A family that is lucky enough to celebrate the golden anniversary of their grandparents makes a big show of it with all the trappings that the children and grandchildren can afford, as it is very rare that both the grandpa and the grandma are still living by the time they reach the fiftieth year of their marriage. It is a big achievement that both have remained together all those years of their married life as husband and wife. Some of the reasons why the children of a couple cannot anymore celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of their parents is the early breakup of their marriage, or the husband or the wife dies before the fiftieth year, or both are dead by the time the fiftieth year of their marriage comes around.



So, a golden wedding anniversary event for a family's parents or grandparents is more of a thanksgiving offered by the children for their living folks, and they tend to make a big show of it as much as possible. Some senior parents can still manage to walk down the aisle in church, or if not, they can be both in wheelchairs. That problem does not matter to the children, as long as their folks can still participate in the rites. The children make a big fuss on the wedding photography coverage too of the golden anniversary of their dad and mom.

The wedding entourage of the old couple at this time consists more of the grandchildren, with grown granddaughters acting as the bridesmaids, and the younger sets of the grandchildren serving as flower girls and coin bearers. It is not unusual to see a teenage grandson guiding his grandfather walk weakly down the aisle if the old man needs such kind of assistance, or the grandma getting similar help from a granddaughter.

The guests in golden wedding anniversaries consist mostly of the contemporaries and neighbors of the celebrating old couple, if these friends are still around, plus their families. A golden wedding anniversary celebration is thus more of a reunion time for at least two or more generations of families on the side of grandpa, and similarly on the side of grandma.

A grandpa can enjoy the occasion very much as he constantly repeats his jokes to the wedding photograpy crews to be sure to get him in their pictures as handsomely as they can, because he was going on a honeymoon with the bride right after the ceremony. The golden bride of course just plays deaf to all the jokes of her groom, joking back that he cannot even find the bathroom now, so he had better stop talking about a honeymoon.

Such spirited couples that can take jokes and play along with all the humor during the anniversary make such occasions very lively. The other elderly couples among the guests are the noisiest too, especially in the reception area, where they all talk of their early years as newly married couples so many years back.