Preparing for wedding #2

Once we got home from our honeymoon, I had almost a full year to plan for our vow renewal. But you know how I am with procrastination…

I was never one of those little girls who played wedding with my friends. I never sat around dreaming up all the details of my perfect wedding. I never cooed over bridal magazines or bride shows on TV. I always planned on getting married, but never really thought much about how the wedding would look. Or what I would wear. Or what our colors would be. Or any of that stuff.

For our Vegas wedding I didn’t even pick out colors. My maid of honor and best man wore whatever they wanted. All I asked is that they dressed up. The church put our flowers together without any real input for me. And that was ok with me.

So when it came time to plan this big church wedding (vow renewal) I didn’t really know what to do. I really looked to my friends for help. My maid of honor (Necole) had a sister that was a florist. So I reached out to her to create some bouquets. And I let her pretty much whatever flowers she wanted to in the bouquets because I know nothing about flowers. She did a great job. The flowers were beautiful.

As for colors, I decided to go with deep purple and silver. Purple was Lee’s favorite color. I HATE pastels. So deep purple sounded good. And I couldn’t think of any color that went with purple except silver. But the colors turned out nice and really complimented each other.

For bridesmaid dresses, we found some nice (but simple) deep purple dresses. My matron of honor was pregnant so I didn’t want anything too tight. Babies need some breathing room after all. And I wanted her to feel comfortable. So the dresses had a strip just below the breasts and flowed out from there. Very nice.

I wore the same dress I wore to the Vegas wedding. But for our renewal I wore a veil and a long detachable train. The dress also came with some, um, I don’t know what to call them…sleeves that don’t attach or gloves without the glove part?!? They had elastic that held them up at around my bicep. And then came down to my wrist. But they seemed, well, odd to me so I scrapped them.

As for a photographer, caterer, and DJ, I didn’t really interview people like I think you’re supposed to. I didn’t even ask for suggestions. I just pulled out the phone book, turned the yellow pages, and hired the first person that answered the phone. I didn’t even haggle over price or try to find the cheapest. Clearly I’m a total pro at all this. If you are looking for a wedding planner I’m totally available.

But I did spend a lot of time on new wedding rings. Since Lee lost his ring it was my opportunity to really spice things up. I took several trips to the jewelry store trying to find the perfect rings.

I found this gorgeous band with five or six rubies going across the band. I thought it would really accentuate my engagement/wedding ring. So I bought it.

But after a few weeks I decided it set up too high and would never look right together with my other rings. And I’d never be able to get it soldered with the rest of the rings.

So I decided to call that ring my “anniversary ring” and where it on my right hand instead. [You didn't really think I'd return jewelry did you?] And Lee and I went in search of new bands.

After some thought we went with regular gold bands. Lee was so tough on his hands (and ring) with his job, it didn’t really make sense to get something fancy with diamonds and the works [again]. And I wanted my ring to match his. So now he has a gold band. And I have my engagement ring and wedding wrap soldered together. Plus a small gold band from our renewal (which I never did solder to my wedding ring anyway).

So all the deets were set. All that was left was to renew our vows.