Are you looking to celebrate your anniversary, but you’re not really sure how? You can pull it off – here’s how!
It can be tricky to celebrate your anniversary. Life is busy. This is especially true when you have young kids at home. Trickier still if you don’t have a great support system. But even though it might require a little effort, it’s definitely worth it to celebrate your anniversary.
Your marriage is the foundation of your family. If you don’t take time to honor your marriage, the family stuff gets harder. It just does. Your anniversary is the perfect time to put in the time to make sure you’re celebrating your relationship with your partner. And don’t be afraid to think outside the box to make celebrating your anniversary work for your family. This is not a one-size-fits-all situation!
Luckily, I’ve done some brainstorming lately so that my husband and I can celebrate our anniversary (it’s tomorrow!). Now, I’m sharing what I’ve come up with here, with you! Here are just a few ideas for how you can celebrate your anniversary, from quick to over-the-top.
How to Celebrate Your Anniversary
Small gifts
You can celebrate your anniversary without setting aside a whole day or even a whole meal. If your schedule is packed or you can’t get a sitter to save your life, it’s perfectly acceptable to celebrate your anniversary by simply exchanging small gifts with your partner.
We have chosen this option to celebrate our anniversary previously, and we find it fun to look up the traditional anniversary gifts by year and challenge ourselves to find something within the category that the other would use or appreciate. For example, on our fourth anniversary, I gifted my husband with a 6-pack of IPA beer and a beer glass etched with a pineapple to satisfy the fruit and flowers category. A hoppy beer was the perfect way to gift a man flowers!
Although it can be fun to use the traditional gifts, it’s totally fine to completely disregard them in favor of something your spouse really wants or needs. Don’t feel like you need to be a slave to the traditional gift categories if it’s going to mean wasted time and money!
Cards
If you aren’t gift-giving folks or money is extra tight this year, you can still celebrate your anniversary with cards. Take some time to write out a heartfelt note and really let your partner know how much he or she means to you. This is perhaps the most authentic way to celebrate your anniversary, so don’t downplay it if you choose to go this route!
Big gift
Another fun way to celebrate your anniversary that doesn’t require a huge time commitment is to select one big gift. Choose something that your family either needs or really wants that you wouldn’t ordinarily buy without a reason. It can be something useful like new patio furniture or simply fun like a lawn game the whole family can play and enjoy.
Memory keeping
If you’re not really gift people or mushy gushy card people, celebrate your anniversary in photos! You’re probably like most people in that you have approximately 7 million photos on your phone that never again see the light of day after you take them. Use your anniversary as the perfect excuse to sit down with your spouse, look at the photos you’ve taken over the last year, and choose the ones you want to have a physical copy of. Then, go to the website you like best for photo items (we like Snapfish) and make a photo book of the last year of your marriage. We haven’t done this previously, but I love this idea so much!
Dinner
If at all possible, I highly encourage you to go out to dinner with your spouse to celebrate your anniversary. It’s absolutely worth coordinating a sitter, making the reservation, and taking the time to sit down to dinner with your spouse without all the distractions that come with a meal at home. My parents used to go to the same restaurant every year on their anniversary (until it got destroyed by hurricanes), and it was kind of comforting to know that they would go, where they would go, and even what they would eat. I’m sure these anniversary meals are nice memories for them, but they are for me too.
If you like fine dining, now is the time to splurge on a fancy meal. But if fancy dinners aren’t your thing, you can absolutely head to your favorite local joint and eat food you know you’re going to love. If you try your hardest, but you can’t get a sitter, it’s ok to take the kids with you to your anniversary dinner. At the very least, you’re gifting yourself the gift of no dishes. And that ain’t nothing!
At-home date
Can’t get a sitter, but don’t feel comfortable taking your kids with you out to dinner? Is money tight? Don’t discount an at-home dinner date to celebrate your anniversary!
If you choose to have an at-home dinner date, you can take it in one of two directions. First, pick a nicer meal that you wouldn’t make on a normal night. Try your hand at a meal that intimidates you. The one that comes to mind immediately is Gordon Ramsay’s beef wellington. It’s supposed to be divine, but I’m super scared to mess it up! If a new-to-you meal requires too much time or brain capacity, you can also just pick a favorite meal and make that. It doesn’t really matter what you’re eating, it’s that you made it intentionally and you eat it together.
Activity
If you’d rather celebrate your anniversary by doing something active than sitting down and eating a meal, that’s totally cool too! Don’t limit yourself to what activities you can do to celebrate your love and marriage. I’m happy to give some examples of activities you and your spouse can do together, but don’t let my list be comprehensive.
Spa
A classic couple activity is to go to the spa together. Book yourself in for a couples massage or just a day pass to enjoy the facility and let your cares melt away.
Shopping
It can be really fun to shop with your partner! Clothes shopping can be an adventure when you’re considering what your spouse chooses for you, but you can shop for items other than clothing. Shopping for home accessories, curtains, patio furniture (can you tell we are getting our patio redone soon?), a car, or books can be a fun bonding activity on your anniversary too!
Tattoo
For the adventurous couples among us, consider getting a tattoo together! This is certainly a permanent way to demonstrate your love for your spouse!
Show/concert
Now this is an activity I can get behind to celebrate my wedding anniversary! I love to go see a show (comedy, musical, etc.) or a concert whenever I can. Unfortunately, since kids entered the picture, I haven’t had many opportunities to enjoy these types of shows. That means this is the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. I’ve really got to look into what shows are coming to town soon!
Class
It’s fun to try something new with your partner! Take advantage of this fact and celebrate your anniversary by taking a class together. I’m pretty partial to taking a cooking class, but there are so many other classes you can take as a couple. Try your hand at dancing, art, or maybe even curling. Warning: you’re guaranteed to laugh a ton!
Day date
I used to love day dates with my husband before we had kids. We would start the festivities early in the morning (well early-ish, because my husband does not wake up a minute earlier than he absolutely has to) and keep the fun going all day long. The day would start with brunch, then maybe a hike or a walk, followed by grabbing a beer and then dinner. These were marathon day dates that were chill, but oh so fun. With kids and way more responsibilities, we don’t often have a chance to spend a whole day together, so this would be a truly indulgent way to celebrate our anniversary. If you can swing it, this would be a killer way to celebrate your anniversary.
Weekend
Now, we’re getting somewhere! A truly fantastic way to celebrate your anniversary is to plan a weekend getaway. Preferably, this will happen without this kids, but if you have to, take them with you!
If you can get away without the kids, I highly recommend finding an adults-only resort. You want to have some time with your spouse without your kids to celebrate your anniversary, so I’m guessing you’d rather not swap them for strangers’ kids. Adults-only resorts exist for exactly this type of trip.
If you’re taking your kids, find a destination that has a little bit of something for every member of the family. Maybe do a day at a theme park to thrill the kids and dinner at a brewery to please the adults (Hershey is a great destination for this!). Or a nature-filled weekend of hiking and sightseeing could please the whole family.
Vacation
Here’s the way to celebrate your anniversary if you have a big milestone coming up. Block off a chunk of time (a week or more if you can swing it) and cross a destination off your bucket list. Regret not going to Hawaii for your honeymoon? Go there to celebrate a milestone anniversary. Always wanted to see Paris? A milestone anniversary is a great time to go. Wherever you and your spouse have always wanted to go is the right place to take anniversary trip.
Next year my husband and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage, and we are strongly considering taking a big trip to mark the occasion. We have a few places in mind to research, but we’d love to hear your suggestions for where we should go!
Party
You invited your friends and family to help you celebrate your love at your wedding, so why not invite them to celebrate your continuing love at an anniversary party? Now, don’t start panicking and having flashbacks about seating charts. An anniversary party doesn’t need to be fancy. It can be as simple as a backyard BBQ. Just use it as a great excuse to throw a party and get all your people together!
Other posts
These posts could offer you more help in planning how you celebrate your anniversary:
Did I help you decide how to celebrate your anniversary this year? Tell me, what are you doing? Share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.