Four months later

I’m a pretty terrible blogger, huh? Life happens, I guess. A lot has happened between my last post and now. It's been a rough few months and a lot of stuff, marriage celebration planning included, fell by the wayside. Remember how the whole reason we got married early was so my dad would definitely be there? Well I am SO grateful we went that route. Dad passed away on December 26^th, 2012.

And if I hadn't moved up the wedding, I know I would have regretted it. I'm so happy he was able to be there to share in the memory of our wedding.

I love you, Dad.

 

Save the date

Here’s a wedding tradition I didn’t hesitate to include for our Ceremony of Love: Save the Dates. The biggest reason being that I personally like to have advanced notice for these kind of events. I don’t want to send an invitation 2 months before and hope people didn’t make vacation plans already. Plus, they are so dang cute!

Before we were married, and I was playing with save the dates for our 2013 wedding, I fell in love with a site called WeddingChicks.com. They have all of these free printable save the dates, invitations and more. Notice the word free? That’s what I loved the most. Of course, I had no intention of actually printing these things myself, but with sites like vistaprint and zazzle, the cost would be much cheaper than using a vendor.

With the WeddingChicks printables, usually you just plug in your names, your date and voila, save the date! 

      Never having watched the show Mad Men, I thought this was so clever.

(Still cute, especially for fans of the show) 

I really like the conversational style of this save the date. 

 

 

Then we got married, and took the easy out of it. Because now we aren’t sending save the dates for a wedding, but for a Ceremony of Love.

So I started messing with all of the Save the Dates I found to make them Ceremony of Love friendly. One of my first, and favorites, was a re-make of the above:

cute, right?

I got the "Weddinged" idea from the Offbeat Bride article I linked in my last post (On Vow Renewals and Getting Weddinged).

But, my pretend-bride-phobia came out, and I decided maybe someone would be offended by it. It’s still one of my favorites, though!

Then I found this save the date bookmark, complete with an adorable bunting: 

Buntings are all the rage. 

I was going down this path pretty seriously for a couple of weeks. I especially liked the idea of Save the Date image + simple wording. No "We're getting married!" or "Save the Date for our wedding" to confuse matters. But, I ended up abandoning this save the date due to the bookmark shape. That is NOT an easy shape to send via mail.

So where did I end up? The grand reveal will be after I send said Save the Dates, so as to not ruin the surprise for guests!

Thoughts on throwing a non-wedding

If you read online about this sort of event, people are downright nasty about newlyweds having a ceremony/reception after their official wedding day (ie, the day they were legally married). 

They say it’s only ok if you call it a vow renewal, and no way can you have attendants, or wear a wedding dress. And then they go on to say that even a vow renewal is tacky, and what are you saying, that one of you broke your vows and need to renew them? Or are you just gift grabbing? Or are you sad that you are no longer a bride and want to pretend and play dress up? And why aren’t you waiting until a milestone anniversary to do this? 

This sort of stuff is all over wedding forums online. Originally, it made me think “no way could we ever do that.” And it’s not because I share these sentiments, it’s because I would be horrified if someone thought them about me. I’m still worried people will think of me as a gift grabbing, attention whoring, pretend bride. (This post on Offbeat Bride made me feel better, but I’m a worrier by nature.)

So when Mike and I set out on planning this, I knew we had to avoid this stereotype. I didn’t want to be that couple. 

So when it comes to our event, our "vow renewal", or "marriage blessing", or as I like to call it, "Ceremony of Love", we're not doing the norm. We're doing what we want, naysayers be damned. And we hope the folks who come enjoy it! That's sort of the point.

Memories

Check out these pictures I found on my laptop while avoiding doing grown up things like cleaning the house.

This is the only picture I have of Mike and I from high school. 

That's kind of sad, considering we were friends for 3 of the 4 years.

Mike and my BFF Cara.

Mike, Cara and brother-in-law Christopher.

These were from a ridiculous history project we did once, where we planned a faux trip to Venezuela, but while there had a rendezvous with a drug lord (Christopher). I believe the project was supposed to be cultural and educational. I think we missed the point...

Back in the wedding groove

I’m back, back in the wedding groove….

With less than 10 months to go before our May 4^th wedding/vow renewal/kickass party for all our family and friends celebrating our love and marriage, I think it wise to get back in the planning process, you know?

The good news is, in the grand scheme of things, there isn’t a whole lot of things that need doing.

Our venue is chosen (Venue visit). Our officiant is chosen (Wedding party, and other important people). A lot of the look and feel decisions have been made, decoration-wise (Green with... love?). Our wardrobe will be the same as our B&B Wedding (A Bed & Breakfast Wedding).

The biggest things that need doing are to research and choose our caterer and entertainment. And implement the decoration plan, via crafty projects.

And I am PUMPED to get back into planning mode. And blogging mode. And of course, "oh-em-gee-I'm-going-to-be-a-bride-again" mode! Only instead of a bride, I'll be a wife who gets to marry her husband all over again, in front of her best friends and family!