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Love and laughter filled their air on the last day of the Parkes Elvis Festival as couples reaffirmed their commitment in a uniquely Parkes way, under the Love Me Tender arch surrounded by family, friends and of course, Elvis.
The ceremony which has become a festival favourite, led by Elvis Tribute Artist Dean Vegas, marked a special milestone this year celebrating 20 years of vow renewals at the Parkes Elvis Festival.
Couples with marriages spanning decades stood side by side.
Lengths of marriages included 25, 43, 47 and 51 years with the longest belonging to Noelene and Colin Fredricks from Ivanhoe, Victoria who are approaching their 52nd wedding anniversary in April.
While they were unable to renew their vows for their 50th anniversary, but their son held a special gathering in his yard for his parents to celebrate, the opportunity to do so in Parkes just felt right.
“We couldn’t do it on our 50th, so when we were coming here we thought, why not now?” Noelene said.
The couple, who attended their first Parkes Elvis Festival this year, met many years ago at a dance hall in Queensland.
Colin still vividly remembers the pink dress Noelene wore that day and Noelene believes it was one of the many reasons he fell in love with her.
This is exactly why she chose to wear pink once again when they renewed their vows.
“It was love at first dance,” Colin said.
“We just clicked,” Noelene added.
After just seven days of courting before Colin, who was part of the Air Force, returned to Melbourne for training.
The couple stayed in contact through phone calls and letters and quickly realised they were meant to be together.
They married soon after and have since shared a lifetime of memories including raising their two sons who they adopted.
Noelene shared her advice on how to have a long and happy marriage.
“You’ve just got to work hard and you'll work through things. You have your great times but you have your hard times as well," she said.
Another couple celebrating was Sue and Rod, who believed they had been married for 43 years until a phone call revealed otherwise.
When the pair decided they would be renewing their vows at this year festival they rang to get their marriage certificate but were told, ‘sorry, you’re not married’.
Thankfully the situation was resolved in time for this year’s renewal of vows ceremony and since they ‘didn’t’ cut their wedding cake on their wedding day 43 years ago they had the honours of cutting the renewal of vows cake on Sunday.
Also renewing their vows were Jan and Peter McCulloch from Geraldton, Western Australia.
Jan and Peter have been married for 25 years and this was their first Parkes Elvis Festival.
The couple said they loved every moment of the festival and even the heat didn’t bother them.
As they ended their first Parkes Elvis Festival on a high, they weren’t slowing down as they are heading straight to Tamworth for the Country Music Festival like so many other festival goers.
