“Loving you’s the antidote…You’re so golden” (Harry Styles, “Golden”)
Martina and Jules got married near Wellington on 24 September, high on a clifftop overlooking a wild sea. Martina is the daughter of my wife Petra. The wedding had been due to take place three months earlier but had to be postponed because of covid-19 pandemic restrictions. Martina and Jules asked me if I might be able to provide about 70 polished stones for the Reception. They would be used to hold down the pieces of card with people’s names on them that indicated their place at a table. A key colour for the wedding was gold so I went through my polished stones, looking for yellow, cream and light coloured ones of the appropriate size. I didn’t have enough so I included stones of other colours as well, sending about 90 in all, so that Martina and Jules could choose the ones they liked best.
Jules’s family have connections to Kakanui and I was able to provide a number of stones from there. Three other places were the source of most of the other stones – Birdlings Flat, Riverton and Gemstone Beach – with a few extras from places like the West Coast.
Wedding guests were able to take “their” stone home with them. A number of people commented on the stones, the interesting colours and the patterns in them. Below are photos of the stones on the name labels, and the two Riverton stones that sat upon the name cards of Petra and I.
I also gave Martina and Jules a personal gift of seven stones, posted to them after the wedding. I chose two of my favourite gold quartzites from Kakanui, representing male and female. There were also two stones from Gemstone Beach – a banded ignimbrite and a hydrogrossular garnet (with a light cloud of gold within). Over a year ago, I had shown Martina and Jules a number of polished stones and asked them which they liked best. Jules indicated the ignimbrite and Martina the garnet. So they now have these two. The other three stones are from Kakanui, including a cream-coloured fossil hash stone, a greyish quartzite and a stone with a delicate red-pink patterning.
The gold in many of these stones echoes the gold making up the wedding rings that Jules and Martina exchanged and now wear. Wedding rings, exchanged during the vows, symbolize the love and commitment to fidelity between two people. As a circle, a ring has no beginning or end, a symbol of enduring love. It is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was once believed that a vein connected this finger directly to the heart. Gold is a precious metal, shiny and lustrous, recognised as valuable since the most ancient of times, yet a gold ring is practical and hard wearing. The colour gold is the colour of success and achievement. Associated with abundance and prosperity, quality and sophistication, richness and warmth, it is also symbolic for the power of the sun, Earth’s life-giving star. Other associations with gold include wisdom, understanding and spirituality.
Harry Styles was a member of the British pop group One Direction before embarking on a solo career in 2016. One of the songs from his 2019 album “Fine Line” is “Golden”. While not directly addressing issues of weddings and wedding rings, nor gold-coloured quartzites (though love and a relationships figure promnently), “Golden” contains some themes that could perhaps be applicable (lyrics below). [For other TumbleStone Posts with music, see here.]
Golden, golden, golden
As I open my eyes
Hold it, focus, hoping
Take me back to the light
I know you were way too bright for me
I’m hopeless, broken
So you wait for me in the sky
Brown my skin just right
You’re so golden
You’re so golden
I’m out of my head
And I know that you’re scared
Because hearts get broken
I don’t wanna be alone
I don’t wanna be alone
When it ends
Don’t wanna let you know
I don’t wanna be alone
But I can feel it take a hold
I can feel you take control
Of who I am and all I’ve ever known
Loving you’s the antidote
Golden
You’re so golden
I don’t wanna be alone
You’re so golden
You’re so golden
I’m out of my head
And I know that you’re scared
Because hearts get broken…
I know that you’re scared
Because I’m so open…
Thanks for sharing, your posts are always enjoyable and it is great to be able to identify certain stones thanks to your knowledge.
Thanks, Christine! Appreciate the encouragement. Stone identification is often tricky, and I am sure I am not always totally accurate.