WHERE else would you profess your undying love than at the annual Parkes Elvis Festival?
And in front of much-lauded Elvis tribute artist and wedding celebrant Dean Vegas, no less.
That's exactly how 29 couples spent their Sunday in the NSW Central West town.
Reporters Barbara Reeves and Christine Little caught up with each of the 29 couples. There were Queenslanders, Victorians and South Australians in the mix. Meet them all ...
Couple profiles
Delmar and Ken Farquhar from Ipswich, Queensland, have been together for 40 years and celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last October.
"I believe in long engagements," Ken laughed.
They renewed their vows at the Elvis Festival to celebrate 25 happily married years.
Pamela and Alan Jones from Wahgunyah, Victoria, have been married for 47 years.
They decided to renews their vows at the festival this year because they "love each other and love Elvis".
Michelle and David Black from Sydney have been married for 12 years.
They missed the chance to renew their vows in Las Vegas two years ago so Michelle surprised David and registered to do it at this year's Elvis Festival.
Gary and Marian Marshall of Brisbane, Queensland, have been married for 32 years. The couple were not only celebrating the renewal of their vows, but also Marian's birthday.
"We love one another and we thought it was a good fit," they said.
Fran and Dave Fitzgerald from Canberra have been married for 21 years.
"We are renewing our vows today because we think it's a hoot," they said.
Mike and Carolyn Scanlon from Sydney have been together for 10 years and married for eight.
"I am still as much in love with Carolyn as I was when I met her," he said.
Their eight-year-old daughter Ruby was their flower girl.
Jacqui and Scott Bowman of Geelong are celebrating 20 years of marriage. They got married on Elvis' birthday so decided to celebrate by renewing their vows at the Parkes Elvis Festival.
Bridget and Stewart Johns from Alfred, South Australia, are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary.
"Stewart is a massive Elvis fan and everyone thought we were going to elope to Vegas to get married by an Elvis celebrant, so our 10 year wedding anniversary seemed appropriate to come to Parkes and do it," Bridget said.
Bridget and Stewart's children Eloise (6) and Blake (8) were their attendants.
Gabriela and Jeffrey Love of Muswellbrook have been married for 22 years.
They made their vows on December 28, 1997 in Parkes and thought it most fitting they renewed them back where it all began.
Barbara and Earl Alipon of Cranbourne, Victoria, have been married for just one month.
Earl surprised his bride on Sunday with a renewal registration.
"We went out together as teenagers," Earl said. "Forty years later we caught up and bang, here we go, we are married and renewing.
Are they going to renew every month?
"If there was a festival like this once a month we probably would," he smiled.
Jeannie and Darryl Southgate from Canberra are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year.
They said they just wanted to be here at the festival and renew their vows. They also have friends in Parkes.
Shelley and Tim Ellison from Sydney have been married for 23 years.
"We wanted to renew our vows today because we love each other, we are celebrating life and love," they said.
Lynette and Frank Spiller from Baranduda, Victoria, are celebrating 30 years of happy marriage.
This is the sixth time they have renewed their vows at the Parkes Elvis Festival.
"We do it every year," they said.
Ann and Ken Gent from Caboolture, Queensland, have been married for 47 years.
"We love one another," they said.
Fiona Vale and Andrew Solly from Melbourne, Victoria, are engaged to be married.
"We are having a practice today," Fiona said.
"It's our third time here, we absolutely love it.
"We watch this every year and we wanted to take part, we brought our friends along and we love Elvis."
Debra and Stuart Rayner of Campbells Creek, Victoria, are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary.
"Stuart proposed to me to the song The Wonder of You and we love Elvis so it only seemed fitting to renew our vows at our first festival," Debra said.
Lyndal and David Ward-Smith of Sydney have been together for 30 years and married for 17.
"It took him 16 years to be sure," Lyndal laughed.
"I had to wait, just in case," David grinned.
Allison and Gregory Ford of Normanhurst have been married for almost 35 years.
"This is our third Parkes Elvis Festival and we might not be back for a little while so we thought this was a good year to do it," they said.
Gail and Gary Wardley from Ryde have been married for 33 years.
"Our friends decided that they wanted to do it and it was something we'd always thought would be a bit of fun so we thought we'd join them," they said.
Gary and Ann Wright of Brisbane have been married for 34 years.
"We celebrated our anniversary on January 11," Ann said.
"We've been travelling past Parkes for many years and have seen the Elvis billboards and ads on TV.
"The festival has always really appealed to us so this year we made it happen.
"We renewed our vows in Vegas eight years ago, it's a fun and nice thing to do.
"I just enjoy the love story of it all in these times of all this stress and hassle."
David and Leah Rose from Samford, near Brisbane, are celebrating their 50th, golden wedding anniversary this year.
Leah is a big Elvis fan, so much so she said "the kids thought I was going to marry Elvis".
Denise and Eddie Kindrat from Claremont Meadows have been married 30 years.
Denise had a brain aneurysm in March last year and said "life is too short", that's why they renewed their vows on Saturday.
The couple said it was also something different to do for their anniversary and they had both been to Memphis.
Lucy and Austin Blackburne from Melbourne are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary.
"Friends said it (the renewal of vows ceremony) was fantastic and it is," Austin said.
The couple also had an Elvis song as their wedding song.
Una and Philip Segal from Sydney are celebrating their 50th, golden anniversary.
This year is their fourth festival and they've seen the renewal of vows ceremony before, choosing to take part in 2020.
"We love Parkes, we love the people and we love Elvis," Una said.
"It's the highlight of our year. And what better way to celebrate our golden anniversary than with all these thousands of beautiful people."
Garry and Colleen Dean from Casino are celebrating 30 years of marriage this year.
They thought "why not?" about renewing their vows at the Parkes Elvis Festival. They said it was a bit of fun and something different.
Rick Nolan and Gail Beard of Toowoomba have been married for 21 years.
They decided to attend this year's festival and, as they said "get in the Elvis groove and take the opportunity to do this".
They said they wanted to get involved in the festival.
Trish and Rob Ely of Mackay are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and they brought with them 13 family members, from Mackay too, to this year's festival.
"It's our third festival but their first," Trish said.
As to why they decided to renew their vows at the festival, Trish said "all the family members are here and it's 20 years!"
Kathy and Geoff Moore of Ballarat have been married for 27 years.
The couple was planning to renew their vows in the last two years but was unable to because Geoff was having cancer treatment.
They decided to do it this year at the Parkes Elvis Festival.
"We had friends who did it last year (at the festival) and they said it was great," Geoff said.
Felicity and Chris Bylhouwer of Adelaide are celebrating 18 years of marriage.
Chris grew up in Parkes - he also goes by the nickname Ralph - and attended Holy Family Primary School and Red Bend Catholic College.
He moved to Sydney at 16 years old in 1978 to complete a tradesman apprenticeship.
He and Felicity decided to renew their vows for Chris' parents and to celebrate their love.
"My parents are elderly, dad Bill Bylhouwer is 91 and mum Trudy is 96," Chris said.
Bill, who lives at Southern Cross Care Retirement Village, was in the crowd watching the ceremony, as were Chris and Felicity's two sons Ji (16) and Myles (14).
