state and so the busyness of life and different things like that just kind of got neglected," Bruce remarked. But as the couple started aging, they finally decided it was time to make their marriage legal. "As we're getting older and I realized through having family members die, you really need a marriage license to have anything be easy." They decided to get married on their 50th wedding anniversary. Their three kids helped them plan a wedding and a vow renewal ceremony, according to the outlet.
"They just had a good fun time with it and made it kind of light-hearted for the guests that were there and he [his son Nate] told the story during the service, which I thought was great," Bruce went on. The couple had stayed committed to each other all those years, but they still had a great experience as they got married for a second time for the license. "This second time reciting our vows, we wrote our own vows this time and had to think through that and decide what I could honestly say and make it real, to me and for him. It was just a really wonderful experience; I was deeply touched and it was probably one of the best days of my life," Beckie expressed.
Nate, the couple's oldest son, obtained an officiant's license to marry his parents. Many people on the internet shared their own experiences in the comments section of the outlet's Facebook post. Melissa Rife wrote, "OMG, this exact thing happened to my husband and me. It was about 20 years after we were married that we found out! Crazy." Debbie Kingston Hattaway commented, "Congratulations and Happy Anniversary - wishing you many more years of love." Kj Young remarked, "Heck of an accomplishment in today's times...congrats."
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