How Do You Celebrate Your Anniversary? | Light Refreshments Served

Rachel

July 11th, 2008

I’ve been reading through the comments on our Free Stuff giveaway, and I’m getting quite concerned about the state of our anniversary celebrations. Lots of comments mention NEVER going on vacations or dates (or honeymoons!) with their spouse and lots of our friends have anniversaries coming up but NO plans to celebrate. My anniversary celebrations, admittedly, are usually on the meager side. But we are vigilant about dates: at least three times a month. I digress…

I want to quantify this phenomenon! Click the description below that best describes you. Choose up to two, if you must.

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And then, if you have any good anniversary celebration ideas (low cost and low time commitment are best, I think), please share in a comment below. Apparently we all need them!

28 Responses to “How Do You Celebrate Your Anniversary?”

christy says:

July 11th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Most anniversaries are a “dinner and movie” kind of year, but the big ones we like to really celebrate. We are a product of a “botched” honeymoon, so for our 10th we went to Maui for a week. It was HEAVENLY. On our 15th, we bought new wedding rings because in the last year, we both confided that we’d prefer a newer style. On other occasions, we have traded with good friends so the kids could sleep over and we’d use hotel points from hubby’s travels to get a free night at a local resort.
b. says:

July 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
We don’t celebrate big, but one year…we had no money, well, I’ll be honest…a lot of years we have no money. Anyway, I sent the kids away for the night. I decorated the back yard like a tropic island getaway: a makeshift tiki hut with lights and torches, music, leis, fun drinks and kabobs on the bar-b. I went to Partyland for some extra deco, we watched the sunset…it was fun! He loved it.
Mhef says:

July 11th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I am one of the guilty who posted how we can’t ever come up with something and then the day slips by. We still “owe” ourselves several trips we thought of after the fact, but couldn’t seem to schedule.

A lesson though is not to put things off too long. My dear in-laws intended to go and do things after the kids were grown, and now my FIL’s health is such that they aren’t able to do it. Lots of missed opportunities there. And you just never know what the future might bring.

So even though there are lots of reasons not to go, don’t let “we’ll get to later” be one of them.

My motherly advice for the day!
giggles says:

July 11th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
one year i insisted that since we had no money, that my hubby go to one of the car dealerships that were giving out free day passes to an amusement park with a test drive. it was our 10th and we went without our kids and played as kids for the day! it was fabulous!!!
jennie w. says:

July 12th, 2008 at 6:24 am
My favorite anniversary was the one where we farmed out our six kids (although I think we only had four at the time) and spent two whole days AT HOME with no kids. It was amazing! We slept in (no uncomfortable hotel beds, or maids knocking on the door), went to eat at the drop of a hat, got some stuff accomplished around the house and just generally had a fun time hanging out with nobody bothering us. We still remember it fondly six years later.
steaknpotatoes says:

July 12th, 2008 at 6:51 am
My husband and I celebrated our last anniversary with a couples massage and THEN dinner and a movie. It was AWESOME!!!
allybally says:

July 12th, 2008 at 7:50 am
We always head back to where we were married (the temple). Romantic AND cheap!
EastCoastLDS says:

July 12th, 2008 at 8:40 am
We celebrate our anniversary all year long in this way: any big item that comes along in that year–a new house, a trip to China with the kids–we call this our anniversary gift to each other. The kids get to celebrate with us–and there’s no worries about shopping for the right gift!
peanutmommy says:

July 12th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
We have absolutely no money to spend on a card, much less anything else. We sometimes go to the card isle at the store and pick some and give them to the other to read. We can’t afford to buy them, but it’s something. Our anniversery is 3 days after Christmas so it’s a busy time of year. We usually just find about an hour or so to sit and cuddle on the couch or farm out the kids and have a day at home. We trade babysitting with friends so it’s a free thing.
I think as long as you remember each other on that special day, weather with a word or card or something more, that it’s enough. Marraige is happy but not easy and every year should be looked forward to begin and celebrated at the end.
Kerri says:

July 12th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
This year was the best. I’d posted our wedding anniversary is on July 4th and my husband is out of town a lot. He’s missed…well, many of our anniversaries (we just celebrated 14). This year we had a picnic at a little park with a pond where we (including our daughter) fed geese and ducks some bread. I made sandwiches and took some fruit. The symphony was played, then an Air Academy band. Fireworks came after and that night we gave each other love letters we’d written. It was really lovely. And free. On our wedding day, he promised me fireworks that night and every year after. He’s kept his word.
gghs8grtgrdkds says:

July 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
My beloved passed away 0ver 13 years ago, but my vote was for how we usually would have celebrated, way back then. Actually, we usually went to the Temple for a session on our anniversary, if at all possible. And probably to dinner as well. Anniversaries are very important…it would have been our 43rd this Halloween! GG
DeVonne says:

July 13th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I enjoyed the comments about “just remembering” and I think you should do something no matter how small to celebrate - - for it is a cause to celebrate. We decided on our first anniversary that instead of giving each other a gift we would make a memory. We would do something special on our day even if it was small. We will be celebrating our 30th in Sept. Our favorite “anniversary memory” was going backpacking to the top of Timpanoogos Mountain (here in Utah County - about 14,000 ft high). Since we went after Labor Day we spent 4 days and 3 nights all alone with a herd of mountain goats and some of the most beautiful wildflowers, waterfalls, rainstorms, etc. we’ve ever seen. We actually got closer than we’d been in a long time because we had a lot of time to talk and just be together. It reminded us of why we got married in the first place and YES we still loved each other! Note: He carried both of our backpacks most of the way because I have chronic fatigue syndrome and other health problems. What a wonderful man!
3girlmama says:

July 13th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
We try to attend the temple and do sealings to remember our wedding day. We also do dinner and I try to do a top ten list of my favorite things or events that happened to us that year.
Mommom says:

July 13th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Some of my favorite Anniversaries have been Hiking in Muir Woods when we lived in Northern CA. We took the children with us on that one, trading babysitting never seemed to work out for us. Going to the temple for sealings. Taking a trip to a local botanical gardens (hmm I’m sensing an outdoor theme). We also recently took in a broadway musical and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast for a particularly big anniversary, but that was out of the ordinary!

We also like to do lunch dates because we can go to restaurants and get our favorites for less money (and smaller portions - portions can be SO HUGE it’s insane at some places).
jellojiggler says:

July 13th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
We usually just do the dinner and a movie thing, too, except for big years. For our tenth we got massages together at some over-priced spa, had dinner at the Garden and then stayed at Anniversary Inn in SLC. We don’t usually do gifts, preferring instead to spend money on activities. But that year I had a friend give me a great idea of a gift. It took me a year to put it together. I took an engagement photo of us and overlayed it with vellum and framed it. On the vellum I typed A picture is worth a thousand words, and then wrote, using 1000 words, all the things that bound us together, such as our wedding date and place, all our inside jokes, places we’ve been, etc. (I put a text box around our faces, so they’d show through the writing). He loved reading through it, and it serves as a keepsake for our 10 years together. It’s a great, sentimental, and cheap anniversary gift (though it is time-consuming!) if anyone needs any ideas!
jolleymom says:

July 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am
We do sealings on our sealing anniversary & smooshy stuff on our wedding anniversary. It’s probably the only good thing about being completely NOT-righteous when we were married - two anniversaries. That’s probably TMI, but it’s real so there it is.

One of my favorite low-cost anniversaries was the bedroom date. We asked my nieces to sleep over & watch the kids downstairs. Upstairs, we had dinner by candlelight in our pj’s, a movie snuggled up in bed (also pj’s), and some other fun stuff (definitely NOT with pj’s). It was a great night!
DisneyMama says:

July 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
With three kids and a tight budget, we usually save our money for family vacations and don’t do anything big for our anniversary (we might go out to eat, but this year we couldn’t even afford to do that). Jolleymom, I like your idea of doing sealings on your anniversary. We were sealed to each other and my daughters on our one year wedding anniversary, and it was definitely the best anniversary “present” we could have ever given each other. The idea of giving the same gift to other couples on that day really appeals to me. I’m glad you mentioned it.
mamachelle07 says:

July 14th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
We’ve only celebrated one anniversary so far, and it was spent in the hospital since our son was born just the morning before. So it was pushed in the background due to the new arrival (which was fine with us…he was worth it!!).
flitterby says:

July 14th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I usually write my husband a poem or a letter, and leave it in his car so that he is on his way to work before he sees it. We plan bigger events on the mile stones. O.K. I know every year is a mile stone, but we consider the 5’s and 10’s a bigger milestone. We were planning something bigger this year (15) but the budget has tightened. I’m planning a suprise picnic dinner for he=im (With the wonderful help of a neighbor. We may not be able to afford much right now, but right now time alone is priceless.
Her Royal Highness says:

July 14th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
We try to do something for each anniversary. And then for the major years; birthday, anniversary… we do something big. This year I turned 30 so Popeye took me to The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO and we went on a ghost hunt. It was the best birthday EVER!
Next year we celebrate 10 years & I can’t WAIT to see what Popeye has up his sleeve for that one!
pinkannie says:

July 15th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Where is overnight at a hotel? That’s what I want and thats what I always get. A nice room away to sleep in and…you know…
malrfrederick says:

July 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
My husband and I always spend the weekend away eating at resturants that we couldn’t take our kids too, and we spend the day at the temple. Kinda like reliving our wedding day, just without the drama. Lol! We also just hangout in the hotel room and watch movies, just enjoying the peace and quite!
cristal says:

July 16th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
We usually do the night out at a hotel, but I think a temple trip would be very romantic! That could be the difference between men and women.
champ_17 says:

July 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
because we usually at home i prefer to do something unique specially when its our anniversary i try to cook new recipe and he is the one who got the first tasta and when he like he will reward me a kiss and a card so even if he doesnt like the food that i made he still needed to give me my kiss and my card…..”,)
kharinsg says:

July 21st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
we usually do small thoughtful gifts on our anniversary but this year we celebrated 5 years and since we recently moved and now live near my parents we have free babysitting (halleluia!!). at first we wanted to go away for a couple days but we decided that was more money than we wanted to spend. so we decided to stay local but pretend we were on vacation! my mom took our daughter for the day (and night) and we planned the whole day as if we were on vacation somewhere else. in the morning we went kayaking with a group of tourists (we live in FL), then we went to an inexpensive lunch. after lunch we caught a movie together (cheaper during the day) and once our movie was over we went to a restaurant we’ve been wanting to go to forever. after the restaurant we took a nice walk on the beach and went home for an undisturbed fun night. in the morning the following day, we got to sleep in, my husband made me breakfast in bed and then we took our time before we went to pick up our daughter. it was fabulous and we both really felt like we were on vacation!! p.s. we didn’t take any phone calls on our “vacation” to make it feel more real!
happyfamilyof8 says:

July 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
Well at 16 yrs. now there have been some memorable and some not so memorable. The best advice we ever received was that time away from your children is vital and cheaper than marriage counseling. We have frugally been able to afford 2 nights the last few years but it makes a world of difference in how I come home as a mother again, once I feel connected as a wife. We had early years of candlelight dinners at home and surprise balloons in the car but with 6 kids now the romance is difficult at home where I am constantly Mommy. We don’t have anyone lining up to take our kids for the night so what a blessing it has been in recent years that Grandparents are able to come visit. Another few tips we love are: when we’re together less than 50% of our conversation can be about kids and NO TV, this is our time to talk! Getting away has been rejuvenating and the best money spent on our marriage!
Bookmarks about Anniversary says:

August 2nd, 2008 at 6:57 am
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damamabunny says:

August 16th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Now that we have been married for 30 years I can truly say that we have had some of each kind on the list. Including 1 year that my husband forgot. I can truly say that it doesn’t matter if I’m getting diamond earrings, dinner and a movie, a great big vase of flowers or the card along with a hug, just knowing that he has remembered is what makes the day special to me.

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