Wedding Vow Renewal Ceremony

[tarheelmjfan]

DH wants to renew our vows for our 25th anniversary. He basically wants to duplicate our wedding. I do want to add some special touches though.

If any of you have renewed your vows, I'd love to hear about the planning & ceremony. Any tips for special touches to add that I may not think of would be great. Also, what did you do as a substitute for your wedding vows?

 

[Nancyg56]

WE have not renewed our vows, but I have attended a few special anniversary ceremonies. The couple renewed their vows kind of like the original.

You could use your original vows, but tailor them to reflect where you and your husband are in your life now. For instance, my friends had their original wedding party in the ceremony, but if DH and I renewed we would not. We would surround ourselves with our family, becuuse they complete our circle, and at this stage in our lives, we dont see ourselves as a completely separate entity from them.

 

[sk!mom]

We did not want to replicate our wedding so instead of spending on an elaborate renewal/wedding like party we did our vow renewal while vacationing in Hawaii. It was a Hawaiian ceremony and all handled by the hotel. We loved it.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

WE have not renewed our vows, but I have attended a few special anniversary ceremonies. The couple renewed their vows kind of like the original.

You could use your original vows, but tailor them to reflect where you and your husband are in your life now. For instance, my friends had their original wedding party in the ceremony, but if DH and I renewed we would not. We would surround ourselves with our family, becuuse they complete our circle, and at this stage in our lives, we dont see ourselves as a completely separate entity from them.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to watch our wedding video again to see what our vows were. It's been so long I don't even remember what we said. He wants to have the same wedding party, if we can. Since he's the one who wants to have the ceremony, I'll humor him with his requests. All but two were nieces & nephews anyway. We plan to only invite close family members this time.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We did not want to replicate our wedding so instead of spending on an elaborate renewal/wedding like party we did our vow renewal while vacationing in Hawaii. It was a Hawaiian ceremony and all handled by the hotel. We loved it.

That sounds really nice. I would have rather spent the money on a nicer second honeymoon. It's really important to him though, so I'll let him have his way this one time.

 

[Nancyg56]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to watch our wedding video again to see what our vows were. It's been so long I don't even remember what we said. He wants to have the same wedding party, if we can. Since he's the one who wants to have the same ceremony, I'll humor him with his requests. All but two were nieces & nephews anyway. We plan to only invite close family members this time.

That sounds so nice! My wedding party was my family too, with my DD and both my sons included and of course my nieces and nephews. If we renewed, and honestly it sounds too complicated for this old gal!!!! LOL!!! I would just try to replicate our vows and have my three adult children and their spouses and my DGD around us. To tell you the truth, that Hawaiian thing that @sk!mom had looks pretty darn tempting!

I do think its sweet your DH wants to do this. Mine would as well, and that makes me happy. I'm not going to, but it is such a nice thing. So many folks do not make it to these years, and if they do, there seem to be complications, so when a couple can celebrate, I'm alwasy thrilled.

 

[Nancyg56]

That sounds really nice. I would have rather spent the money on a nicer second honeymoon. It's really important to him though, so I'll let him have his way this one time.

It means something to him. It sounds like he is more in love now than 25 years ago..... and wants to tell you formally that he would do it all over again. Run with this my dear!!!!! He sounds like a really nice man.

 

[YachtClubWoman]

We did on the beach in Mexico. 15 friends and family traveled with us. Our friend who is a pastor lead the ceremony and we both wrote something that we read to each other. It was perfect with a group dinner after - it was an all inclusive so no extra cost to us

 

[Micca]

Seems like to me this is an excellent opportunity for the "Airing Of Grievances!" You know, clean slate & all

 

[cedricandsophie]

We didn't exactly renew our vows but we got remarried in the Catholic Church after being married by a judge and finally getting annulments after 20 years. So now we have two anniversary dates. For our second ceremony, we invited about 50 people, some of whom were at our first wedding, we had the same best man and matron of honor. Two good friends played piano and trumpet for the ceremony. Everyone met at the church for an early evening ceremony and then we had cocktails and buffet dinner back at our house.

 

[dotfurio]

We didn't renew with a "traditional" ceremony/reception. We went to a Vegas chapel with the ceremony performed by Elvis. We wore semi-vintagy style dressy clothes, not really wedding attire. IT was a blast

 

[MinnieMouse84]

I don't understand why people renew their wedding vows. I thought the vows were meant to last a lifetime.

 

[sk!mom]

We didn't renew with a "traditional" ceremony/reception. We went to a Vegas chapel with the ceremony performed by Elvis. We wore semi-vintagy style dressy clothes, not really wedding attire. IT was a blast

This is on our bucket list.

 

[lorimay]

We did our 25th onboard the Disney Magic, just us our kids their significant others and our 2 grandkids, it was simple and beautiful, plus we all got a 7 day cruise vacation.

We are heading back on The Magic in 3 1/2 weeks to celebrate our 30th anniversary with our 2 grandchildren, just the 4 of us.
Then my husband and I are going in April on The Magic again for 2 more cruises as a belated anniversary trip after our son's wedding.

Have a wonderful time and happy 25th!

 

[arminnie]

I don't understand why people renew their wedding vows. I thought the vows were meant to last a lifetime.

I kind of agree with you. Except that DH and I got married at a courthouse in Florida. I don't think we actually had any vows. We just signed some papers and were married. I've joked for years that I wasn't sure if we got married or just paid our taxes.

So in our case I could see doing vows in a religious setting. It would not really be renewing our vows - but would be making them for the first time with a religious conviction.

 

[LJSquishy]

I don't understand why people renew their wedding vows. I thought the vows were meant to last a lifetime.

I feel the same way. I've been happily married for 10 years and nothing will ever make me feel the need or have the desire to "recommit" or renew my vows. In fact, my love for my husband grows deeper every year. I also would never be interested in attending someone's vow renewal ceremony, even if it was a family member.

 

[Nancyg56]

I don't understand why people renew their wedding vows. I thought the vows were meant to last a lifetime.

For some couple renewing their vows is a symbolic way to acknowledge the journey their marriage has taken them on, and to reaffirm their that commitment to one another is stronger and deeper then ever.

On a personal level, my DH and I married after having been together for 12 years. I really did not think that I needed a formal ceremony to cement my commitment to him, but he felt strongly about it. We are Catholic and married in Church. Well we went through a really tough patch and it turns out that for us, the Sacrement of marriage was a deeply imbedded commitment.....and divorce was not on our table. So counseling and counseling and a lot of hard work....and we are now the couple we thought we were then....in love but so much more. Now I am not interested in a vow renewal, but I do understand that there are so many reasons why some couples feel strongly about them when they celebrate certain anniversart dates. Of course they may not have our journey as a couple ( I thnk we were "that" dysfunctional couple...we just did not know it! LOL) but they all have their reasons, and I doubt most are concerned with the outer trappings.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

It means something to him. It sounds like he is more in love now than 25 years ago..... and wants to tell you formally that he would do it all over again. Run with this my dear!!!!! He sounds like a really nice man.

He's definitely a keeper. I'm warming up to the idea. It means a lot to me that he wants to do it.

We did on the beach in Mexico. 15 friends and family traveled with us. Our friend who is a pastor lead the ceremony and we both wrote something that we read to each other. It was perfect with a group dinner after - it was an all inclusive so no extra cost to us

That sounds great! It's wonderful that your loved ones were able to be there with you.

Seems like to me this is an excellent opportunity for the "Airing Of Grievances!" You know, clean slate & all

You are too funny.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We didn't exactly renew our vows but we got remarried in the Catholic Church after being married by a judge and finally getting annulments after 20 years. So now we have two anniversary dates. For our second ceremony, we invited about 50 people, some of whom were at our first wedding, we had the same best man and matron of honor. Two good friends played piano and trumpet for the ceremony. Everyone met at the church for an early evening ceremony and then we had cocktails and buffet dinner back at our house.

Two anniversary dates sound good to me. That's a good reason to exchange gifts & celebrate twice.

We hope to have our original best man & maid of honor also. The other attendants were nieces & nephews who have already agreed to a repeat performance.

DH has agreed to sing at least two of the songs this time. DS will play the music for him.

We're undecided on what we'll do for the reception. We no longer live in the area we grew up in, so I'll have to research our options. Hopefully, the Inn where we were married still caters meals in their kitchen. DH is calling Monday to try to reserve the Inn & will ask them about food.

We didn't renew with a "traditional" ceremony/reception. We went to a Vegas chapel with the ceremony performed by Elvis. We wore semi-vintagy style dressy clothes, not really wedding attire. IT was a blast

Fun times! You also had a perfect location for a second honeymoon.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We did our 25th onboard the Disney Magic, just us our kids their significant others and our 2 grandkids, it was simple and beautiful, plus we all got a 7 day cruise vacation.

We are heading back on The Magic in 3 1/2 weeks to celebrate our 30th anniversary with our 2 grandchildren, just the 4 of us.
Then my husband and I are going in April on The Magic again for 2 more cruises as a belated anniversary trip after our son's wedding.

Have a wonderful time and happy 25th!

Thanks. I'm sure a ceremony on the Magic was lovely. Congrats on your 30th! Enjoy your cruises.