Time flies sure when you’re having fun! I can’t believe that it’s been an entire year since our wedding and we’re already celebrating our first anniversary. We’ll be celebrating with a romantic meal at the restaurant where we had our rehearsal dinner and then having an overnight “staycation” within the hotel of our wedding venue where we’ll exchange our anniversary gifts.
According to Wikipedia: “the historic origins of wedding anniversaries date back to the Roman Empire, when husbands crowned their wives with a silver wreath on their twenty-fifth anniversary, and a gold wreath on the fiftieth. Later, principally in the twentieth century, commercialism led to the addition of more anniversaries being represented by a named gift.”
In keeping with tradition there are gift “themes” for anniversaries from the first through the fifteenth year, then every five years (for example: on your twentieth, twenty-fifth and thirtieth) and then every ten years (fortieth, fiftieth, sixtieth and so on)! I personally think that it’s a fun tradition to follow and it helps to provide gift-giving guidelines, especially if you can’t think of anything to gift one another to celebrate the occasion (I have a hard enough time coming up with gifts for birthdays and Christmas!).
This year (our first year of marriage) the traditional gift theme is paper. I prefer for our milestone / anniversary gifts to be meaningful and long-lasting so I’m pretty pleased with these ideas!
Since I’ve been shopping for an anniversary gift for my husband I thought I’d share everything I’ve found that’s piqued our interest! In the list below you will find items that we either purchased for one another or already own (those have an *asterisk) as well as the items that we considered for each other:
WORKS OF ART
Source a poster for performance you attended on first date or another momentous occasion (maybe a special Broadway show, film, concert, etc.)
The poster could also be for an event that you didn’t actually attend, but has significance (favorite band, etc.) and the event occurred on a special date in your relationship, such as your first date, proposal date or even on your wedding day.
Framed photos of you together —
One Perfect Year Custom Photo Art
Custom Wedding Venue Print // Watercolor Venue Portrait
Printed Vows Keepsake // Letterpress Vows
Origami Wedding Attire (Gay // Lesbian)
Personalized Paper-cut First Anniversary Gift
First Meeting Print —
Custom Night Sky Print // Where We Met map
Framed Custom Map // Push Pin World Map // Met – Engaged – Married
*Top Tip: skip the plastic frame and have any art or photos professionally matted & framed for a more deluxe gift! Framebridge is a great resource for this!
…
BOOKS
* If your partner is especially a book lover, I recommend buying them a first edition of their favorite book or obtaining a book that they’ve wanted that’s out of print. The rest of these suggestions are custom or more sentimentally-driven.
Photo album (for coffee table) —
Professionally Printed Photo Album // Self-Adhesive Photo Album
Cookbooks for cooking for two or cooking together
(*only if there’s an interest) —
The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook // The Essential New York Times Cookbook
…
MISCELLANEOUS
Date Scavenger Hunt // *Scratch Off Date Ideas // A Year of Connection
(with instant-print camera for documentation!)
The Story of Us Fill-In Journal // Personalized Anniversary Journal
New York Times Custom Front Page Puzzle
“Exploding” Card // Special Folding Pop-Up Card
(carnations are the traditional first anniversary flower)
6-Pack Beer Carrier // Wine Carrier // 4-Pack Any Drink Carrier
(fill with their or both of your favorites to share!)
Your Song Paper Pinecone Lyrics Holiday Ornament
If you’re feeling crafty, you can create something sentimental out of papier mâché, like a Christmas ornament. These instructions are easy enough for kids to follow, but I suggest deviating when it comes to the design aspect and creating something that’s more aligned with you both as a couple / your life together.
If you are participating in the tradition of eating the cake topper from your wedding day on your first anniversary, I have detailed instructions on how to successfully accomplish this (as provided by our wedding cake pastry chef) in this post!
If you’re planning ahead for future gifts, I’ll be updating this section with anniversary gift ideas every year so keep an eye out!
I hope this list helps you with gift ideas for your loved one. Good luck in your present search and congratulations on celebrating your first wedding anniversary!
Sending hugs —
xx, Natalie
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