Vow Renewals

Community Celebration of Marriage

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The idea of a community celebration of marriage is increasing in popularity for couples that have been married in small, private ceremonies. Covid has forced many couples to opt for a small, legal marriage when larger gatherings were not safe or possible. With restrictions easing, some couples are choosing to celebrate their marriage with family and friends now.

Small gathering due to Covid restrictions

In cases where you’re already legally married, you can, of course, opt to just host a party or reception. Choosing to include a ceremony in the community celebration, however, allows you to voice your promises to one another surrounded by the important people in your lives. Your exchange of vows (and optionally, rings) is the heart of any wedding day. Why not include it in a belated celebration you plan with family and friends?

This kind of ceremony is technically a Vow Renewal ceremony, since you’ve already exchanged some level of vows when you legally wed. But it can look like any other wedding ceremony. You can include a processional, wedding party, reading, love story, exchange of vow and rings, a unity ritual, and any other ceremony elements that are meaningful to you. The only difference will be that your celebrant will not “pronounce” you married. Instead they may say something like, “It is my honor to publicly announce that you are married,” or “It is my honor to present to you as a married couple…”. Working with a celebrant you can make your ceremony as personal and unique or as traditional as you wish.

Venue set for large wedding ceremony

Couples who married during the pandemic do not need to be cheated of the community celebration of marriage. After all, marriage is a social construct and benefits greatly from being recognized and celebrated with your community of family and friends.

Vow Renewal Celebrations – To Show Your Love

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Vow Renewal celebrations are an opportunity to show your love once more. There are many reasons that you might consider a vow renewal ceremony as articulated in this article from Weddingbee. Just like your first wedding, a vow renewal ceremony can be whatever you want it to be.

If you didn’t have the ceremony of your dreams when you first married, this might be the opportunity to gather family and friends and do it up big. Perhaps military service, medical issues, finances or other constraints led to a simple certificate signing without any ceremony at all. Or you chose to elope and didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate with those people important to you. Now that your circumstances have changed, why not create the special moments and memories you missed the first time around? A ceremony complete with readings, rituals, music and a special walk down the aisle may be perfect for you.

A smaller, intimate ceremony may be called for if you are coming through a challenging time as a couple, or if you are focusing on remembering what you love about each other. Perhaps you will include a few special family members, but this kind of ceremony might be for just the two of you and your celebrant as you acknowledge the difficulties of the past and commit to moving forward as a couple, centered on your love for each other.

And finally, milestone anniversaries of successful marriages are definitely worth celebrating with vow renewal celebrations. This is an opportunity to bring in touches from your first wedding – perhaps say the same vows, use the same reading, or invite some of your wedding party to join you again. But this is also an opportunity to reflect on your successful marriage by including your children, by reminiscing on some of the highlights (and challenges you’ve faced together and overcome), and by making new vows to each other that honor the past and look to the future, too.

No matter the reason for your vow renewal celebrations, the ceremony will once again be the highlight of the day, and can be whatever you want it to be. You are limited only by your preferences and choices as you celebrate again the love you share, so make it special, personal, and authentically yours.

Vow Renewals: Affirming Your Love and Commitment

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Vow renewals interest to couples for a variety of reasons. But whatever the reason you’re considering a vow renewal ceremony, rest assured that it can be as special and significant as the first time you said, “I do”.

Traditionally vow renewals are held to mark a milestone anniversary – often 25 or even 50 years of marriage. And that’s still a great reason to gather your family and friends together and celebrate your very successful marriage. Vow renewals of this kind can renew treasured memories by including a reading or song from your first wedding. You can even recite the same vows you made to each other “back in the day”. And of course you might use the same color scheme, carry a similar bouquet, or have some of your original wedding party stand up with you once more.

Vow renewals are also wonderful if you opted for an elopement or courthouse wedding the first time around. Your vow renewal ceremony can be the big wedding you never had, or a simpler but significant experience. You can select a wedding party, wear a gown and tux or suit, perhaps have your children serve as flower girls or ring bearers if they are of an appropriate age. Since you’re already married, you might opt to enter the ceremony space together, but if you always dreamed of having your father or parents walk you down the aisle go ahead and start the ceremony that way. This kind of vow renewal ceremony can be created with all the personalization, rituals and elements of a first wedding. You’re limited only by your creativity and vision for your perfect ceremony.

A very special kind of vow renewal ceremony can be created if you’ve experienced a difficult time as a couple, and are coming back together now to re-commit yourselves to your marriage. You can opt for a very small, personal ceremony in this case, but feel free to opt for a larger celebration with family and friends if that feels right. Under these circumstances the ceremony can be your public statement of commitment and love to each other. It can mark a new beginning, a fresh slate, and a sincere promise to live up to the promises/vows you choose to make to each other.

Vow renewals can be as elaborate, formal and unique as you want them to be. They can also be brief, simple ceremonies offered as part of a larger celebration. Whatever the particular circumstances that cause you to consider vow renewals, there is a ceremony that can be crafted that will be personal, meaningful and memorable for you and that will fit your personality and style. Vow renewals are a great way to celebrate your love and commitment to each other, and mark another milestone moment in your life.