How to Renew Your Wedding Vows

After being married for several years, it is a common wish to renew your wedding vows taken all those years ago. It is a touching way to remember the past, when your love was first beginning, and often helps to bring that initial spark back to your marriage.

Things You'll Need

• Vows
• A place for the ceremony

Instructions

1. Determine what kind of ceremony you would like to have. Do you want all of your friends and family together again for a big ceremony, or would you rather have a more private, romantic sort of ceremony?

2. Decide if there will be a reception afterward. This can be as simple as a buffet style meal with the people attending or as formal as a fancy sit down dinner, depending on the tone of the ceremony.

3. Consider what exactly is driving you to renew your vows. If you have your reason, it will be easier to write the words.

4. Look back on your original vows, using them to form your new ones. Think back to what was going through your head when you were reading them at your original wedding ceremony.

5. Start by writing vague thoughts down, something resembling an outline. After you build a basic idea, you can elaborate and improve them later.

6. Hire an official to conduct the ceremony. If you would like things to be very similar to the first big day, try and find the official who conducted the original ceremony and invite him/her to help you and your spouse renew your vows.

7. Find a place to conduct the ceremony. Again, if you would like to, look into renting out the original church or place of your marriage. Otherwise decide accordingly where you would like the ceremony to be.

8. Invite your friends and family. Decide whether you want all the original attendants or only a select few people, like your children, brothers, sisters, or mother and father.

Tips & Warnings

• Try and change up the ceremony a bit-it might be more gratifying to take the same vows in a different place, maybe somewhere better or prettier than the original place.

• You can find pre-written renewal vows online; try using those as a starting point if you get stuck.

• Vow renewal ceremonies can be as elaborate or simple as you want, don't feel obligated to make it just like your wedding.

• Don't renew your vows simply because you are bored. There are good reasons and silly reasons to renew your vows, so be sure you're doing it for the right reasons.