During our Australian wedding, we will also be celebrating the 60th wedding anniversary of Graham's parents.

Weddings are usually all about celebrating with the people getting married.

But a wedding is just the beginning of lives lived together. The real story of a wedding happens over a period of time, the real romance is the romance of all the years lived together, and so we feel that it is entirely appropriate to involve mum & dad in our wedding in this way.

Both Mum & Dad are veterans of World War II. In fact Dad is a real life Australian World War II hero who fought the first wave of Japanese on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea in 1942. He later served in bombers and other aircraft, and went on to fight in the jungles of Borneo.

Upon return to Australia, he met mum, and in 1948 they married and set up house in Bankstown, NSW.

Since then, they have had 6 children (sadly, 2 died in childbirth), 6 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.

They have both been active in childrens' work in various churches, and taught scripture in state schools for over 40 years.

In 1989 they moved from Bankstown to the Gold Coast in Queensland, where they continued their work with children in schools until quite recently.

They have many, many friends all around the country. Sadly however, most of them are now too old to travel.

So our wedding will be an opportunity to celebrate with them, and to look forward together to the next 60 years!