Five Year Lakeside Vow Renewal
Vow renewals are just the most romantic, don't you think? Be it 50 years, 25, 10, or 5 like this couple, the thought of re-commiting your love to the person who has stood by your side for so long is so great. Precious Pictures Photography captured all the love and we've put it all right here in this beautiful gallery!
From the lovely bride... To some, doing a five-year vow renewal may seem strange. But I'm (Dana Smyl) a hopeless romantic and I love, love. I say I want to marry Ryan as many times as I can, and we both feel that in five years our love has changed so drastically.
Our love became very real, very strong and even more intense than the first time around. The first time was grand and dreamy and the second time very simple and real. We got married the first time in August of 2008 and knew we wanted to start our journey together as soon as possible.
By September of 2008 we were pregnant with twin boys and also have since had a little girl. Within the first three years of our marriage our life changed a lot, and renewing our vows was incredible. When we renewed our vows in August of 2013, we made new vows to our children as well. It was the most amazing thing for us as parents and as a couple.
Our ceremony was casual and emotional. My husband and I are very symbolic and spiritual people so we wanted this vow renewal to represent us in our own way. I used elements in our décor that represented us as a family and as a couple. I am a fire sign and Ryan is a water, and I find that our relationship is very true to our signs. If we work side-by-side, we can conquer many things, however if we try to out do the other, we put each other out. So, we had fire and water elements in our ceremony.
We had done a water ceremony in our first wedding. Ryan and I both collected water from our home places. So for our vows we used that same water and joined our water with the water our children gathered from their home at the lake. Then Ryan and I cleansed our wedding rings with our new family water. We also had leather family bracelets made for each family member that we exchanged as we said our vows to the children. Another symbolic element that I didn't even realize until Ryan's Baba (grandmother) mentioned it, was that our five-year anniversary element was wood. And I had stacked wood up at the alter already. It was a meant-to-be element.
In decorating, I love simplistic and symbolic things. I love to tell a story in every detail of décor. And I also love the challenge of finding new ideas and décor, which leads me to the metal pipe centrepieces. Ryan is a pipefitter and welder so I see a lot of old rusted pipe around his work.
The leather tapestry was made by Cheeky Mare Leather Works and was branded during the ceremony. As a florist I see a lot of wedding bouquets so I wanted to do some trailing, old-school in shape and modern in floral. Several different elements were used. Some flowers were gathered right from the lake, along with a selection of succulents, hens and chicks, thistle, asparagus fern, phlox, gathered grasses and feathers, then wrapped in leather.
As for our attire, I wanted it to be age appropriate so wearing white for me was not real in my mind. I stumbled upon my dress at Anthropologie and the whole palette went from there. Ryan spends most of his time in work gear, so seeing him looking so good but not overdone was totally worth it. I couldn't keep my eyes off him! And the kids were just too cute in their little outfits.
Ryan and I believe the best thing you can give your children is to show them what love is, how it looks and how it feels, and to teach them by example. So, we will renew and continue to express our love to each other as much as possible. I can't wait to see what our 50th renewal feels like, and I can't wait to marry him again.
Our love became very real, very strong and even more intense than the first time around. The first time was grand and dreamy and the second time very simple and real. We got married the first time in August of 2008 and knew we wanted to start our journey together as soon as possible.
By September of 2008 we were pregnant with twin boys and also have since had a little girl. Within the first three years of our marriage our life changed a lot, and renewing our vows was incredible. When we renewed our vows in August of 2013, we made new vows to our children as well. It was the most amazing thing for us as parents and as a couple.
Our ceremony was casual and emotional. My husband and I are very symbolic and spiritual people so we wanted this vow renewal to represent us in our own way. I used elements in our décor that represented us as a family and as a couple. I am a fire sign and Ryan is a water, and I find that our relationship is very true to our signs. If we work side-by-side, we can conquer many things, however if we try to out do the other, we put each other out. So, we had fire and water elements in our ceremony.
We had done a water ceremony in our first wedding. Ryan and I both collected water from our home places. So for our vows we used that same water and joined our water with the water our children gathered from their home at the lake. Then Ryan and I cleansed our wedding rings with our new family water. We also had leather family bracelets made for each family member that we exchanged as we said our vows to the children. Another symbolic element that I didn't even realize until Ryan's Baba (grandmother) mentioned it, was that our five-year anniversary element was wood. And I had stacked wood up at the alter already. It was a meant-to-be element.
In decorating, I love simplistic and symbolic things. I love to tell a story in every detail of décor. And I also love the challenge of finding new ideas and décor, which leads me to the metal pipe centrepieces. Ryan is a pipefitter and welder so I see a lot of old rusted pipe around his work.
The leather tapestry was made by Cheeky Mare Leather Works and was branded during the ceremony. As a florist I see a lot of wedding bouquets so I wanted to do some trailing, old-school in shape and modern in floral. Several different elements were used. Some flowers were gathered right from the lake, along with a selection of succulents, hens and chicks, thistle, asparagus fern, phlox, gathered grasses and feathers, then wrapped in leather.
As for our attire, I wanted it to be age appropriate so wearing white for me was not real in my mind. I stumbled upon my dress at Anthropologie and the whole palette went from there. Ryan spends most of his time in work gear, so seeing him looking so good but not overdone was totally worth it. I couldn't keep my eyes off him! And the kids were just too cute in their little outfits.
Ryan and I believe the best thing you can give your children is to show them what love is, how it looks and how it feels, and to teach them by example. So, we will renew and continue to express our love to each other as much as possible. I can't wait to see what our 50th renewal feels like, and I can't wait to marry him again.