"First, I am required to ask anyone present who knows a reason why these persons may not lawfully marry, to declare it now, or forever hold your peace," the celebrant said to the crowd. "Don't worry," he whispered to us. "I have to say that, to make it official. I've never had a situation where someone has objected."

Fortunately, no one spoke up objecting to us getting married. That would have been the last straw; it had been a hectic eight months since I had returned, to be with Heather. After the three weeks back in Australia I had gone back to Florida – experiencing another tearful farewell with her at an airport. Then it was a months of craziness, an almost never-ending pile of paperwork with my US citizenship, retirement accounts, social security, and more. We had settled on August 25th as the wedding date – one day after my parent's 56th wedding anniversary, and most of the organization fell to Heather and her daughter in law, Laura. At least the next two weeks on our honeymoon in Far North Queensland would be relaxing.

And Heather had done a fantastic job of getting everything organized. The location – a resort at Kingscliff – the garden setting was just what we wanted, and they had a reception facility just next to the garden. Plus they had a room that was available for us to spend the night in, before going up to the airport to fly to Cairns. Heather looked beautiful, of course, in a long teal coloured dress, cut to show her figure off. It was a family affair; her son, Daniel looked very serious in his suit as he walked up the aisle to give her away, and Laura was perfect as her bridesmaid. My brother-in–law, David, was best man – in fact, one of his friends was performing the service. We hadn't wanted a church wedding, or a religious service, and Matt knew exactly how to do what we wanted. He was happy to fit our vows into the ceremony, and he impressed us with how it would make it an informal celebration of our commitment to each other, rather than a formal, stuffy occasion.

Matt was right; no one spoke up to object. I had been harbouring a quiet fear that Brad; Heather's ex-boyfriend might turn up and make a scene; he had not been all that pleased last year when they broke up. But nothing was going to spoil our day – even the weather was perfect. The day was warm, sunny – last week had been constant rain, and we had been panicking - how could we have the wedding outside when it was pissing down with rain? But the weather gods were smiling on us, a week of early spring weather had dried everything out, the gardens had started to bloom, and the mud which had been underfoot last week had gone.

"Now, Will and Heather, you are about to make your wedding promises to each other," Matt said. "All you need to do at this stage is just answer 'I will' at the finish of each promise."

We both nodded our understanding.

"William, will you take Heather to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

"I will," I answered, my voice steady.

"Heather, will you take William to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

"I will," she answered, and she looked at me and smiled.

"Now Will and Heather will exchange their own vows," Matt continued. "David, do you have the rings?"

Fortunately David hadn't misplaced the rings, and placed them on Matt's folder.

"Now, Will, I want you to take Heather's left hand in yours, and as you put the ring on her finger, repeat after me," he instructed.

"Today, Heather, I join my life to yours, not merely as your husband, but as your friend, your lover, and your confidant. Let me be the shoulder you lean on, the rock on which you rest, the companion of your life. With you I will walk my path from this day forward." I repeated after him, sliding the simple gold band on her finger.

"Your turn, Heather," Matt said.

"Today, William, I join my life to yours, not merely as your wife, but as your friend, your lover, and your confidant. Let me be the shoulder you lean on, the rock on which you rest, the companion of your life. With you I will walk my path from this day forward," she answered.

Behind me, I could hear my mother sniffle, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw both of my parents dabbing at their eyes. I had to blink two or three times, to clear my eyes of some tears.

"Now it's the legal paperwork part, if the four of you could come up here and sign the forms, we will make you legally husband and wife," Matt said, pointing to the table where the certificate was waiting.

Once the paperwork had been signed, it was photo time. Everyone seemed to want several photos; of the two of us, with David and Laura, with my parents and Heather's mother and step-father, with Heather's grandkids. I knew these were just the first of a photo marathon; my face would be aching from smiling constantly by the end of the day.

"I hope this won't last too long," I whispered in Heather's ear. "I wonder if there is some place we can get to alone; I really want to make love to Mrs. Heather Morris."

She blushed, and giggled. "Maybe there will be the opportunity for a quickie, when everyone goes inside for the reception," she replied. "I really want to make love to Mr. Morris, as his wife, too. I'm ready for you to do that, if you are."

"Very ready," I replied. "Just as well these suit pants aren't all that tight, or everyone would know just how ready I am."

Actually, there probably would be time, if we were quick. Once things had finished outside, everyone was to move inside for lunch, and we were to wait in a small room until everyone was seated, and our arrival was announced. Otherwise we would have to wait until we were leaving the reception – maybe as we changed into our "going away" outfits.

I couldn't talk more about that with Heather; everyone was coming up to congratulate us, my parents kissing Heather, and welcoming her into the family, Heather's relatives shaking my hand; testing my terrible memory for names. Finally Peter Miles, who I had asked to be the emcee for the day, called out for everyone to take their places inside. We were directed to a small changing room off to one side of the main reception room, to wait until everyone was ready.

"I'll give everyone time to sort themselves out, find their tables, and get seated before I call you in," Peter said. "How does 15 minutes sound?"

"That'll work," I said to him.

"Will fifteen minutes be enough for us, Mrs. Morris?" I asked Heather.

"Five minutes will be plenty of time for me, Mr. Morris," she replied. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?" she asked, winking.

"I probably must be," I answered. "Unless you object to making love with your new husband, right now?"

"God, no way!" she exclaimed. "If it was dark out here, I would tell you to take me right here, on the grass, right now. In fact, I would tell you to undress and lie on the grass, so I could straddle and ride you. Besides, we just signed a piece of paper saying it's legal and perfectly acceptable for us to do that. You don't think I'm the sort of girl to just let anyone have their way with me, do you?"

We made our way into the changing room, and locked both doors. There wasn't much in here, just a small sofa, which had on in the clothes that we were going to change into before leaving on our honeymoon, a desk and chair, and the door to a small toilet / bathroom.

I wrapped my arms around Heather, and kissed her deeply. She responded, pulling me tight against her body. Our tongues touched. We kissed for a minute, and then Heather pulled away.

"Quick, we don't have that much time," she said. "Drop your pants, and sit on that chair, I can straddle you".

She pulled her dress off, and removed her panties. I saw that she had a panty liner inside her underwear, and she saw my glance.

"That was barely thick enough to cope," she said. "I was getting so turned on out there, I could feel my wetness flowing; it's a wonder the insides of my thighs aren't dripping! Just the thought of what we were saying to each other did that to me. Quick, on that seat," she instructed, pushing me down on the chair.

I didn't need a second invitation; my prick was already hard and ready, and Heather was very wet and very aroused as well. She straddled my lap, and then lowered herself onto me, guiding my prick inside her. She moaned softly as she felt me enter her; I closed my eyes and let the sensations of her wet vagina enveloping my prick take over. Her breasts were right in front of my face, so I unfastened her bra, removing it. A few seconds later her bra joined her dress in a pile on the floor, and I started to suck her lovely breast.

"I love you sucking my tits, Will," she moaned, pressing my face harder against her breast. "Keep sucking them, please."

As she rode me, we kissed; my hands were on her buttocks as she bobbed up and down. She squeezed her muscles in rhythm with her movements, and I pushed up into her each time she slid down. Our movements were synchronized perfectly, as she moved faster; I angled my hips to make sure I was in deeply.

"We are finally making love as husband and wife, Mrs. Morris" I whispered to her. "Yes, I've wanted this for so long, Will; it feels absolutely perfect making love to you as my husband, "she answered. "Oh, can you keep at that angle," she added. "That's just the right position to make me come."

She was breathing heavily; her face flushed as she rode faster and faster. Heather started moaning softly, and I clenched my muscles, making my knob swell inside her, trying to give more stimulation to her g-spot. I felt her clench tightly around me, pushing down hard into my crotch, and crying out as she came. I felt a warm flow of her juices over my shaft and balls, and her spasming was enough to get me over the edge – I held her tightly as I started coming, pumping my hot sperm deep inside her body.

We held each other tightly as we came together, each overwhelmed with the sensations, the sheer pleasure of our mutual orgasms. When we were finished, we were both panting, hearts racing, on a natural high.

"That was some consummation," I said to her, once I had regained my breath. "Welcome to marriage, Mrs. Morris. That's the first time I've made love to a married woman for a long time."

"It's so much better with someone you are totally in love with," she replied. "And I love making love with a married man, too. God, you've got me so wet, I'm absolutely drenched. I had better go and try to clean myself up," she added.

As she rose from my, my prick pulled out of her with a soft "plop" sound. She quickly reached down with her hand to prevent my come from running out all over her thighs. She gathered her dress and bra from the floor, and went into the bathroom to make herself presentable. I looked down at my crotch; my pubic hair was soaked with a combination of her juices and my come. I stood up, holding my shirt up, and with my trousers around my ankles, and shuffled across to the bathroom.

A few minutes work with some wet tissues and a hand towel had us both clean and dry; we arranged our clothes so we looked "decent" and ready to face the other guests. We gave each other a quick "once over" inspection to make sure there was no evidence of our tryst.

We had just finished straightening things up in the room when Peter knocked on the door, and asked "Are you ready?"

I unlocked the door to the outside, and we followed him along the hall to the main room.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced. "Can you all be upstanding for the new Mr. and Mrs. William and Heather Morris!"

Everyone stood and applauded as we made our way to our seats at the main table. I made sure I pulled out Heather's chair for her, and pushed it in as she sat down, then took my place between her and David. Laura leaned over and whispered something to Heather, who then blushed, and whispered something back.

"You didn't, did you?" Laura said, looking astonished. Heather simply nodded – I could guess what that conversation was about.

"How did she guess?" I whispered to Heather.

"I think she suspected, seeing the glow to my face," she replied. "She asked my 'why are you grinning like that, did you and Will, you know?' and I said that we did."

"I wonder if anyone else suspects?" I pondered. "Tough, if they do; I mean we now have a license that says we can do that."

Peter stood up, and struck a knife against his glass.

"Before we start our meal, I'll just ask Lisa Hall to say a few brief words as grace."

My sister stood up and gave a brief blessing, and then the food started to appear.

The food was served – it wasn't too bad; better than what one would normally expect in a function centre – a choice between an Italian chicken dish, and roast beef. With everyone eating, the room was rather quiet – just the sounds of the staff clearing away the dishes. Once everyone had finished eating, Peter stood up again, and got everyone's attention.

"Now I will call upon David Hall to propose the toast to the bride and groom."

David stood up, and with a big show, pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and studied it. I was worried about what he might say – not that there were any dark secrets to my life; Heather knew that I had been married twice before, but with David, you never could tell what he was going to do. He was still a teenaged kid at heart – with all the tact and diplomacy of a bratty fifteen year old; who thinks that fart jokes are still funny.

"Ok, what's on my list here..." he said, looking at the paper in his hand. "Welcome Heather into the Morris family ... check. Tell some embarrassing anecdotes about Will – that's too easy. Propose the toast to the happy couple ... that seems to be about it."

"Firstly, Heather, are you really sure that you want to be a part of this family? Surely you had enough strange weirdos around without getting involved with us?" he started. "Have you had the unique experience of listening to Keith play the spoons during dinner?"

"Spoons in stereo," my Father interrupted.

"Of course, in stereo," David continued. "Apparently when Keith did that, many years ago, when Will bought his girlfriend of the time home for her first dinner to meet the family; Stuart was horrified, and muttered, 'Now you know why I never bring any of my friends home for dinner.' I had to sit through that myself, when Lisa introduced me to the family, and pretend to be suitably impressed, so I'm sure by now you have seen that performance."

"Not to forget the 'interesting' Christmas presents – Heather, what did you receive from them last Christmas? A plastic Tupperware container of old, rotten banana skins, or that great Morris standby, the box of assorted rusty nails? At least he doesn't give you some crawly things from the garden. Lisa tells me his father – Pop Morris – was even worse. So welcome to a family filled with practical jokers. I would advise you to check your luggage before you leave for your honeymoon tomorrow – who knows what precious keepsake someone has hidden in there for you."

"Now, having dispensed with topic number one, onto Will."

Here we go, I thought. What embarrassing stories has he got about me?

"You probably didn't know it, but Will originally made a huge hit on the opposite sex," he said. "That started when he was just a wee lad, not even four years old. He was playing with a young girl, a daughter of some distant relatives, on the front balcony at the house at Mona Vale. Apparently she wanted the tennis ball that Will was playing with, but Will didn't want to share his ball with her, so she pushed him off the balcony, about eight feet to the concrete path below, breaking his leg in several places."

"Don't worry Heather," a voice from the back of the crowd called out. "I'm sure Will will let you play with his balls."

Everyone laughed – I couldn't see who said it, but it sounded like my cousin Graham.

Heather blushed, which had been the intention of the interjection, and I tried not to laugh too obviously.

"I'm not sure how I can follow that remark up," David continued, once the laughter had subsided. "Now, you should know that came from a Morris family member, so don't say you hadn't been warned."

David made a few more generally innocuous remarks about me; nothing too incriminating, thank goodness.

"Now, that's got those out of the way," he said. "And here's the words everyone has been waiting to hear. Could you all charge your glasses, and be upstanding to toast Mr. and Mrs. Will and Heather Morris? To Will and Heather!"

"To Heather and Will," several people in the crowd responded.

Now it was my turn to respond. I stood up, and looked over the brief notes I had made as preparation.

"Thank you for those kind words, David, and to Graham, for his additional comments," I started. "Now, before I respond with the next toast, there are some words of my own that I want to share with you all. Some of you know the history between Heather and me, but it's something I want to tell you all about."

"We met in 1975, June I believe, at a school youth group weekend at Mount Victoria. It was one of those things where you fall in love at first sight; there was lots of kissing after dinner on the Saturday night. Kissing, that's all we did, you dirty minded people," I added as I heard a few comments from the back. "Sadly, fate wasn't kind to us; a few weeks later Heather and her family moved five hundred miles away, to Ballina. At least we were able to have a tearful farewell at the airport – mind you, with lots more kisses. I was heartbroken – there is nothing worse to see than a teenager with a shattered heart."

"We made plans, and hoped that I would spend part of the summer holidays up in Ballina with her, but my parents were not comfortable with the idea of me driving all that way by myself, and staying with people they didn't even know. After that, I started at University; Heather continued with her life, and we somehow lost contact. Years went by, we both got married, divorced, married again – but neither of us was particularly happy with our circumstances. Speaking for myself, I knew that in my two previous marriages something didn't feel 'right', it wasn't the right relationship for me, I had the suspicion that there was someone else in the world that I was meant to be with."

"Then, not quite two years ago, through the magic of the Internet and Facebook, I disovered a 'Heather McFadyen' who had attended Ballina High school. Other things about this person seemed to match up, so after a week of procrastinating and worrying 'what if she doesn't remember me, or tells me to go away or some other rejection', I sent a friend request. You have no idea just how excited I was when she responded, ending her message with the very encouraging 'Please keep in touch'. I was on cloud nine – and of course wrote back the same day. We filled each other in on what had happened in the previous thirty-six years, plus a lot more about our lives that we never got to tell back in 1975."

"And the rest, as they say, is history. Our relationship picked off as if there had never been that hiatus, we clicked right from the start, the chemistry we had in 1975 was still there many years later. So, we started to make some plans, discussing options for how we could get back together. There is a word – serendipity – that means when fortunate things come from a combination of events. I heard a definition of serendipity as 'to look for a needle in a haystack and get out of it with the farmer's daughter'. A series of events combined to make our dreams a reality, and last summer moved back to Australia, spending time with her. Almost like a 'test drive' for us; to make sure that neither of us was secretly an axe murderer or anything like that. We got to meet each others families; Heather was subjected to my father's 'spoons in stereo' test and we each got to see the strange members of the families we were both getting into."

"So that brings us to this day; the culmination of a lot of work by several people, particularly Laura, who wasn't just Heather's bridesmaid, but the chief organizer, her main support, someone to do a lot of the running around, flowers, dresses, caterers, place cards, all of the ten thousand and one things that somehow have to get done for a wedding."

"Daniel has also been a great help; not just in giving his mother away, but helping with the organization. So thanks mate, for trusting me with your mother; I promise I'll look after her properly. And to Dave, too – don't worry, mate, your Mum's going to be in good hands. And thanks for all the work you did, picking up stuff, getting the cake here in one piece, you saved us a lot of work."

I mentally checked off the list in my head of all the people who had helped us get ready for the weddding. Even though Heather had resolved the problems between her and her mother, we didn't think it appropriate to make the standard thanks to the bride's mother for raising her; no sense in reopening old wounds. Of course there was Stan to thank – he was providing the music.

"The other family member to thank for their role in today's activities is Stan McFadyen," I said, pointing over to where he was setting up. "You've already heard his music during the ceremony, and in a few minutes we will have a chance to dance to his singing. Thanks again for making our day special."

"Now, my final comments – to all of you or 'all y'all' as I would have said back in the US. Having everyone here; family and friends to share this special day with us; you have no idea what this means to Heather and I. Had the world been fair, this would have happened over thirty years ago, but now the fates have aligned, or what ever contrived to get us back together, we are marrying the person that we were always meant to be with. Having you – our family and friends – with us to share in this day means so much to both of us. Thank you for being here with us."

"OK, I think I have thanked everyone that I had to," I said. "Now, since we should all have a fairly full glass, I want to propose a toast to our daughter in law, and Heather's close friend and support, Laura Woods – we simply could not have done this without your love and support. To the lovely Laura, Heather's maid of honour."

As I sat back down Heather leant over and whispered in my ear.

"That was a lovely speech," she said. "I loved what you said about us – how it's as if we were never apart."