Couldn't find a vow renewal board so I thought I'd try here! Remove it if it doesn't belong here!
So, we are seriously planning on renewing our vows. Not just one of those maybe one day gonna happen things, we are for real. We've been through some pretty rough stuff recently and we want to do a recommitment sort of thing with friends and family. Very intimate. Very small. Just people who want to show support while we start a new phase.
We want to almost re-create our wedding ceremony, but leave some things out and add some things. We're not gonna do bridesmaids and rings and all that, (and we aren't into unity candles or sand vase things, etc etc) but we want to read our vows that we wrote to each other at our wedding, and then read some new ones we plan to write as a way of saying, "this is what we said we'd do, and we did that. Here is where we plan to go from here..." sort of thing. Like I said, a recommitment. We also want to have the same poems and scriptures from our wedding read again. I was thinking of having my original bridesmaids do that since we want to honor them but not make them have to go through the stress of being maids again lol!! We also want to find a way to honor the groomsmen but we haven't thought of a way to do that.
Other than that, I don't know what else to leave out. We want to have a casual dinner party style reception with dancing, but I don't want it to be too wedding-y. I hated planning my wedding so I don't want to get crazy. I was planning to maybe have some games like darts or pool for people to do during the cocktail hour if they want, and then have dinner and dancing at the same time, no seating arrangements or formal chain of events (no speeches and etc). Just nibble at your plate until a song you like comes on and dance for a bit, then nibble a bit more. Maybe have a photobooth with silly props.
We want to have a cake, but we don't want to do a cake cutting situation. Someone suggested that we have the same flavor cake we had for our wedding (which was delicious) but I'm not sure.
Someone else suggested doing the same color scheme. I am iffy on that too. My scheme was green and white but I am leaning more towards a lavender and peach theme... although some minty green could easily be incorporated with that. But again I don't want to get too crazy.
Should I leave out a bouquet since we won't be doing bridesmaids and groomsmen? Is that too wedding-y? What if it was just a small herb bouquet?
Does anyone have any ideas on how to make a clear distinction between the wedding and vow renewal?
Have you been to any vow renewals/recommitment ceremonies? Have you had one yourself? What traditions do you think would be important and what would you leave out?
One more question! Would wearing white/ivory/champagne/etc be a no-no in your book? I am torn between wearing a vintage style tea length white gown (like Audrey Hepburn's in Funny Face when she was modeling the wedding dress) or a long flowy goddess style dress in a pale color, like peach or maybe lavender. I don't want to go too over the top though since its not a wedding, and I don't want people laughing behind my back.