HUNDREDS of kilometres from where they were married, Beverley and Don Macleod still managed to get half of their wedding party together to celebrate their 60th anniversary on Thursday.
The Birkdale pair marked the milestone at the Lighthouse Restaurant in Cleveland with Mr Macleod's sister and Mrs Macleod's sister, who were bridesmaids on the big day in 1961.
Mr and Mrs Macleod first met as teenagers, paired up at the tennis club where they played in Sydney.
"A year or so later I got my license and I bought a car," Mr Macleod said.
"I used to pick her up.
"We used to come back to her place after tennis and sit outside for an hour, an hour and a half talking. Her mother would come out and (tell me to) go home.
"We got to know each other over a period of two or three years before we actually went together.
"I wasn't game to ask her out until one day I plucked up the courage.
"She said 'I thought you'd never ask'."
A few years later, Mr Macleod popped the question, offering his wife-to-be a choice of whether he would buy her a block of land or an engagement ring first.
"I chose the land," Mrs Macleod said.
The pair were married on March 4, 1961 at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Chatswood.
They enjoyed 12 happy years together in Sydney before moving to Western Australia for Mr Macleod's work.
They made the trip in the family station wagon, with their three children, then aged 3, 8 and 10, in the back seat.
"In those days there were no bitumen highways going across the Nullarbor," Mr Macleod said.
"There were a few flat tyres and I lost the brakes - I had to drive 800 kilometres using my gears and the handbrake until we got to Kalgoorlie."
Shortly after the family arrived in Western Australia, the state was hit by Tropical Cyclone Trixie.
"That was very interesting," Mrs Macleod said.
"There was a little utility truck driving around with a light on the top, flashing like an ambulance, and depending on what colour the light was, you knew how close the cyclone was.
"We lost a tree in our front yard but the house behind us lost half its roof. We were very lucky."
After raising their family in Western Australia, the pair moved to Queensland 20 years ago.
They now have eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren, with another on the way.
Communication and shared hobbies were the key to a long and happy marriage, according to the couple.
"There's good and there's bad," Mrs Macleod said.
"You've got to give a little and take a little and it all works out in the end."
