Are you reading this from your phone or is your phone within a few feet if you? We live in a day and age where you can count on the fact that people will have their cell phones and it’s pretty likely that they also have a smart phone. As much as I feel some sort of guilt about this fact, knowing that I’m considered a “Millennial”, I’ve decided to use it to my advantage. I’ve always been a photograph addict, even as a small child. I want pictures of everywhere and everything. Maybe as a young kid, I knew that I’d have the memory of a goldfish someday and photos would give me the chance to relive moments I struggle to remember on my own.

The first I learned of hashtagging an event was actually watching a stand-up comedy special in which they mocked the concept. I laughed and agreed, putting a hashtag on your event sounds more like you’re playing on your phone and not enjoying the event. Then I came across a plug-in that could feature all of the photos from a hashtag and it all started to make sense.

Back in the day, you’d buy disposable cameras for a wedding and put them on the tables so that you could get your guests’ perspective of your event. I’ve always loved that. The thing is that I’ve been spoiled over the years as the quality of the pictures on our cameras and camera phones have improved. Disposable cameras can only go so far, remaining a relatively grainy source of images. The cameras on our smart phones spit out some gorgeous pictures and if I had to choose between the old disposable cameras and my cell phone, I’d almost always choose the phone. Camera specs are the only thing I really care about when choosing a cell phone. It’s with me all day so no matter what the occurrence, I can just reach into my pocket and capture the moment.

With our vow renewal coming up, the hashtagging idea appealed to me. While I might still put a few disposable cameras out for those of our guests who aren’t familiar with smart phones and Instagram, I think that the hashtag will be a perfect way for us to collect guest photos after the fact. When we went to Sahara Sam’s last month, I loved surfing through the hashtag to check out the photos shared by other bloggers who attended the event and even found myself in a few photos and videos! I think that makes it fun for the guests too because I know that I never got to see pictures taken on the disposables from my mom’s wedding but if everything is available on Instagram, everyone can see! Depending upon privacy settings you might have to befriend your guests but I think it’ll be a great way to connect. Whether the older generation thinks I’m crazy or not, I am hashtagging my event. Haha!

Now another thing I was tackling is gifts. We don’t want gifts and etiquette for a vow renewal usually says you don’t do gifts anyway. We were debating whether or not to put it on the invitation because some things tell you that it’s rude to mention it on the gifts at all. Others say to find a tasteful way to say “No gifts please”, like “Your presence is our gift.” A website said not to include it because people know not to do gifts at a vow renewal or they will Google it and see but my mom said she wouldn’t have known had I not told her and she wouldn’t have bothered to Google. She’s been invited to three vow renewals this year and she didn’t know so it’s safe to say that some people just don’t know!

I spoke with a wedding planner who’s done several vow renewals. She told me that people always end up bringing cards so I decided to make a card box for ours. To go along with our beach theme and colors, I had a few ideas of how to do something subtle but pretty. I picked up a plain chest from a craft store, along with some paint, burlap strips, ribbon, and little wood shapes.

I painted the box and used Mod Podge to attach the burlap and ribbon I wrapped around it.

I painted the little wooden seahorse for the top, just to give it some color. Since I don’t have any stencils, I tried to improvise using my Cricut to make a stencil for the card label on the heart, then I just painted it. It was a little fuzzy but I’m also a terrible painter so that may be why!

Overall, I love how it turned out!