American Michael Puehse and his wife Caryn will not be able to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows at the Mosta Dome, where they tied the knot on June 10, 1995, since their flights to Malta were cancelled due to the virus pandemic.

Michael and Caryn after their wedding in Mosta on June 10, 1995.

The church has a special meaning for the couple as Michael’s parents – German Hans Puehse and Maltese Gina Calleja – married there 33 years before them on June 10, 1962, in the same church, on the same date, also having the same two priests and witnesses.

But Michael, 57, and Caryn, 51, from Scottsdale, Arizona, will not allow the virus to dampen their plans entirely.

On June 10, Fr John Scicluna – one of the two priests who celebrated both weddings – will conduct a renewal of vows virtually.

“We are also planning to renew our vows at the Mosta Dome next year, God willing,” Michael says.

The family’s connection with the Mosta Dome goes back to the childhood days of Michael’s mother. She lived in a house across the road from the church. She met Michael’s father in Germany when she went there with friends in 1959.

We believe one or more of our children will carry on the tradition of being married in the Mosta Dome on June 10

“She had gone into a bank to cash some traveller’s checks. My father was a teller at the bank. He asked my mum where she was from and she told him Malta. He then excused himself and went to the back office of the bank to ask someone where Malta was. He then asked her where she and her friends would be that night and she said she did not know,” he recounts.

His father managed to find his way around Gina’s friends and got the information he needed. That night he met Gina at a party and stayed with her for the remainder of her trip.

“From the time my father met my mother in Germany, he visited her on every opportunity he had.

“He even took a job in Libya with an oil company because it was a short flight to Malta. He pursued her for the next three years until they married in 1962,” Michael says.

He recalled a story his father would tell him that, one day, after buying a ferry ticket to Malta from Sicily, he learned the ferry had sunk. His father managed to secure a flight to Malta by selling his prized FM transistor radio to two Sicilian men.

Michael and Caryn during the wedding ceremony.

After the couple married, they moved to San Francisco, US, in January 1963 where they started a family and had four children.

Michael met Caryn, who grew up in the same town, through a mutual friend. When they decided to marry, they wanted something unique and special. 

“My parents’ story provided the inspiration. Our wedding was Caryn’s first time to Malta. I had been to Malta 10 years prior, when I was 22,” he says.

Michael and Caryn went on to have three children: Tristan and Nic, who are 22-year-old twins, and Natasha, 19.

“My entire family, along with my mum and dad, visited last in 2014. Caryn was insistent that our children would see and learn about Malta through the eyes and stories of their nanna and grandpa,” he says adding that his father passed away last year.

Next year, the family, including Michael’s mother, hope to come to Malta to renew their vows with friends and the same witnesses: Ulrich Puehse and Peter Calamatta. One of the priests who married them, Mgr Batholomew Bezzina, has since passed away.

“I believe one or more of our children will carry on the tradition of being married in the Mosta Dome on June 10. What year, we do not know, and, to be honest, Caryn and I prefer it later than sooner,” Michael says.