50 Years of Marriage

August 12, 1961, my parents, Grace and Jim Oakes were married in the oldest Baptist church in Columbia, South Carolina. On August 12, 2011, they celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a surprise party which we girls planned an entire year for. It was such a joy to pull this party off and see their faces as they saw friends they had not seen for years and then to see family that had travel hundreds of miles to be there. It was worth all the lying and stress to enjoy and endure the tears and hugs. We all had a wonderful time that turned into several days of visits and stories. I hope the following photos will share the joy of the event, they are only a few of the hundreds that were taken.