Sharon Naylor Toris - Renewing Your Wedding Vows: A Complete Planning Guide to Saying I Still Do

With many thanks, hugs, and toasts to the following wonderful people who have made this book possible

• My visionary editor, Trish Medved at Broadway Books, as well as her fabulous assistants, Beth Adams and Lea Beresford

• My loyal and trustworthy agent, Meredith Bernstein

• Publicity genius, Scott Buhrmaster, who knows how to make things happen

• My always-dependable Webmaster, Mike Napolitan

• My colleagues and friends at the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of Bridal Consultants, and the International Special Events Society

• ErikandBethKentofNJWedding.com

• And the many wedding experts and real-life married couples who generously devoted their time and shared their stories for this book

• If all you say is Thank You, that's enough

I'd marry you all over again.

Do you know how many single women (and men) out there dream of having the loving marriage with a wonderful spouse who would say that to them? You're so lucky! they'd sigh with just a touch of green-eyed envy. But you and I know that it's not luck that's behind your still-going-strong marriage. It's effort. It's investing time, and matching deed to word. It's not just remembering your wedding vows, but living them every day. You're together because you kept your word. Everything you promised on your wedding dayto love each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer and for pooreryou've both delivered on.

If that's not something to celebrate, I don't know what is!

Sure, you celebrate your wedding anniversary every year. You may go to dinner, exchange gifts, have breakfast in bed, clink champagne glasses, or maybe even eat Chinese takeout food on the couch while watching a great movie (perhaps your wedding video). But this year this year that heartfelt whisper of I'd marry you all over again could become a reality.

You can renew your wedding vows.

Imagine gathering all of your friends and family (and your children) together to witness and celebrate your wedding vow renewal ceremony. Imagine walking down the aisle again in a beautiful gown, carrying a breathtaking bouquet, and once again seeing that amazed and grateful look in your husband's eyes the first time he sees you that day. It's even more meaningful now.

Imagine standing before him and speaking aloud your apprecia- tion for him and for what you have now that you had only hoped would be part of the happily ever after you dreamed of on your wedding day.

Now imagine the words he will say to you, all of those wonderful terms of endearment, his heartfelt promises to you and what he now dreams of for your long and happy future together. Don't you just love the sound of his voice ? Don't you love hearing him tell you what you mean to him? Imagine the kiss as you re-seal your wedding vows to the sounds of applause from everyone who loves you.

George Sand's immortal words The only happiness in life is to love and be loved are so true. Love is the only true happiness in life, and you have it. In abundance. At your wedding vow renewal ceremony, everyone gets a reminder of just how wonderful it is to be loved, to express love, and to be lucky enough to see it in action. That's why renewing wedding vows is such a growing trend today. We want to celebrate what's good in our lives. We want to honor our spouses, our marriages, the lives we've built together, our happily ever after. We want the spotlight on true love stories, not the fleeting newsflashes and bitter gossip of celebrity marriage and divorces.

Across the country and the world, married couples are planning their own wedding vow renewal ceremonies and receptions. Whether they've been married for one year, five years, ten years, fifty years (or more!), they're planning what can truly be called the celebration of a lifetime. Celebrating a lifetime shared or a lifetime still unfolding, all with the added bliss of having your family and friends share in the moment that's the icing on the three-tiered chocolate mousse-filled cake.

A marriage vow renewal ceremony is a way to begin your marriage anew. Many couples express that their wedding renewal was more deeply meaningful than their original wedding service because there is so much more life experience since the day they first married. Whether you've been married one year or fifty, it's important to express your appreciation for each other and give the gift of a new beginning.

Anne Marie Porter, a wedding officiant on St. John's in the U.S. Virgin Islands

You loved it so much the first time, you want to do it again.

Or, something went wrong the first time (such as a big rainstorm that moved your outdoor wedding inside), and you want that sunset ceremony on the beach.

Some couples tell me that this is their chance to have the wedding they always wanted, the one they were too young to request when they first married and their parents were in charge. This is their do-over. They'll finally get to have their big day.

While some couples see their fifteenth or twentieth anniversary approaching and think, Wouldn't it be fantastic to renew our vows, other couples discover the possibilities after the storm clouds have passed in their lives after a trauma or tragedy that makes them take stock of all that's most precious to them. For instance, think about the husband who supports his wife through her breast cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy treatments. The one person he loves most in the world almost left him, and now that she's recovering and perhaps in remission, he wants to marry her all over again.

Think about the military couple who haven't seen each other in a year, with one of them deployed into a frightening danger zone and the other holding down the fort in superhuman fashion while waiting patiently for his or her safe return. When the plane arrives or the ship sails in, and the loved one has returned, there's no one on earth who matters more. They'd marry each other all over again.