Renewing Your Wedding Vows A Complete Planning Guide to Saying "I Still Do"

WHAT KIND OF VOW RENEWAL CELEBRATION DO YOU WANT? Imagine standing in front of a waterfall ...in Hawaii. You have a hibiscus flower tucked behind your ear; your shoulders are tan and you're in a white sundress with a pink and white flower lei around your neck. Your husband takes your hand and tells you he'll love you forever as a dozen of your closest friends and family look on with tears in their eyes. Behind them, a rainbow arches over the clear sky, diving into the azure blue ocean. Or ... Imagine once again walking down the aisle in the same church or synagogue where you were originally married. You're carrying a bouquet of white gardenias and roses just like those you had at your wedding. Your friends and familyall two hundred of themstand as you walk by, escorted by your sons. Your husband smiles at you with pure adoration in his eyes, overwhelmed by how beautiful you are as you approach. You both repeat the very same vows you spoke twenty years ago, and they mean even more to you now. So what do you have in mind as your wedding vow renewal celebration style? Something small and simple? A getaway to a tropical island? A doover of your wedding day, but even better? What's so wonderful about this celebration is that it's yours to dream up and design any way you wish. You've undoubtedly heard about various celebrities' wedding vow renewalslike Celine Dion's $1.5 million Arabian Nightsthemed extravaganza in Las Vegas for her fourth anniversary with husband, Rene Angelil (where costumed servants carried Ms. Dion into the room like a queen), or Madonna and Guy Ritchie's reported do-over "after a rough year." These extravagant bashes definitely have an inspiring role in the growing trend of wedding vow renewal ceremonies today. But not all couples are copying celebrity style for their own celebrations. The choice of vow renewal ceremony and reception style is unlimited in possibilities and completely individual and personal. Just look at the following examples of reallife vow renewal celebrations, at the wildly varying range of style and formalities and themes. In a moment, you'll start creating your own picture for your own... The Wedding You Never HadBack when you were newly engaged, you imagined an elegant wedding in a hotel's ballroom, with ice sculptures, a harpist playing at the cocktail hour, a seafood buffet, a designer gown, a five-tiered cake ... but it wasn't meant to be. Back then, your parents were in charge of the wedding (they were paying for it), so the event was more them than you. It's always something that's been in your mind, that you wished you would have spoken up and requested more of your own choices. But you stayed quiet then. It was a lovely wedding, even if it didn't include some of the things you dreamed of. And you still married the man of your dreams, so who's complaining? Now, though, your wedding vow renewal ceremony is going to be everything you wanted back then and more. The harpist you didn't have then will be playing at your cocktail hour now. Your gown will be more sophisticated, not the puffball you look at in horror in your wedding pictures. (It's not your fault... Vera Wang wasn't around then.) This celebration will be your dream come true. You have the resources now to make it happen for yourselves, and it's going to be wonderful to celebrate the way you've always wanted. So bring on the limousines, the fine wines and champagnes, the sushi station, and the sage green invitations with dark green engraved print. You get a second chance. Something Out in NatureForget the ballroom and the expensive champNaylor, Sharon is the author of 'Renewing Your Wedding Vows A Complete Planning Guide to Saying "I Still Do"', published 2006 under ISBN 9780767923217 and ISBN 0767923219.