Our Wedding Renewal

    I realize as I have been reminiscing about my wedding renewal that it was now almost two years ago, and I never did share anything about it.  Sorry, my bad.  It was magical.  So now that I have neglected to share the details, I will do so now... better late than never right?

    Back twenty- two years ago when we got married we were dirt poor.  We were young, and we were poor (not that anything other than the "young", thing has changed).  I did not realize that not having the money for the things that you wanted didn't mean that you had to make do.  I did not realize that I could have creatively gotten almost exactly what I wanted.  I say all of this, and yet the reality is that if my original wedding had been fairy tale perfect, I would not have felt the need to have a do over twenty years later.

    I  we knew exactly what we wanted for a theme this time.  Our best family vacations always involve the ocean.  The ocean in it's self is like a dream for me.  Even thinking about it makes me feel peaceful.

We knew that this had to be a beach theme renewal.  We began by speaking to  Casey Trudeau at Trudeau Park.  http://www.trudeaupark.com  He made everything so easy.  Honestly that is the place to go for your wedding/ parties!  They were so obliging, and helped us with everything effortlessly.

    Once we had our theme, we I began to collect what we needed.  Instead of flowers for centre pieces I went with hurricane lamps from IKEA.  The lamps were filled with shells from the dollar store, and shells were scattered on the tables.  I made my own bouquets with Costco flowers and pilfered hydrangeas ( I stole them from my Mom's garden).  I couldn't find matching dresses for my girls, so I made them.  I bought tropical looking planters and borrowed two more from my friend Julie to decorate the beach.  It looked exactly the way that I wanted it to look but was on a really tight budget.

    We were able to renew our wedding vows for under four thousand dollars!  Essentially we had a second wedding, the way we should have done it the first time.  We told Casey what we wanted to spend for our meal, and he made some suggestions.  The first time around my mom and I made all of the food for the wedding.  It was stressful preparing all of that food,  having the meal catered was not!  

Honestly dealing with Trudeau's was an amazing experience.

    Our ceremony was beautiful and personalized to who we are.  We had a soloist sing us down the sandy isle.  Her voice was like an angel.  She sang Gowan's "Dedication", a song that is our song.  It was beautiful.  We stood with the lake as our backdrop, with the cool sand under our feet.  We were surrounded by the people that we loved most in the world, our family and close friends.  It sounds goofy to say, but I could honestly feel their love radiating around us.  

    After our ceremony and pictures we walked up to the building for our dinner.  It was so beautiful inside.  The night before my sister and Mom and girlfriends had come and helped us decorate.  I laughed so hard, but honestly with that group of amazing women how could I not have the best time?  I knew that the building looked beautiful, and yet when I saw it for the first time after the ceremony, it took my breath away.

    You know that saying "Dance Like No One is Watching"?  For our dance I did that.  I didn't have to pretend that no one was watching, because I was surrounded by love.  Every person there knows me, they know that I'm a goof, but they love me any way.  I could dance with abandon because everyone there loves me.  There is something to be said for being surrounded in love.

    So that's our renewal in a nutshell.  It was beautiful, if I do say so myself.  It was everything that I dreamed it would be and more.  I find myself longing to go back and do it all again.  There is something to be said for being surrounded in love, it does a soul good!

Now that I've shared the nice part, stay tuned for the  make you pee your pants part....