Bridal Cave Vow Renewal

Ever heard of those mass weddings on Valentine's Day? They always sounded cheesy to me an not intimate or sacred to

the seriousness of marriage, but the people look like they are having fun. Well, in Missouri they do FREE vow renewals at Bridal cave around Valentine's day. A bunch of guys at the husband's work go every year with their wives. Husband asked me to go a few months ago. That's right, it was a bunch of men's idea to do this. So we headed to Bridal Cave today in the snow. I made steampunk/cowgirl jackets to wear over our dresses and the whole family got dressed up.

Bridal Cave has excellent roadside billboards so there was no chance of getting lost. The roads were plowed, which is good since it is quite curvy. You arrive and check in at gift shop #1. The lady was so cute and she liked my chunky rock necklace that my daughter made for me and said that loves rocks so much that her boss jokes that she should just get paid in rocks.

We met up with some coworkers, and after there were 15 couples, you go outside down some stairs to gift shop #2. You may then select your bouquet of flowers from a really nice senior park ranger.And you wait for the previous batch of married folks to come out. You go in the cave (which is really nice and not smelly, and warm)to the second set of stalactites and you find your little niche with your husband.

Then a minister gave some advice about marriage and congratulated us for our commitments to each other and then renewed a traditional set of vows, except for the 'death do us part" and we kissed and took a bunch of pictures. It was really neat that when he was saying the vows I didn't even notice the other couples. I could see the minister because where he was standing was a little higher toward the front of the cave and I could hear him perfectly

but it felt like he was just talking to us. Very cool and intimate. We took a bunch of pictures...if you have the flash upside down in caves you get better pictures.

We went outside and they rang the bell for each couple.

Then when we went back up to Gift Shop #1, they gave us a LIFETIME membership to Bridal cave with free admission for LIFE, and a goodie bag. The goodie bag really rocked, 2 free movie passes, $10 gift certificates to 2 different restaurants, 2 wine glasses and some sparkling cider, box of heart shaped fudge, a necklace and a bracelet. I would have loved to hang out and people watch all the couples getting renewed, but my munchkins can only behave so long in suits, in a gift shop (but everything was rock so at least they couldn't break anything).

I am really happy that we got re-'married at Bridal Cave.

Bridal Cave Vow Renewal

Camdenton, United States