Celebrate Your Anniversary “Wedding Planner” Style
Photo: J Lauryn Photography
Every anniversary is a milestone, a celebration of love that started before your wedding day and has grown deeper with time. But how do you make each anniversary special? Is there actually a perfect gift to give every year? And is a gift off the shelf enough to remember the love that commenced on your wedding day? As wedding planners, we believe that your anniversary should be more than just a date on the calendar. Your wedding anniversary should remind you of why you love each other and chose to do life together and it should be filled with heartfelt and extraordinary moments. Whether you choose to recreate cherished memories or craft new ones, here’s how to celebrate your anniversary, wedding planner style!!!
Get Fancy
While wearing your wedding dress or outfit might feel a bit over the top, consider donning the dress or outfit you wore for your rehearsal dinner or wedding shower instead. It is the perfect mix of nostalgia and elegance while staying comfortable and appropriate for a night out. Whether you are dining at a fancy restaurant or simply enjoying a cozy night at home, dressing up in something that holds sentimental value will make your anniversary feel even more special.
Wedding Meal
Take a trip down memory lane with your taste buds! If your wedding meal was significant to you, why not recreate it every year? You could cook the same dishes together at home or or find a restaurant that serves the same cuisine. For example, if you served some yummy BBQ at your wedding,seek out the best BBQ joint in town for your anniversary dinner. This is a delicious way to honor your wedding day while cooking or exploring new places together!
Cake & Desserts
Let’s be honest, eating a year-old frozen cake isn’t the most appetizing tradition. It’s questionable at best. We all tried it but why…. Who knows? Let’s start a new anniversary cake tradition that can be celebrated beyond your first year of marriage and tastes great! Here it goes: Order a fresh cake each year to celebrate your anniversary with your significant other. You can have fun with it by choosing a different flavor or design each time. Whether you go big with a beautifully designed custom cake from a local bakery or keep it simple with a grocery store find, this tasty tradition is sure to make your anniversary a little sweeter.
Photo Op
Capture the evolution of your love with a creative photo tradition. Recreate your favorite wedding picture each year on your anniversary. You don’t have to wear your tux, dress, or wedding outfits. Simply, choose a pose that is meaningful to you and take a new photo every year. Watching your love story unfold through these annual snapshots will be a beautiful reminder of your journey together. You can even take a step further and consider doing a mini photoshoot each year to mark the occasion. Not only will this tradition provide you with a beautiful collection of memories, but it will also serve as a tangible reminder of the love that continues to grow and evolve with each passing year.
Reminisce
Your wedding photos and video are priceless mementos of one of the best delays of your life. On your anniversary, take the time to look through your wedding album and watch your video together. Relieving these moments will bring back all the emotions and joy from your wedding day. Don’t forget to have a few tissues on hand, it’s bound to get emotional! This is also the perfect time to dust off your wedding scrapbook and go through it. Read through all the toasts, cards, and notes from your closest friends and loved ones. These are the memories you’ll treasure forever, and revisiting them once a year will keep them fresh in your heart!
With these ideas in mind, you can infuse each year with the same magic that made your wedding day unforgettable, creating your own special traditions that celebrate your past while looking forward to the future together! It is still a great idea to get your significant other a gift on your special day. Below you will find a list of the traditional gifts to give at each anniversary and find out how our founder infuses this into her anniversary gift giving!
Photo: J Lauryn Photography
“Traditional” ways to celebrate each anniversary:
In case you’re curious about the list of traditional anniversary gifts, here’s a complete list below!! There are also modern equivalents, but we think these are really fun to play around with and get creative with.
1st Anniversary - Paper
A new beginning
2nd Anniversary - Cotton
Intertwined lives of the couple
3nd Anniversary - Leather
Durable and warm relationship
4th Anniversary - Fruit or Flowers
Blossoming of the couple
5th Anniversary - Wood
Solid and growing nature of the relationship
6th Anniversary - Iron
Strength and resilience
7th Anniversary - Wool or Copper
Wool: warmth and comfort
Copper: durability
8th Anniversary - Bronze
Durable, strong, stable relationship
9th Anniversary - Pottery or Willow
Pottery: crafted and beautiful
Willow: flexibility
10th Anniversary - Tin or Aluminum
Flexibility, durability, resilience
11th Anniversary - Steel
Strength and durability
12th Anniversary - Silk or Linen
Elegance and comfort
13th Anniversary - Lace
Intricate bond
14th Anniversary - Ivory
Rare and valuable
15th Anniversary - Crystal
Clarity and transparency
20th Anniversary - China
Delicate yet strong
25th Anniversary - Silver
Radiance and value
30th Anniversary - Pearl
Hidden beauty and strength
35th Anniversary - Coral or Jade
Coral: protection and longevity
Jade: wisdom and balance
40th Anniversary - Ruby
Passion and the enduring flame
45th Anniversary - Sapphire
Loyalty and trust
50th Anniversary - Gold
Wealth and wisdom
55th Anniversary - Emerald
Vibrant and enduring
60th Anniversary - Diamond
Unbreakable
65th Anniversary - Blue Sapphire
Lasting love and commitment
70th Anniversary - Platinum
Rare
75th Anniversary - Diamond
Unbreakable and enduring
Blair & Markus’ traditional gift inspiration:
Our CEO and Lead Planner, Blair, and her husband, Markus, have been married since 2016. They have stuck to the traditional wedding gifts pretty well over the years and try to have fun with it. Sometimes only one person gets a great idea, but they don’t hold that over the other one, they just call dibs!! Here are some of their favorites from the years in her own words:
1st Anniversary - Paper
The first year was the most fun, both of us wrote our vows on fresh paper and framed them for the house. But I also filled a piñata with tiny bottles of liquor to drink over the weekend to celebrate, and also made a paper chain of reasons why I loved Markus to decorate the dining room! Ridiculous but fun!! The piñata is sitting on our bookshelf, and the paper chain is in a bag somewhere… I meant to scrapbook that.
2nd Anniversary - Cotton
Year two got more challenging, but then when we settled in on a gift idea, it felt so easy!! Custom monogrammed robes with their initials. We still rock those to this very day.
3nd Anniversary - Leather
In year three, I had the perfect gift idea in mind immediately, but Markus struggled with this one. So I got us both custom leather keychains with their wedding date and located embossed on it. You won’t see our key rings without them!
4th Anniversary - Fruit or Flowers
Probably the easiest one yet! We both got each other a lovely bouquet, and Markus splurged on a second dipped fruit bouquet because he knows how much I love dipped fruits.
5th Anniversary - Wood
We took “wood” a little bit literally and went TO the woods instead! We grabbed a room at the Starved Rock Lodge and did some hiking on our anniversary. It’s honestly become one of our favorite Staycation Locations, I think we’ve gone back two or three times now. And we are going back for our 8th Anniversary, too!
6th Anniversary - Iron
This year, we opted for another little staycation downtown!! Iron was going to be a tough one… so we got a fancy hotel room, dressed up, and went to all of our favorite restaurants in the West Loop. I think we ordered steak, that’s high in iron… right?
7th Anniversary - Wool or Copper
Sadly, I could not think of anything creative for Copper, but Markus knew the perfect gift for this green-thumb wife. He got me the prettiest little copper watering pitcher and mister for my indoor plants. I love it so much that I hardly use it because I don’t want it to patina.
8th Anniversary - Bronze
Our anniversary is coming up in October, and we are going back to Starved Rock. I think this year we are going to buy a nice Shinola clock for the house… probably in a Bronze Finish to mark the occasion! But we shall see. Still time.
We wish you love and happiness for years and years to come!
P.S. More diamonds come at year 60 and 75!!! Hang in there!!!! :)
P.S.S. When you are ready to renew your vows, we are totally here for you! Let’s plan the most beautiful day again!!! - Vow Renewal: Contact Us - We love to celebrate love.
Cheers, lovelies!!!
Written by: Elly
This lady knows how to celebrate and she loves celebrating every milestone life has to offer. So glad she was able to put into words how much we love anniversaries!!
Photography by: J Lauryn Photography