Our vow renewal: 10 years and still in love

I know that there have been a lot of naysayers out there about vow renewals. I realize that being married for 10 years is nothing in the grand scheme of forever after. But for our vow renewal, it wasn't really about having a new "wedding" although there were many things we did differently. It wasn't even about starting over, it was about acknowledging that ten years later, after a lot of life lived in a short amount of time, that we still genuinely love (and like) each other.

It was also about strengthening the commitment we made to each other when we hadn't really experienced the bumps and bruises of life. When we couldn't even possibly understand the promises we were making to each other, or how they would be tested. In Ten short years we have had a whole lot of life come crashing down on us and still, with God's help, we have remained united. This day among family and friends was a reminder of that.

Our kids were also a huge part of the equation. They have asked us so many times to recount our wedding. We felt that it was important for them to see that we are in love, that we are committed to one another and to our family. We tried to include them in every way we knew how. Making sure that they understood how valuable their presence was and the reasoning behind it.

We had them each walk us down the aisle and then walk back with us when it was all finished. We wanted them to know that this was also about them.

 

We have always loved the charm of the Diestelhorst Bridge in Redding and originally wanted it to be the charming backdrop to our festivities. When the opportunity came up, we rented the bridge out so that we could seal our vows at sunset with this being our view.

The theme was rustic charm, and there was lots of it on the bridge. We had white painted shutters as the "alter" and a burlap wreath along with lanterns and white flowers for added charm.

We said our vows in front of a small group of close family and friends as the sun was setting and were blessed by them also making the commitment to pray for and encourage us in our marriage.

 And they all prayed for us, which, if you have ever experienced is overwhelming. We felt very loved.

We wanted to remember everyone who came, so we had them each frame themselves overlooking the river.

And the consensus was made that we pretty much have the goofiest and most fun family and friends ever.


After that... it was time to party. And party we did. We moved to the end of the bridge where our rustic reception was awaiting us. Complete with down home treats and a Smores bar! I enjoyed crafting many of the items used for the renewal and especially took an interest in the chalk marker typography used for the menu. Super fun! And my dear friend Corrie comissioned her husband to make some awesome rustic crates for the event out of pallets.

And, of course, we included bugspray because when you're on the river you can't go without!

 

 

We also created a little snapshot scavenger hunt to encourage guests to snap pictures we might have missed.

We never got to have a first dance the first time around, so it was fun to have one this time. We had fun making a spotify playlist of music for the reception together. It kept the party lively.

As the sun began to retreat into the mountains, the party took on a new romantic glow. With a breathtaking view like that it was the perfect setting for slow dancing.

We also let our 6-year-old son have a camera to give his own perspective of the ceremony. I was amazed when I looked at them just what it was that he saw. Here are a few of my favorites:

It was magical. And then it came to a close. We loved every minute of it and were so happy that we were able to celebrate with the ones we love. I enjoyed sharing this with you as it was a labor of 6 months of hot glue, paint, and love. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Jurassic Park Birthday Party on a budget

Today I wanted to share with you a birthday party for my son that was a total hit, but didn't break the bank. Let me introduce you to my son. This is Noah, he loves dinosaurs and has an incredible imagination. For his fifth birthday, I wanted to do something special for him. I had great plans to take him to a dinosaur museum, but after months of searching for an exhibit near us, I came up empty-handed. Noah's favorite movie right now is Jurassic Park. He just loves the idea of dinosaurs, so I thought it would be a great way to throw a birthday party.

     A feast for Carnivores and Herbivores alike
Little disclaimer: If you are searching for a beautiful tablescape to present gourmet food, you have to come to wrong place. I believe that Pinterest somewhat clouds our perception of what a "great party" should look like. You see, while pretty tables are nice, a five-year-old boy could really care less about that. With that being said, I'll go straight to what a five-year-old boy cares all about: the food.

We went simple with food, and tried serving kid basics. Chicken nuggets, pretzels, chocolates, bugles. Just mainly munchies. The key was to create fun "dino" language for them. They were a real hit with the kids and the adults got a kick out of the names.

The real crowd pleaser, however were the dino bones. These I made out of pretzels, marshmallows and hardened chocolate. While Pinterest made it look "easy" I had to figure out a method to it before it looked good. At first, they just looked like dumbells because the marshmallows were too big. I cut them into 4's and they seemed to be big enough to resemble the ends of bones. Also, don't let the chocolate harden too much, keep it hot, or else it will be a hot mess.

  

 Here is the end result. Noah was super excited to eat these dinosaur bones!

 

 Below are the signs I used, along with a blank one for you to write what you will. Feel free to use them.

                      Adults Can Have Fun Too!

Because our family likes to do birthday parties right, they all agreed to dress as characters from the movies. Noah had such fun guessing which character we were. We also had fun creating movie memes that we put throughout the house. It's a fun way to incorporate the movie and entertaining kids and adults. Because let's face it, being an adult at a kid birthday party isn't always fun, making memes and dressing up allowed for adults to participate too. 

                      Here are some of my favorite memes:

 

 

                              

  One thing I love to do is incorporate kids in getting ready for the party. They're so excited, but it can take hours before it's time to celebrate, so what can they do? I sent the kids out with sidewalk chalk to make dinosaur footprints to further decorate for the party. It was entertaining AND helpful. Also, some of the dino drawings they came up with were hilarious!






 Let The Games Begin!

For boys, it's all about the games. You've got to have good ones to keep the party hopping. So the first game we played was a small remake of the original game we played for Elijah's Star Wars Party called "Don't fall into the tarpits!" The children had to hop, skip and jump onto the rocks (created with sidewalk chalk) and make sure not to fall in the tarpits, or they would become extinct! Kids of all ages love this game and it's one we like to come back to.

                                             I Really DIG this party!

The main dino-event at our party was the dino-dig. I've seen many variations of this, but it was important to find realistic dinosaur bones for our very enthusiastic little boy. We got two giant packing containers (from the garage) and bought sand from the local hardware store. We decided to seperate the diggers into two teams: Carnivores and Herbivores, so that they wouldn't be chucking dirt in each other's faces and so as to not create giant arguments. We settled on a model we found on Amazon that had several different pieces to find and buried them in various depths in the sand. Then we had the teams use little paint brushes, just like regular paleontologists, so as to not hurt the bones.
 
This took up a large portion of the time and it was fun to see their excited giggles as they found a new bone each time. It really tapped into their imagination.

 Once they had found all of the bones, they had to put it together. This was a little more challenging than we anticipated, but even with the dads helping out it was still fun to see their dinosaurs come to life.


As you can see, the finished product put a smile on his face, and I could see that this was exactly the kind of "dinosaur birthday" he had been dreaming about.

                                           Let Them Eat Cake!
Of course, I could have gone all out on the fancy cakes that I saw all over google. In the end, our Noah was so specific about what kind of dinosaurs he wanted on the cake that we ended up just making one and letting him choose out of his personal collection what kinds got to go on his cake. It may not be pinterest pretty, but he loved it. He also loved being able to be a part of the process. After all, it is HIS birthday, why not let him choose what was on the cake?

And no party would be complete without a T-Rex pinata. The kids had a grand old time whacking that T-Rex. 

  And there you have it: our Jurassic Park Party on a budget. Full of imagination and fun!