justdidit on How to Celebrate a Wedding Anniversary

a family fun time together. On our first anniversary, we stayed home and just ate the top of our wedding cake...I think you also call that one the groom's cake. We were told about keeping it in the freezer for a year from our Wedding day. Since I was 5 months pregnant with our daughter on our first year anniversary, I was not really up to any trip or anything at all. My constant morning sickness was the main reason why we stayed put. Luckily, when we ate the groom's cake my morning sickness did not act up, so I enjoyed a small serving of it. I still remember that first anniversary as clear as I remember our wedding day. We lit up some candles and had a special homemade dinner prepared by my husband.

The following anniversaries consisted of trips to Disneyland in Anaheim California and Disneyworld in Orlando Florida, and other theme parks because we have our daughter in tow at all times. Many couples go on a cruise or trip without their children to get that well-deserved break during their anniversaries; however, for my husband and I, we would not be at ease without her. After all, she is our gift from our union, therefore, she is part of our anniversaries.

 

On our 10th anniversary, we decided to celebrate it with a party and invited about 150 of our closest friends. Money was not as tight as before and my husband promised me one time, since we did not have a wedding that one could call extravagant or a dream wedding, he made a promise on our wedding day that on our 10th anniversary we will have a celebration at a Hotel. Donned with our best attires and invited our families, friends, co-workers and relatives. We figured why not, after all we have saved enough money and we would enjoy it very much to celebrate a milestone with our loved ones and dearest friends.

 

We chose the Embassy Suites Hotel located in Pleasant Hill, California to host a luncheon. We hired a professional photographer and videographer to commemorate the occasion. I made our own invitations and most of the party decorations and all of the favors as well. I also made the flower arrangements by the cake table. Yes, we had a special 10th anniversary cake made for our anniversary-- it was a delicious ice cream cake with chocolate and creamy vanilla icing. Our anniversary theme was pastel blue, we had my daughter, nieces wore pretty organza, and silk blue dresses, while I wore a blue silk gown, which I purchased from David's Bridal. I topped my hair with a simple tiara. My husband, his uncles and brothers wore Barong Tagalog, which is a Philippine male costume worn on special occasions such as weddings, baptisms, and anniversaries. We had a blast and the food was great. We had an Elvis impersonator gave a Vegas-like performance, singing several famous Elvis' songs, much to the amazement of our guests. We had contests and gave away DVDs of popular movies that time and some cash prizes to the winners.

 

The following anniversaries after that big bash, we went back to low-key celebrations. The most recent one, which was last year for our 15th anniversary, when some people sked if we would do similar to what we did on our 10th because it was also a milestone, we told them we would do a low-key vacation. This is because our economy was being hit hard and we just moved to a new place that we wanted to save our money and not to be too extravagant when people around us were losing their jobs and their homes to foreclosures. We had a "staycation", which is a term coined for having a vacation in your city or town or to nearby locations. It saved us money, as well as, gave us a new appreciation of our city. Luckily, we live in the San Francisco bay area, which is a popular tourist spot on its own. Therefore, we were like tourists in our own city, rediscovering why tourists all over the world flock to this wonderful city by the bay. By us staying and spending our money here helped our local economy, which I thought was a good thing to do.

 

This year we will celebrate our 16th year together, so I think since the economy has not fully recovered yet, it will be another staycation holiday.