Handcrafted Real Vow Renewal
If you’re thinking of renewing your vows, make sure you check out this beautiful vow renewal from V.A. Photography, Events by Elizabeth Palmer, and One Sweet Day in May. Anna and Greg returned to the same venue where they exchanged vows one year earlier, and shared the same words over again to reaffirm their commitment to one another. White and blue striped table runners, bright pink flowers, and travel-inspired accent pieces were in order for the day!
From the bride, Anna: We had the most fun and memorable wedding and so when it came to our first anniversary we wanted to go back to our venue where it all started, Historic Tredegar. While at first we wanted to just do a simple anniversary session, being in the wedding industry myself we just kept adding! Getting into the industry shortly after our wedding I kept learning new things I wish we had done or vendors I wished we had used and this shoot offered us the opportunity to play around with some of those ideas. Our wedding was everything we had hoped for and more, but with this anniversary session we took touches from our own wedding and styled it up even more.
We kept with the navy, white, and gold color scheme bringing in pops of colors with our flowers. Ali helped bring in the travel and wanderlust characteristics which was perfect because we both love to travel and explore together. Our guest book at our wedding was actually a ton of vintage postcards from around the world that our guests wrote on and then my mom mailed them to us one at a time during our first year of marriage!
Some back story on us… Like many couples these days, we met online on Match.com but that certainly didn’t mean there were no fun stories of when we first met! Our first date was at South Carolina vs. Kentucky basketball game where Greg showed up late (I should have picked up on this foreshadowing!) and then was too nervous to eat any of his meal at dinner after the game. This is the only time I’ve ever seen him leave food on his plate in the four and a half years we’ve been together. After grad school I found a job in Richmond, VA and Greg joined me there as we started a life together. Shortly after we got engaged and began planning our wedding in our new hometown. We were excited to have all of our friends and family come to town and so decided to have our wedding in the heart of downtown at Historic Tredegar, which was an ironworks during the Civil War. Greg is a history teacher and the Civil War is one of his specialties, so it was a neat place for us to say “I do”! We threw traditional out the window and chose food trucks over catering which allowed our guests to enjoy some of the best tacos, burgers, and barbecue that Richmond has to offer. While there were so many fun foods and things to do at our wedding our favorite parts were our first look, our ceremony (which was officiated by my grandfather), and dancing the night away with our friends and family!
For our first anniversary it took me a while to think of what to get Greg that would follow the tradition of paper. Since we wrote our own wedding vows, I decided that I wanted to have them all written out so we could hang them in a gallery wall in our bedroom. I’m not quite sure how I had the patience to write them out and make them fit, but after having to redo Greg’s several times I finally got them all to fit. It was so special to make this gift and and give him something that will give us a daily reminder of the promises that we made to each other.
