Silver Wedding Celebrations - ideas please

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hi everyone.

OH and I are celebrating our silver wedding anniversary this September and I thought of having a bit of a "do" - hence I'm wide awake at 430am thinking things through!!!

Has anyone got any ideas? I was thinking about having a renewal of vows ceremony at our local historical hall -Astley Hall, Chorley and am going down on Sunday to discuss options.

Cheapest option for a "bash" is to have a buffet back at ours, so am going to ring round for prices.

Having said that, I've never organised anything like this before and really don't know what to include, exclude etc. Should I think like our wedding day (only smaller of course?) ( gosh! can't see me in a big dress again!!)

If anyone has ideas re what we should do, what I should wear, costs involved if you've done this already etc etc etc. I would love to hear about them.

Many thanks
Bernie aka DDL
PS Got to go back to bed now, at work tomorrow!

[Flummery]

We had fish and chips and champagne at home on the day - we know how to live! (had a little family do at the weekend). However, as there were the 2 of us plus 11 guests - we aren't superstitious - a re-run of the day itself wouldn't have been a really big deal.

[kirsty b]

I've got a wedding mag here with some lovely silver decorations in it. Hows about white tablecloth on the table and silver confetti sprinkled in between plates?

Also, this site may have some ideas and they don't cost the earth.
The Wedding Party - The One Stop Wedding Shop, For Everything But The Dress in Norwich Norfolk

I'm sure whatever you choose, you and your family and friends will have a lovely day.

(me and himself have chosen this cake topper to give our nuptials the personal touch!
Gone Fishing Cake Topper

[HeyWayne]

Congratulations on your anniversary Bernie,

Why not have a silver "themed" day?

There are miwyuns of silver themed party thingy's: Silver party theme party supplies and party products

Or you could have a "silver" themed fancy dress, Sterling "silver" Moss, or Olive Foil, etc.

Ask people to come with something silver related - but not silver. It would get people involved (and possibly ease the pressure on you).

Whatever you do, hope you have a great day.

[Nicos]

Congratulations!
It's ours too next month and we have decided to go away for the week - 2nd honeymoon so to say!
The idea of a gathering is lovely.
How about asking peeps to bring a plate of something instead of a gift and you provide the drinks?
You could make a list of what you'd like/what they'd like to bring so that you don't end up with 2,000 sausage rolls and a piece of cheese!!
Wearing silver and white theme for the lasses and dinner suits for the guys, or jeans with black/white/silver would look great too.
If you do renew vows at Astley Hall ( beautiful place!!!) could you hire medieval clothes for the event???? THAT would be a memorable occasion!!
Oh...this is exciting!!!!

[Mikey]

I know my OH found confetti.com very useful for all those little decoration bits and bobs when we got married.

As a major tight wod myself, I would go with guests bringing a plate rather than a present, look at what you would like to offer buffet style and see if your guests can chip in. This keeps it all a little more informal, and leave you with less to worry about on the day.

Have fun.

[SueA]

It sounds like a lovely idea Bernie, renewing your vows, how about wearing a lovely slinky white & silver dress for the ceremony? We had our 25th a couple of years ago but didn't do anything special, not really into all that & when we got married we just had a few friends & family at the register office. If you go with the buffet at home & don't want to use paper cups or don't have enough glasses some off licences will hire out glasses to you when you buy drink from them. It's a nice idea to have guests bring food as well but you'd have to be organised about who's bringing what or you could end up with 6 quiches & four bowls of trifle!

[TPeers]

Congratulations getting to 25 - we will be 15 this September - good month, September!

I love catering for big parties so I'd invite anyone and everyone and enjoy the bussle of cooking to produce the food! However something along the pot-luck line is less intensive for those who don't have the time to commit the way I can! (I work from home)

I'd suggest you make a general list of approx numbers and how many starter, savoury and sweet dishes you want then when you send out the invites ask people to ring their replies in and get their 'assignments' you can then ask for x bowls of salad, so many quiches and no triffle or however you want the day to go.

Enjoy!

PS - I'll make you some sugerpaste flowers if you like - PM me.

[JennieAtkinson]

We celebrated our 25th a few years ago, but decided just to have a special time on our own as we were finding it so difficult to get the right people together at the right time and then trying to organise a biggish event. It kind of put me off. We tacked on an other week on our holiday to cover the anniversary and on the day itself as we found ourselves in the French Alps, we took a ski lift up to the highest mountain we could find and sort of renewed our vows ourselves at the top. That evening we found a super tiny tiny little restaurant in the back of beyond - it wasn't a high cost meal, but was very special being so small.

What I'm trying to say is that you can have a great celebration with just the two of you!

[jackie j]

CONGRATULATIONS mines 13 years this time round ( got to 18 first time ) only been to a couple of special anniversarys.
The most recent was a very ott church do including ushers top hats tails etc big reception at hotel in chelmsford very false. Guests were given seed sticks of flowers to take away a bit like a small matchbox.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Thank you SO much everyone - you've got some super ideas that have really got me thinking - also thanks for the ideas re the food/nibbles/booze afterwards.You've given me lots of ideas to think about. I'll let you all know how I get on and what we've decided! Bernie aka DDL

[shirlthegirl43]

Congrats on the silver anniversary Bernie.

For the entertainment - how about renting a 'silver age' jukebox?

[dexterdoglancashire]

update

Hi everyone! Just thought I would give you an update.

Plans are now moving forward..... managed to hire a room at my favourite stately home - Astley Hall in Chorley for Saturday 30th August.

I'm SO excited! I've always wanted to "pretend" to own Astley Hall since I was a child, and this has given me the chance to be a "lady of the manor" for a short time at least!

My father in law, who is a methodist preacher, will be conducting the ceremony and we've got friends giving readings/speeches in the ceremony itself.

Lots of photos - Dexter's Aunty Margaret is i/c Dexter, who of course, will be included in the photos outside the hall.

Then back to Margarets (next door to ours) for a buffet by my favourite caterers and plenty of bubbly!

I'm still thinking about the ideas youve given me re the buffet, because Ive got someone else doing the food that will leave me free to concentrate on what I want.

Many thanks for all your help and ideas!

Bernie

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hi everyone - just thought I'd post an update since I've been so busy recently that I just haven't had chance to get on the Vine!

The back garden is now sorted, thank goodness! I've spent so much time and effort in getting it sorted, and haven't spent as much time on my lottie as I should, but there you go - I've only got one pair of hands!

We now have the guest list ready, I've eventually got a lovely dress to wear - that's after getting two off ebay both size 12 - one too big, one far too small, mass panic and lots of stress, but I'm sorted now.

Our local hall, Astley Hall has been booked as the venue for our renewal of our vows, and my father in law is going to lead the proceedings. We thought it would be lovely, as we love him very much, he is a local preacher anyway, and it will be a lovely family occasion.

The only thing now is the housework, which I started today - the lean to (for you posh folk thats the conservatory!) I've only got the rest of the house and five weeks to do it in.

I've been growing my hair since April next Saturday is the day the hairdresser works miracles and I'm going in a grey, old woman and hopefully coming out a young 40+ish person! LOL!

For the first time in my life I'm going to be pampered in the run up to the 30th August - facial, eyebrows and spray tan on the wednesday, practice makeup on the friday (in time for a friends wedding) and then hair and nails on the saturday - mmm if I ain't chilled out and totally stress free then I don't know what will do the trick!

Anyway, thanks for listening to me folks - honestly, if I can I'll try and post some photos ont'vine for you to see.

Bernie

[SarzWix]

Sounds great Bernie I hope you have a lovely day.