How to Host A Wedding renewal ceremony and Reception

How to host a vow re-newal ceremony and reception

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clothing
• Food
• Cake
• Printed items
• Pictures
• wedding license
• any pics of you on your original wedding day
• invitations

1. 
    
   Our family

   A 25th wedding anniversary is special and should be celebrated. About a month before the event you will need to get your invitations in the mail and book your venue. Any items that will need to be printed should be done so now. Example-napkins, programs, plates, matches. You will need to come up with some nice colors to work with for your decorating. If the event is in the evening, candles make such an impact with decorating and they are so inexpensive. I brought several of my older wine glasses from home , filled with clear marbles and then a tea light. I purchased several decorating books and used so many of their ideas for centerpieces. Since the event was in December I had several huge red poinsettias that I wrapped the bottom in silver lame and with the white I wrapped those in red lame. I also made my bouquet and my daughter's bouquet from ideas out of a book. My bouquet was round and filled with cream color roses and cream calla lilies. My daughter's I filled with red roses and cream calla's.

2. 
    
   25th anniversary cake

   Next at the top the list is your clothing. It's not necessary to wear the traditional wedding dress. I went with a beautiful black satin with a jacket. Then you will want to plan your food for the evening and meet with your cake decorator. We served shrimp, cheese squares, Ritz crackers, veggie trays and fruit trays. I made a red punch that was delicious. I went with a round cake iced in red with beautiful bead work down on the sides and the silver 25 on top. I then compiled a list of our favorite songs and made a cd with them on it. That cd played throughout the evening.

3. 
    
   Our Children

   After arriving at the venue I place pictures of our original wedding day in various places. Then I used random pictures of our children to sit around as well. I was fortunate to get the same minister who married us 25 yrs ago to renew our vows for us. Both of my children walked me down the stairs to meet my husband and the four of us stood together. I sent each guest home with a dc that had all of our music on it. The outside jacket for the cd had our names and wedding date

Tips & Warnings

• It's such a long process to get a large event together. I start writing down ideas months before the event. If it were not for lists I couldn't have done it. I placed lists of what had to be done that day or that week on my computer screen.
• With an event this size you need several to help you. Especially when it's clean up time! And don't think you are Super woman and can do everything... delegate!