Renewing Our Wedding Vows

Last month we took a family vacation to Niagara Falls. The first thing on our agenda was a wedding vow renewal! My husband and I decided a while ago that we wanted to do something special to celebrate our 25th anniversary, and a big party with friends and family just wasn't practical since most of our friends and family live on the west coast and we live in Delaware.  So we decided to renew our vows in a small ceremony in a special place.  We visited Niagara Falls a few years ago and we just loved it.

For the vow renewal I wore a silver dress.  We included our daughters in the ceremony, and they wore matching red dresses.  Robert wore a silver tie with his suit, and a red boutonniere to match my red bouquet.  The girls had silver bouquets and silver shoes and I wore red shoes.  The bouquets were made of fabric roses that I made myself.

Before our little ceremony, we had a photographer do a photo session for us. Telina of Telina Fishbach Photography did a fantastic job!  Here are a few of the photos she took:

Aren't they great? Telina was very sweet and fun to work with.

We had our ceremony in the same beautiful park as the photo session: Oakes Garden Theatre, which overlooks the Falls.  We had written out our vows in advance.

We read them to each other and sealed our renewed covenant with a cup of wine (grape juice, actually), and we exchanged new silver rings with the Hebrew inscription, "Ani L'Dodi, V'Dodi Li", which means, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine".

We borrowed the meaningful Jewish wedding tradition where the bride and groom are under a chuppah(canopy) or tallit (prayer shawl). Robert covered me with his tallit in a canopy of protection and love, symbolizing that no one will ever come between us because we are bound together as one.

Haley did the duty of "best man" and held the rings, and Rebecca held my bouquet during the ceremony. At the end, Rebecca said the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) in English, and then Haley sang it in Hebrew. Later we signed the handwritten copy of our vows, and the girls both signed as our witnesses.

After the ceremony, we went on a horse and carriage ride!

Then we had dinner at "Elements on the Falls", a restaurant that overlooks the Falls, where we had a window table.  The view was beautiful, and the food was delicious!

 The girls wrote on our car window:

The day ended with fireworks over the Falls.

It was a very special and meaningful day!