Out of everything that went into the preparation for our vow renewal, I probably had the most fun and least stress planning the day after brunch.  It was held at South City Kitchen in Midtown, just steps from our hotel blocks and our venue from the vow renewal the night before.

Orange as a wedding color has always inspired me, so I knew that I wanted to use it for the brunch.  It’s so fresh and clean!  I kept things super-simple, bringing in only one accent color (yellow) and using lots of fresh fruit as decor.

Each place setting was decorated with an orange wrapped in parchment paper and tied with raffia.  The leaves were goccoed with “Bonne Annee!”, French for Happy New Year, written in calligraphy by Laura Hooper (continuing the slightly-French theme that was carried through from our RSVP packets, do not disturb signs, menus, and other printed items).

{Jessica Claire}

The bar was lined with oranges and lemons, purchased from Whole Foods and donated to a local food bank after the event.

{Jessica Claire}

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Out of all of the undertakings for the vow renewal, there was one that I spent by far the most time on and was undeniably the most nervous about….

The First Dance.

The hubby didn’t have to do much to prep for the vow renewal… much except for one thing.  He agreed to learn to dance.  So for 18 months, twice a week, we took lessons at Chicago Dance and we learned to waltz.  Our coach and I and choreographed a 2 minute Viennese Waltz to “You and Me” by Lifehouse, one of our favorite bands.  I, having been a figure skater and dancer, was not at all worried about the performance, but the hubby has never performed in his life, and up until we took the floor at the beginning of the reception, we had never danced the routine in public, so you can imagine my apprehension (and his!).

{Jessica Claire}

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I have collected shot glasses for our entire marriage, so it was only obvious that shot glasses should be our favors for the vow renewal.  After doing lots of research, I came across a tutorial on Weddingbee for goccoing on glass and set off to create my own custom etched shot glasses.  Here they are, encased in their custom handemade boxes, at each place setting.

{Mark Brooke}

To etch glass, all you will need is your trusty gocco, painters tape, q-tips, and Armour Etch glass etching cream, which you can purchase at your local craft store.

Prep: burn a gocco screen with your desired design (burn multiple to a screen if your design allows).  After the screen is burned, cut the screen around your design, leaving a sizable margin.  Thoroughly wash your glassware.  Using painters tape, tape the screen as tightly as possible to the glass.

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Ah food. One of my favorite subjects! Planning the menu was so much fun.

{Our dessert table - more on this later… Image via Jenna}

Starting out, I knew a few things regarding the food that we would serve. First of all, because I was holding people hostage for over six hours, I knew we needed a lot of it! Secondly, my husband and I both wanted simple, well-made items that reflect quality, not creativity. Third, this was not a wedding, and I wanted no part of wedding cake. Fourth, I needed the caterer to understand my vision for the event and potentially contribute to it. And lastly, there would be nothing at my event that I personally would not eat.

We met with four caterers in Atlanta and quickly narrowed the choice down to two. One choice violated criteria 2-it was a bit frou-frou for our tastes. Another choice was nixed due to criteria 4-they were too mainstream. After tastings with our final two choices, I had a clear winner - Bold American Catering. William Neal at Bold was the epitome of criteria 4. He not only took our choices and ran with them but he also suggested several ideas on how to present and pair the menu, as well as contributing his knowledge to the overall direction of the cocktail hour and reception, even advising on the lighting.

So what did we end up with, you ask? A veritable smorgasbord of our favorites!

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Scattered about our tables we had stacks of song request cards.  I loved the little premise that I ended up with of having song names that are actions for the headings on our cards.  Here are the headings we used:

Come on, let me Shake My Tail Feather to…

Shake it up baby, let’s Twist and Shout to…

We’ll be dancing, Shagging on the Boulevard if you play…

We’ve gotta Jump Jive An’ Wail to…

{Jessica Claire}

I inkjet printed on 3.5×5 Paper Source cardstock, rounded the corners, and voila!  Each song from the card titles above was played during the night too.  We had so many song requests that the DJ couldn’t fit them all in, so if you want your guests to participate this is the way to go.

Are you setting a playlist?  Letting your guests request songs?  Giving your DJ and band free reign?

E.

Previously: Choosing My Venue, Out of Town Baskets, Do Not Disturb Signs, The Welcome Party (Part 1, Part 2), Welcome Party Wrap-Up, Lighting the Lawn and Porch, Bathroom Baskets, DIY Coat Check Tags, Ceremony Music, Our Same Day Edit Video, Getting Pretty, Getting Ready Part II, Portraits, The Ceremony, Ceremony Readings, Cocktail Hour Decor, DIY Wine Glass Charms, Time Capsule Guest Book, Cocktail Hour Entertainment: Blackjack, Reserved Signs, Embroidered Napkins, and the Cocktail Hour, Estate Table Centerpieces

FINALLY… the reception!  You read awhile ago about the process of choosing my floor plan, and saw the layout of my reception.  As you may recall, we chose two 24′ estate tables, and here is how the centerpieces shaped up!  I was pretty much in love with them, so excuse the gratuitous amount of photos…

{Jessica Claire}

{Jessica Claire}

{Jessica Claire}

{Jessica Claire}

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Two small details from the vow renewal that you haven’t yet seen are the reserved signs for the ceremony chairs and the embroidered hemstitch cocktail napkins.

The reserved signs were a super-easy project.  Here they are (backwards) on the chairs).

Supplies needed (makes 8):

* Ribbon
* Two pieces of 8.5 x 11 cardstock
* One piece of 8.5 x 11 Accent paper
* Self-adhesive velcro dots (8 pairs)
* Adhesive

Instructions:

1) Cut 8.5 x 11 piece of cardstock in eighths vertically (two rows of 2.75 x 4.25″ cards).
2) Cut accent paper into 2.25 x 3.75″ cards.
3) Cut 8.5 x 11 piece of cardstock into 2 x 3.5″ cards.  If desired, pre-print “Reserved” on cards - I use MS Word tables for this purpose.
4) Mat 2 x 3.5″ cards on accent paper cards.  Calligraph or write names on cards.
5) Cut ribbon to desired length and if desired, cut inverted V in ribbon ends.  Length will be dependent upon the measurement of your chairs.  My ribbon was approximately 24″ in length.
6) Leaving 4″ or so at end, glue the middle of the accent paper backing to the ribbon.  Then glue the accent paper to the 2.75 x 4.25″ cards.  The ribbon will now be secured between the accent paper layer and the backing.
7) Attach self-adhesive velcro circle to back of card.  I attached only one side at the point of making them, and when we wrapped them around the chairs, we adhered to the other side of the ribbon.

Me, fixing afforementioned backwards reserved signs (sigh, I felt like I was doing things like this all night):

You may remember that our printed materials had a small flourish motif, which I carried forward into the event.  One place it showed up was on the embroidered linen hemstitch cocktail napkins.  I loved the way these turned out - such an unexpected little detail!

Some more photos from the cocktail hour before I move on to the reception!

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Gowns and hair and puppies, oh my!

I haven’t really talked about my hair yet.  I decided, since I was not a bride, to go with an updo, something sophisticated, but more Oscars than tiara-and-veil.  I’m also completely obnoxious about my hair not being on my face or my neck, so I spent a few months growing it out so that I made sure it would all get up and stay up!

My inspiration:

The end result:

{Jessica Claire}

I loved it.  Amber at Vis-a-Vis did a great job - I highly recommend her if you are in the Atlanta area.

While I dressed, I was accompanied by two of my besties, Marcella and Laura, the ever-awesome Jenna, my amazing sister, and yes, the most adorable pup in the world, Charlie.

{Jessica Claire}

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You’ve already seen lots of details of the Welcome Party, but there were just a few photos that I couldn’t resist posting before I move on…

First, perhaps my favorite photo of Scott and I from the whole vow renewal shebang.  We are in the Turner Field bullpen, people.  That is the Braves bullpen phone behind us.  Oh yes, this photo rocks.

{Jessica Claire}

I am loving this photo on the warning track too:

{Jessica Claire}

I don’t think you guys got to see too many pics from while we were on the field during the tour - but I particularly love this one of Bekah…

{Jessica Claire}

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First up, comes a HUGE apology from me to you for the lack of continuity in my vow renewal recaps.  I have a single goal this weekend: write. them. all.  So, second up comes a promise from me to you - starting Monday you will have recaps.  For those of you who have been emailing/twittering/etc, thank you!  I promise I won’t let you down this time.

So, for those of you who are going to read along, or just want to refresh your memory, I am going to rehash a catching up post from a little while ago to get you up to speed.  If you are new to EAD (hi! thanks for reading and welcome!), a little background: in honor of our 10th wedding anniversary, my husband and I renewed our vows in Atlanta on 12.31.08.  Since our first wedding was just the two of us, the event was a celebration with our family and friends and our pup Charlie.

Let the catching-up begin:

To welcome our friends and family to Atlanta, we created out of town baskets full of bottled water, snacks, a DIY welcome/do not disturb sign, and a folder containing all of the information that they would need for the three days of events and my adorable Laura Hooper map.

{Images courtesy of Jenna}

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Sorry for the absence in the recaps everyone!  I’m really hoping to have my full disc of pictures soon to show you but until then, some logistics!

Ah, the floor plan.  With only 50 people, you would think that this would’ve been one of the easiest things about planning my reception.  However, because of the food stations we had, the bar, and my requirement for a very large dance floor, it proved tougher than any of us imagined!  Here is where we started, with 9 round tables.

As you can see, this left me with a VERY small dance floor, approximately 10 feet in length.  Completely unacceptable!  So I used trusty Photoshop and popped out this baby.

This nearly doubled my dance floor.  However, my caterer was wary.  He did not like how close to the kitchen doors and the food stations the tables in this floor plan are.  Back to the drawing board…

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Mollie asked today if I would post the excerpts we used for our two ceremony readings.  Here they are!

A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway

That night at the hotel, in our room with the long empty hall outside and our shoes outside the door, a thick carpet on the floor of the room, outside the windows the rain falling and in the room light and pleasant and cheerful, then the light out and it exciting with smooth sheets and the bed comfortable, feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, walking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. It has only happened to me like that once.

The Velveteen Rabbit
Margery Williams

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a person* loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.” “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?” “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
*wording slightly modified from the original version

Previously: Choosing My Venue, Out of Town Baskets, Do Not Disturb Signs, The Welcome Party (Part 1, Part 2), Lighting the Lawn and Porch, Bathroom Baskets, DIY Coat Check Tags, Ceremony Music, Our Same Day Edit Video, Getting Pretty, Portraits, The Ceremony, Cocktail Hour Decor, DIY Wine Glass Charms, Time Capsule Guest Book, Cocktail Hour Entertainment: Blackjack