Bouffard/Lill Wedding. US soldier Gene Bouffard and Coralie Lill are married at the Wayside Chapel.PETER MOXHAM
Gene Bouffard gathered up his bride Coralie Lill in his arms last night and carried her from the Wayside Chapel,King’s Cross,after the 2,000th wedding there since it opened in 1964.
Gene,who is 19 and an American soldier from Guildford,Connecticut,arrived from Vietnam last Sunday and will return there next Sunday. He is a Specialist (Fourth Class) in the 297th Transport Company,1st Field Force. But last night he was in his brown R and R suit and a yellow shirt.
Coralie,who is 18,is a trainee computer operator from Bondi. Assured,in wispy,short,grey dress,with pink-ribboned hair and pink bouquet,she had a smile for everyone.
It was while Gene was on R and R last March that he met Coralie. He had one week in Sydney then,but returned in August-September and proposed.
Extending his service in Vietnam by six months he went back to Vietnam so that he could have Sydney leave this month.
He will return in June,and again in September when his extended service will end.
At the wedding they exchanged gold rings,and words were said remembering friends and relatives in America.
Now for five days they are on their honeymoon at Bondi. Then they will be looking forward to June and to September,when life together will really start with Gene out of the Army.
As they left the Wayside Chapel the 2,001st wedding was about to start. The popularity of the chapel is growing.
The Rev. Ted Noffs,its pastor,said that the astronomic rise in weddings there was because the chapel is regarded as neutral ground for people of all religions.
From the mod weddings to the formal,with marriage partners so far from 59 nations the chapel reflected the cosmopolitan community around it,he said.