St. John Celebration of Love - How it Came About

In the fall of 2002, I was speaking on the phone to a priest who was booking a villa on St. John. When I told him he would be arriving on my 30th wedding anniversary, he suggested we renew our wedding vows. A seed was planted. Several weeks later I was speaking to Anne Marie Porter, the barefoot minister on St. John, and mentioned the conversation to her. We began talking about how much is said about the divorce rate in the country, but little is done to celebrate the many who have committed to honor their vows. We began discussing the possibility of planning a group vow renewal for Valentine's Day. The seed began to germinate.


Anne Marie and Cathy - 2003	Cathy and Anne Marie - 2004

In early January 2003, I saw Anne Marie again and asked if she was ready to begin planning in earnest. The answer was a definite "Yes!" and the seed sprouted. Well, many meetings and lots of willing volunteers later, Valentine's Day arrived. The weather didn't look promising but we knew that God was watching over us and it never occurred to us that the weather wouldn't clear. Well, the sun came out and people began arriving at quarter of five and the rest is history. To date, over 450 couples from St. John, St. Thomas and many other spots around the world have brought over 5000 years of marriage to Trunk Bay in the past two years to celebrate the solemn commitment of marriage.

From a couple who had only been married 4 hours,

to many with over 50 years of marriage,

one entire family joined to honor their parents' commitment of 52 years,

photo by Sonya Melescu

three generations of one family honored the marriages of two generations with a flower girl to help celebrate and youth saw parents honor marriage in a day and age when many think it's obsolete.

The top wedding photographers and videographers on our island moved previously scheduled weddings to donate their services, musicians donated their talents, a friend donated flowers, taxi drivers donated their time, youth donated their time to greet our brides and grooms and many others too numerous to mention came to support our venture and embrace this celebration of love.

photo by Sonya Melescu
Our hope and prayer is that this will become an annual event at many venues throughout the world. In a day when the news is full of divorce, spouse abuse, single mothers, children from broken homes and now even war, we felt it was time to start to celebrate those who choose to stand by the commitments that they make and work at their marriages. One couple approached me after the ceremony and said, "We want to thank you. You made us experience feelings today that we thought had died years ago." Marriage is a "work in progress" and shouldn't be entered into lightly. But if you work at it and take time to recommit yourselves to one another, it can be an amazing journey.

Won't you join us to celebrate?