How to Celebrate a First Wedding Anniversary

Celebrating the first wedding anniversary is a great chance to recap your first year together as a married couple and think about all the adventures yet to come. Everyone says that the first year is the hardest year of marriage, and if you two have survived or even thrived, spend time appreciating what it is that makes your relationship so strong.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Give an anniversary gift. Emily Post claimed it wasn't necessary to give a gift for every anniversary, but if you value your relationship at all, you should make the effort. It doesn't need to be expensive or even a very big deal, but it should be thoughtful. Traditionally, the first anniversary gift is paper. A poem you wrote, some personalized stationery, a book, tickets for an event or future travel or similar items make great first anniversary gifts.

2. Relive your wedding day. Pull out the wedding albums, watch the wedding video, and reread your guest book. Spend some time sharing your memories from that momentous day. If you can, visit the place where you were married. You may want to ask a restaurant in advance if they can re-create your wedding cake top, or bring yours with you when you go to eat there. Or, eat the cake top when you get home while watching your video.

3. Think about something you've both wanted to do but haven't yet. Maybe there's a restaurant you've wanted to try, a lake you've never kayaked, a trail you haven't hiked or a day trip you haven't taken.

4. Take the honeymoon you didn't have, or go on a second, short honeymoon. A getaway can help you re-energize and reconnect and gear up for year two.

5. Be romantic. Make a picnic or breakfast in bed. Open your favorite bottle of wine, eat good food (maybe re-create your wedding menu), save your granny panties for another day and spend the time being romantic, sexy and invested in each other.

Tips & Warnings

• The modern gift list suggests a clock for a first anniversary; watches also fall into this category. Lists generated by florists and jewelers suggest gifts of gold or pansies. These aren't Post-approved. The only list Emily Post gave her stamp of approval to was the traditional list.
• Unless you knew exactly what you were doing when you froze your wedding cake top, chances are it won't taste as yummy as it did on your wedding day a year ago. Eat the cake sometime after your wedding and re-make a smaller version for your anniversary if you want a fresh taste.

[jennykross]

on 8/4/2008 I got an anniversary gift from my husband which I can never forget. Without telling me, he got a bunch of pictures from our dating days and got a beautiful video made from them. It was perfectly synchronized to music and because it was professionally made, the results were awesome! It was so romantic and touching, both of us cried for a while watching our 'good-old-fun-days' come alive on the screen!! He got the DVD done at http://www.smilingsnaps.com and I think it wasn't expensive either, considering that everything was custom-made.