Your wedding anniversary is a time of year for you and your spouse to deepen your connection and revive feelings that may have been overridden by jobs, everyday stress, and outside obligations. It’s the perfect time to renew your commitment to each other and reflect on your successes–and maybe even the inevitable failures and hard times you’ve overcome together.
When it comes to celebrating your anniversary, the sky’s the limit. There are countless ways to make your day special, but sometimes it can feel difficult to settle on an idea that does justice to your love and the life you’ve built together. Today, we’re sharing seven creative ideas to make your next anniversary especially memorable.
1. Turn your vows into art
Did you and your spouse write your own vows for your wedding? Etch them in your memory forever by turning them into a piece of art for your home. You can have your vows printed, painted, or engraved on a number of different surfaces like canvas, wood, and more (do it yourself if you’re creative!). Then, hang them in your home to remind yourselves of the carefully-crafted words you wrote and recited to promise your lives to each other.
2. Recreate your wedding cake (and punch, too!)
There’s never a bad time for cake–especially on your anniversary. You and your spouse can make your own cake in the flavors you chose for your wedding day (or have a friend help you if neither of you are especially skilled in the kitchen). If you have a recipe for your reception punch, you can mix that up, too–then enjoy it from your his and hers stem glasses (if you kept them!) while you savor the cake.
3. Make a memory book together
Whether you break out the photo prints or prefer a digital album, making a memory book of any sort is a great way to recall happy memories together. Buy yourselves a new album and get to work rearranging your photos, or use an online printing service to make a photo book that showcases your favorite memories from engagement, your wedding day, and beyond.
4. Revisit special places
Maybe you’ve been married for twenty years…maybe just for one. No matter how long you’ve been together, a great anniversary adventure for you might involve re-creating your first date or revisiting the place where your spouse proposed. Focus on places and experiences that have been significant to you in your relationship. If you no longer live near those places or can’t easily travel to them, start new traditions together in a special place where you are now.
5. Renew your vows
Renewing your vows on your anniversary can be a meaningful way to verbalize your lifelong commitment to each other. You can take the traditional route–or you could jump outside the box and write new vows to one another. Are there things you’d include today that you didn’t think of when you first wrote your vows? Now that you’ve shared a life together (for however many years), there are things you’ll love and appreciate about one another that you might not have been tuned into during the early years. Include those special things in your new vows that will carry you forward into the next phases of life together.
6. Celebrate with your friends
All anniversaries are milestones, but depending on your own story, some anniversaries feel more significant than others. Have you just come through a really tough season together? Have you reached a goal you’ve been dreaming of and planning for, for years? Are you healing from marital issues or just simply celebrating the wonderful years you’ve had? Throw a mini reception and invite your friends. It doesn’t have to elaborate or expensive–but sharing a little cake and punch (or finger foods) with your closest friends and family to celebrate your years together could be a nice touch for your upcoming anniversary.
7. Make a shadowbox of your wedding memories
Many of us have wedding trinkets tucked away in storage somewhere–programs, printed napkins, gloves, little sachets of bird seed, the bride’s garter, pieces of keepsake jewelry, dried flowers you’ve carefully stored over the years. Why not create a shadowbox together to put those mementos on display? Include one or two of your favorite wedding photographs and you’ll have something beautiful to enjoy together for years to come.
What’s your favorite anniversary memory? Do you have creative plans for your next anniversary you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section!
We celebrate our “Monthiversary” by saying our marriage vows on the 8th of every month. It’s a great way to remind ourselves of our promises and to thank God again for bringing us together!
Thank you for this tibit and suggestions. I like this – My husband and I are celebrating our 36th Wedding Anniversary. We have scheduled a Get Away together. So we will do what you said : Renew our commitment to each other & reflect on success & failures/hard times we have come through, and Celebrate US!! Making it a creative process by recreating fond memories of US over the years. Our Pastor often says: Make Special Days Special!!!
We listen and dance to our “first dance” wedding song once a year. 🙂
For the first 7 years of marriage, I felt disappointment that my hubby resorted to “the list” found online of the traditional & contemporary gifts designated by Hallmark , or whoever came up with it. Did you know there is a category for EACH year… not just silver for the 25th and gold for 50th?! The gifts I received from him each year seemed odd, uncreative, and definitely not romantic. I received paper roses (1st anni), cotton robe (2nd), leather serving tray (I’m not kidding, for #3) , fruit (#4), a wood tray, an iron fondue pot……anyway, you get the idea! On our 7th anni (copper), I opened a copper ice bucket. Again, disappointment set in. By then we clearly had far deeper marital issues than strange anniversary gifts! That year was a turning point for our marriage and we entered into a season of counseling & Christian community. We have experienced healing, transformation, and redemption, and still growing. As our next anniversary approached, my hubby stated he will never buy off the “Hallmark list” again. I laughed and said “Why stop now?” 🙂 Together, we chose something from the list and created a day around it. On anni #9 (pottery), we sipped wine while painting a pottery creation for our home and on #10 (aluminum) made a campfire meal in foil! Sorry for the long answer, but celebrating our anniversary “our way” took awhile for us!
I appreciate your honesty in your post. I am in one of those seasons right now and am looking for a way to continue forward. We didn’t celebrate our 20th this year but you have inspired me that once we are in a place where that would be appropriate. “The list” states china or platinum as the proper gift. Perhaps a special piece of bakeware we can use to make meals together would be an idea. I like how you took a thorn (unwanted gifts) and exchanged it for a rose (quality time).
Thaks for the really amazing ideas with tips.