Tale of Two Teacups

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary, and in honor of this special occasion, I thought I would share this story about two teacups.

When Terry and I became engaged, like most brides I was very excited about choosing items for my gift registry. I had many friends who had married (MANY friends - since I was practically and "old maid" at age 28), and all of them had been engaged to guys who didn't really have opinions on things like the color of bridesmaid's dresses or dishes and such. Well, Terry isn't like that. He has an opinion on everything! So I was a little dismayed to find out that he would be choosing all these items with me. But it went OK, and we really agreed on most everything.

A month or so later, in the middle of all our wedding showers, Terry told me that "People don't really use cups and saucers anymore. Everyone uses mugs. I think cups and saucers are impractical, and MY MOTHER AGREES. If we get any, we should return them."

Now I was quite upset about this. I didn't want to give back my pretty cups and saucers. I didn't want to be told what to do. And I didn't want my mother-in-law involved! To be fair, Liz was quite innocent in all this and has proved through the years that she is not one to meddle in this sort of thing.

Anyway, a fight insued that was our worst pre-wedding spat (yes, we've had a few since then that could rival it, but at that time it was unique), and we ended up just agreeing to disagree. The fate of the cups and saucers was uncertain.

On our wedding day, Terry and I snuck away from the madness to go out to breakfast. It was a cold morning in March, so we decided to order hot drinks. Boy, was I shocked when the waitress served us and I realized that IHOP had the same china pattern that I did! I said "Terry! Can you believe this? They have our china."

Terry said "Susan, they don't have our china. This is your china. These are the cups and saucers I bought you for a wedding present." He had visited IHOP the evening before and left them there with special instructions.

Now twenty years later, we drink our hot drinks from mugs like everyone else. Terry was right - the cups and saucers were impractical. But the cups and saucers and the story behind them are still very special to me. Because sometimes love is impractical.