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Celebrating 10 Years: Our Vow Renewal

I always laugh when I see people stressing out over weddings.

I laugh at friends, family, strangers.. anyone. This is because I got married in 2005, you know, before Pinterest. It sounds silly, but Pinterest is the #2 source of wedding stress (only second to mother-in-law stress. I also made that statistic up, but it sounds accurate). Think about it: if there were no Pinterest, nothing to compare your ideas to the ideas of millions of other brides, what is there? Magazines? BO-RING. 

Anyway, back in the pre-Pinterest era, I told my husband the day after our wedding that we were going to renew our vows for our tenth anniversary. My main reason was because I felt like our wedding day went by too quickly, and I especially felt like I couldn’t possibly fit so much love into one day. Well, fast forward ten years, three kids, two houses, and a ton of animals later…  we did it! I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I changed my reasoning behind wanting to renew our vows, just a little bit. “We got married before Pinterest and all these super cute ideas! We have to renew our vows! I need to do all these fun things!” I would say to Mr. Kirk night after night when I was deep into planning mode. He just looked at me and laughed, probably thinking to himself that I was absolutely insane. 

Our wedding day was September 10, 2005. We had less than 100 people in attendance, and thank the lord it didn’t rain because our venue was 100% outdoor. Before I get to our renewal, I’d like to explain a few things… I was twenty years old, our photographer was a friend of a family member (the photos speak for themselves), my centerpieces were plastic flowers, and I didn’t care about a thing. I just wanted to get married and make babies. That’s it!

Celebrating 10 years, our backyard vow renewal @ginaekirk

Celebrating 10 years, our backyard vow renewal @ginaekirk

Celebrating 10 years, our backyard vow renewal @ginaekirk

Celebrating 10 years, our backyard vow renewal @ginaekirk

Okay so now that you’re caught up on the last ten years of my life, let’s get to our vow renewal! I decided that our backyard would be the best place to have this shindig, because we have a large property and plenty of space. Also, I didn’t want to have a huge party. I mostly wanted close friends and family members to celebrate with us. 

I’m a creative person by nature. My friends think it’s funny when I tell them that a little piece of my soul dies every day that I’m unable to do something creative, (but it’s true!) So naturally, I decided I would make pretty much everything in terms of decor for the party.

I used mason jars and recycled root beer bottles for our centerpieces, atop wood slabs that Mr. Kirk cut from trees in our backyard. I painted wood and made my own chalkboard signs, decided upon glass mugs as favors, painted directional signs that were scattered throughout the yard and made of recycled wood pallets and wooden snow stakes. We  Mr. Kirk also build a frame and benches for our ceremony that would take place way back in our woods. 

We had decided to have BBQ style catering, and I made all the cupcakes and our little cake for slicing. I used an old wooden electrical spool covered with lace for the cake table. I placed more wooden slabs cut from fallen trees to tie it all together. 

For flowers, I had decided to make my own bouquet and boutonniere with fresh flowers from our local grocery store, nothing fancy! I used the same flowers in our centerpieces and on top of our cake. I didn’t order these ahead of time, mostly because I didn’t want the expense. So it was definitely a gamble, but overall I was happy with the way everything came together. I also picked up a bunch of mums and scattered them throughout the yard to add a touch of fall here and there.

Overall, everything came together beautifully and it was such a fun day. Again – I wish it would have lasted longer, it’s hard to squeeze so much love into such a short window! Our photographers did an amazing job capturing every single facet of our day, so without further ado, I will leave you with the photos.

And if you’re reading this wondering what the secret to a happy-10-year-long-and-still-going-strong-marriage is… my answer is this: A sense of humor and complete and utter trust in your partner will do more for your marriage than anything.

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10th anniversary! Our Backyard Vow Renewal - IsSheReally.com/home/backyard-vow-renewal

 

 

 

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5 Comments

  • Reply
    Kellie
    January 14, 2016 at 6:34 pm

    ❤️❤️❤️❤️ You guys

  • Reply
    Fawn
    July 22, 2016 at 12:45 pm

    Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Congrats on 10 wonderful years together!
    My husband and I are celebrating our 10th this November and also renewing our vows – I cant wait!

    • Reply
      Gina
      July 26, 2016 at 2:06 pm

      Thank you so much Fawn! Congrats to you both as well!

  • Reply
    claudettehodman@icloud.com
    April 13, 2018 at 5:58 am

    Congrats it’s so beautifu,you remind me so much of myself.My25th anniversary is coming up and I will be married for 25years.Thanks for inspiration

    • Reply
      Gina
      June 14, 2018 at 2:52 pm

      Thank you Claudette! Congrats to you and your husband, what a milestone!

    Leave a Reply to claudettehodman@icloud.com Cancel Reply