Our Vow Renewal At Blue Ridge Parkway
5 years may not seem like the typical anniversary for a vow renewal, but we felt like there was plenty to celebrate. Even though we had known each other for years prior to our wedding - over the course of our first 5 years of marriage so much had happened and changed. We experienced so much and had grown a lot individually and as a couple. We wanted to take time to reflect on those 5 years.
Our May Vow Renewal took place in a location special to us and our home in North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Since getting married at such young ages we felt like we had changed a lot along with our style too. So, after 5 short years, our wedding photos didn't totally feel like "us" anymore. Not to mention we lived in a new state and made a home there. So we were eager to have photos taken in a new place that meant so much to us.
And lastly, it is FUN. Reminiscing about our relationship, going on an adventure, planning a day just for us to do exactly what we wanted. Getting dressed up, eating delicious food, it is all so fun. And you know, somehow as adults we stop doing things just for the sake of pure FUN.
Wedding days are one of the best days of our lives, why can't we recreate that every so often? Plus it gives you a chance to do things differently!
I did confess to Jake, that this would be happening every 5 years from now on, ha-ha. And maybe that is over the top. But the memories we created, the new vows we wrote, the photos we have, are worth so much to me. Time will continue to fly by, and I'm not interested in forgetting anything. In fact, I don't think we truly stop and celebrate love enough. We work every single day on our marriage, we make the choice every single day to commit to our vows, to actively choose to put this person first and love them deeply. I think the greatest thing any human can do, is to choose to love someone else. Yet somehow, we've deemed it enough to celebrate only one day. NAHHHH.
We were so thankful to have our photographer Megan of MorningWild Photography there to adventure with us and capture our Vow Renewal.
For our may vow renewal, we headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville. We explored a new trail, hiking three miles round trip. We started off with a "first look". This was something we hadn't done on our wedding day, but I thought would be fun to do it this time around. I actually had a lot of butterflies and surprised myself with how emotional that moment on a quiet trail felt. We took a few pictures before we began the hike, and it turns out that would be the only sun and mountain views we'd get the whole time!
Though we hiked for a bit and were surrounded by 360 views, we couldn't see anything. It was completely socked in by fog the whole time. While I tell my couples that they have the be flexible and accepting of any weather that may come because the mountains are so unpredictable. Truthfully, it was still disappointing.
Once we decided the clouds were not going to open up, we stood on a rocky outcrop and read the vows we wrote for our wedding day. Then read our new vows that we wrote. Just in those few words, it was so interesting to see the difference 5 years made in our vows. And how even more in love we felt than on our wedding day. Again, cue the tears, though this time I had anticipated crying.
5 years does not seem that long in comparison, but also it feels so long when I think back to our wedding day. It was so good to take the time to be in that moment and reflect on all that had changed.
We celebrated with donuts from Suarez, a local bakery, that we packed with us, and champagne that our photographer brought, and I put my long veil in that my mom hand handsewn (I was ready to try something fun and different for this wedding day outfit!). Then we took more photos as the sun set. Even though the clouds were heavy there was a thick pink color to the sky, and it was beautiful. We even got a little glimpse of the mountains around us as the clouds rushed above overhead.