Renewal ceremony, never had a wedding

Also, since my father is deceased (8/3/2012) is it necessary to have someone give me away? My baby brother and I are very close and I can ask him to do it but I also have 2 sons that could walk me down the aisle together.

You two have a great story.. I wish you all the best in planning & many more years of happiness. What about your brother walk you half way & your two sons walk you the rest??

Ktharris, I actually thought about that after I pressed post comment....lol. I am trying to think how that will look for smoothness of ceremony because I want our children standing beside us during the ceremony as well. I am hoping to have all 8 as bridesmaids, groomsmen, and junior of both....we have 5 girls and 3 boys.

You don't need a marriage license nor an official officiant for a vow renewal. Definitely have all 8 children stand up with you.

If it will be in your place of worship, your minister, priest, rabbi can steer you in the right direction. If not, you may want to hire an officiant just because s/he would have experience in this.

Your wedding coordinator etc gives you the best resolution not the officiant..

I plan to DIY to cut costs. We are also going to have the same cousin officiate. We aren't in contact with one of his daughters as she is in another state, about 4/5 hours away, but I am working on it. What is appropriate for the invitations....from parents, from us, or from our children? If from our children is it all 8 or just the 5?

I think ktharris14 is talking about the reception (which a coordinator can certainly handle). An officiant handles the ceremony.

I suggest that the invitations come from the two of you. Not the children, since you're not in contact with one. It could be awkward to do just the 5 and leave out the other three. It could be awkward to name all 8, if all 8 are not involved/interested.

You can ask the cousin to use basically the same ceremony, just changed to reflect the addition of the 5 children over the 15 years. You can write your own vows, reflecting on the past 15 years.

First off welcome ... 2 nd we are doing a vow renwal but we havent marred long feel free to connect with me if you need help i have been a while and i may be able to help

Thanks Williams....I have no idea how to connect with people through this site so please help!!! I'm still new to this

Thanks Nancy T!!! I don't know that we'll renew again after 25 or 50 years so I want it as perfect as possible, if there is such a thing.

A few things I do know for sure is we don't want any children other than our own and members of the wedding party but I have no clue how to exclude them since we both come from children heavy families. My siblings have no children however his siblings have children and we have 1 great niece so far and we would want them present as well. Is there a way to exclude without offending OR does anyone know of a cost effective way to allow children?

Thanks in advance