EVERLASTING LOVE
I’ve never been able to decide whether I’m a romantic with no illusions or a cynic with dreams. But I guess I’m a romantic without illusions. I believe in love at first sight, but I also believe in love at any time. I got married to my husband Carl (above) in 1948, at the Waldorf Astoria, New York. I would’ve been much happier if we could have eloped and kept the money to furnish our home, but my grandparents wanted a big wedding, so we had to do it. This is what 68 years of marriage has taught me. BE PRACTICAL: BUY A WEDDING DRESS YOU CAN
WEAR AGAIN. I had the first pink wedding. Most of my friends had the typical white dresses, which were beautiful, but they spent all that money, kept the dress in a box and never wore it again. I’m very practical, so I sketched the kind of dress I wanted (imported pink lace and strapless, with a cape) and knew I’d wear it again to black-tie parties. THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT TO A LONG
MARRIAGE IS A SENSE OF HUMOUR. You can’t take yourself too seriously or be too rigid. You can’t have it your way all the time. Carl and I always looked at life the same way. We tried not to be stuffy, but instead go with the flow. THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO GIVE
ONE ANOTHER ENOUGH SPACE. When you get married, people say you become one person, but in my opinion, you remain two different people and you should respect one another’s personality, wishes and tastes. Carl loved to go to football games and the best thing about getting married was not having to go with him. And I never said to him ‘don’t go’, but rather ‘go and enjoy yourself’. And there were things I liked to do that he didn’t. We played it that way, and once in a while I’d go with him and he’d go with me. It worked out very well. The autobiography ‘Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon’ is published by Harper Design, £25