I want to share with you today a lovely vow renewal ceremony that I was involved with a few weeks ago. Wendy and Perry have been married for 40 years and their daughter, Melanie, phoned me at the end of January to see if I could help them organise their vow renewal ceremony.
Melanie thought it would be a great present to buy her Mum and Dad A Genie for An Evening service. In fact we did it on a Sunday morning when all the family were visiting. The idea was to pull together Wendy and Perry’s vision for their special celebration and help them choose suppliers and outline their day. The vow renewal service was in early March so we only had a few weeks to sort everything out. Fortunately I have some great suppliers I can call on.
The morning I spent with Wendy, Perry and their family was such fun. Browsing through their old photographs from the year they got married and reminiscing about their life over the past 40 years was a true pleasure. Perry is one of life’s gentleman and has a great sense of humour. He and Wendy had a printing business so it was a great idea for them to make all of their stationery and really put themselves into the day. In fact that is how they first met when Perry was working in printing selling his wares. He asked Wendy out for lunch, he was smitten and the rest they say is history.
Wendy gave me a copy of one of her favourite pictures from their original wedding day. Part of my service is to write up a plan of the day’s events which Wendy and Perry could use as roadmap to help them visualise the events of the day. I was able to use the pictures Wendy gave to me to illustrate their day, as well as include ones of each of their family to keep as a memento.
I had a chat on the phone to Wendy before we met so that she could give me an idea of what she was thinking of for her day. I was then able to visit armed with lots of tips, advice and pictures to illustrate Wendy’s ideas.On Wendy’s original wedding day it had been snowing and was so cold she had to use a fur muffle to keep warm, one of the priorities for their vow renewal was to have flowers as she had none on her original wedding day. Lovely ruby red ones to keep in with the theme of the ruby wedding anniversary. We chose simple but elegant table arrangements that the lovely Anne from Tiara and Flowers provided. You get a choice to keep the table centrepieces by just paying a little extra so you can give them to your guests as presents.
Flowers by Tiaras and Flowers
Other details we thought would work were having a montage of pictures on a table that told the story of Wendy and Perry’s life. It would also be good to use a signing frame with the original wedding picture in it for guests to sign. You can get these from Confetti. Later if they wanted to they can replace the picture from their favourite of the day.
These frames can be purchased from Confetti with different colour frames.
We came up with lovely red cupcakes with hearts and ruby red sprinkles for the reception. Using cupcakes meant that everyone could take one home so Wendy ordered little boxes which the cakes were packed in and handed out to guests as they left. CupCakes and Peonies provided the cakes for us. Perry wanted to arrive in style so we arranged a lovely car and of course Wendy and Perry wanted the ceremony to be photographed. Mark Zaccaria stepped up the mark and captured all the lovely moments of the day.
Cakes by Cupcakes and Peonies
Wendy and Perry were able to have their ceremony in the same church that they married in, St Margarets in Great Barr. The reverend encouraged them to personalise their ceremony so Perry’s nephew performed a reading and Melanie, Perry’s daughter read something special to them as the end of the ceremony. The reverend did a family blessing too which was a lovely idea.
The reception was held at Fairlawns Hotel and Spa in Aldridge, the weather was surprisingly kind to us and was mild and sunny. Melanie composed a list of tunes on her IPOD for the background music and guest were greeted with a champagne reception following the ceremony. Wendy and Perry’s home made stationery looked great and everyone remarked about the little touches.
How can I write as if I was there? Well I was. The lovely Wendy and Perry phoned me to say that they had enjoyed my service so much they wanted me to share their day with them. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the proceedings instead of looking over them.
Here are some great moments of the day.
Perry’s Gorgeous granddaughter, Lilly
I would like to say a huge thank you to Wendy and Perry for including me in their very special family day. It certainly was a lovely change to be a guest.
Until next time, happy planning.
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