My husband and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. For us it was a major milestone. I'm not exactly easy to live with. I'm disorganized, he's precise. I can talk to anyone about anything, he's a little shy. I'm out there, always ready for an adventure. He's always weighing the consequenses. I dance on tables, he's reserved. Life with me is not dull.
When we met, he was widowed super young with two little boys. I had 5 dogs and owned a bridal shop. Somehow, we survived 25 years! We were more surprised than anyone.
In my family, its a tradition to have a huge anniversary party and renew your wedding vows. Well, I didn't want a party. I always joked that I wasn't renewing our wedding vows unless I did it in front of Elvis in Vegas. I said it once, I meant it and I'm still here.
He goes with me twice a year to the bridal conventions in Las Vegas and he wanted to check out wedding chapels. My job IS weddings and I didn't want any part of spending my time off looking at wedding venues. Too much like work. I wanted to do Vegas.
So 6 months before our anniversary he announces that we're renewing our vows in front of Elvis and he already has the airline tickets. So suddenly, I'm planning a wedding. My wedding, again!
We choose the Graceland Wedding Chapel and the gold lame Elvis which turned out to be Kent Ripley. The chapel was amazing, it looked like a small church and the staff was very attentive, especially when a bee landed on my flowers and stung me.
Graceland chapel made planing so easy. We picked our flowers (yeah, I even had a bridal bouquet), the time which Bruce insisted had to be the exact time of our original wedding, our vows, our photography package and the songs we wanted Elvis to sing. A limo picked us up and there we were! I can't imagine an easier way to get married and I'm in the biz.
Kent was awesome! And he can sing! It was fun, it was romantic and it was way more than I ever could have imagined. Kent is a licensed minister and pronounced us "still married". We danced while he sang to us. He did a lot of Elvis moves and then we took the Elvis vows. We vowed never to step on each others blue suede shoes, to never OWN a pair of blue suede shoes and that Bruce would always be my hunka hunka burning love. It was hard to do without laughing. OK..so we laughed and laughed and we ended up high fiving each other on a job well done. I married my best friend and it was the best choice I've ever made. The ceremony ended with a rendition of "Viva Las Vegas" and as we walked back to the chapel door "Elvis has left the building".
I didn't want to do the Las Vegas wedding renewal, but it was the PERFECT way to celebrate! It was just the two of us, in Vegas, having a blast.
The Graceland Wedding Chapel was another great choice. Kent Ripley is and always will me our personal Elvis.
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